Channel 5



Channel 5 is a TV channel in Britain, so named as it was the fifth terrestrial channel - and thus free to watch, not common at the time - in the country. Like other such channels, it broadcasts a variety of general entertainment shows.

It launched in 1997, after a huge media blitz promoting the channel as more modern than the rivals BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, and launched with the Spice Girls singing a rewrite of the song 5-4-3-2-1 (to count up to 5). As Channel 5 was going to use broadcast frequencies that had been allocated to RF outputs from video recorders, a large number of videos had to be returned or fitted with a filter so people could watch.

Channel 5 and Daria
Channel 5 gained the rights to show Daria and debuted it on the 27th September 1997, at 14:30. (Back in the 90s, US shows would not air in the UK for months as channels waited to see what was popular before paying up) Daria started getting fanmail sent to the programming block, including Daria/Trent shippers as shown in a host segment from August 1999 - where Daria aired around shows as diverse as The Tribe, The Wonder Years, Legendary Adventures of Hercules, and reality show Boyz and Girls (city kids on a Derbyshire farm).

Everything but "Is It College Yet?" would be broadcast.

No record remains on whether there was any censorship due to the timeslot, as happened to American reruns on "The N / Noggin"; as British fans would've learned from Outpost Daria transcripts that lines are missing, and as Daria fans are a mouthy lot, there was probably no cuts.