The 700 Club is the flagship news
talk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
of the
Christian Broadcasting NetworkThe Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
, airing in syndication throughout the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by
Pat RobertsonMarion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and
Gordon P. RobertsonGordon Perry Robertson is the CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network. He is a frequent co-host on The 700 Club, often filling in for his father, Pat Robertson....
, two of whom (one male and one female) will host on any given day.
Lee WebbLee Webb is the anchor of The 700 Club, the flagship program of The Christian Broadcasting Network , and Newswatch, a half-hour daily news program also on CBN. He was born in Pompano Beach, Florida.-Career:...
serves as the CBN News anchorman.
Previous co-hosts include
Ben KinchlowBen Kinchlow is an African-American evangelist best known for being co-host of The 700 Club from 1975 to 1988 and again from 1992 to 1996. He also hosted other shows on the Christian Broadcasting Network such as Straight Talk and a radio talk show, Taking It To The Streets...
(1975–88, 1992–96), Sheila Walsh (1988–92), Danuta Rylko Soderman (1983–87), and Lisa Ryan. Tim Robertson served as host for a year from 1987-88 along with Kinchlow and actress
Susan HowardJeri Lynn Mooney , better known as Susan Howard, is an American actress, writer, and political activist; best known for portraying the character Donna Culver Krebbs on the soap opera Dallas, Maggie Petrocelli on the television show Petrocelli, and to Star Trek fans for portraying Mara, the first...
while his father ran unsuccessfully for
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in the 1988 campaign. The original host was
Jim BakkerJames Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
and his co-host was Henry Harrison.
The show presents news stories from Robertson's religious and political perspective, often relating stories to passages from the
BibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
along with commentary from the hosts. Celebrities and other guests are interviewed about religious views. The news segments frequently emphasize an
apocalypticAn Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
eschatologyEschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
.
Religious lifestyle issues are presented from distinct Pentecostal/charismatic ideological viewpoints.
Early history
In 1961 Pat Robertson, the son of former U.S. Senator A. Willis Robertson, purchased the license for WTOV-TV, channel 27 in
Portsmouth, VirginiaPortsmouth is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the city had a total population of 95,535.The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard, is a historic and active U.S...
. The station had gone off the air five years earlier due to poor viewership. Robertson returned in October as WYAH-TV (now
WGNTWGNT, channel 27 , is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. WGNT is the CW Television Network affiliate for the Hampton Roads television market and is owned by Local TV, which also operates WTKR , Hampton Roads' CBS affiliate...
), broadcasting Christian programming to the
Hampton RoadsHampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
area.
In 1962, the station suffered financially and almost closed. To keep the station on the air, WYAH decided to produce a special telethon edition of the show. For the telethon, Robertson set a goal of 700 members each contributing
$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
10.00 per month, which was enough to support the station. Robertson referred to these members as the '700 Club' and the name stuck. The telethon was successful and is still held annually.
After the 1962 telethon,
The 700 Club continued as a two hour a day Christian variety program. It consisted of music, preaching, group prayer, bible study, and some talk. The music was hymns, instrumental pieces, southern gospel music, and urban gospel music. The show was run two or three times a day.
The first permanent host of the program was
Jim BakkerJames Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
who, along with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker, also hosted a children's show on WYAH called
Come On Over (later retitled
Jim and Tammy). The couple left CBN in 1972; reportedly Jim Bakker was fired by Pat Robertson over philosophical differences. The Bakkers then moved on to help launch the
Trinity Broadcasting NetworkThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
(TBN) before starting their own television ministry and signature show,
The PTL ClubThe PTL Club , later called The Jim and Tammy Show, and in its last days PTL Today and Heritage Today, was a Christian television program first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, which ran from 1974 to 1989...
. After the Bakkers left, some staffers at the station reportedly responded by destroying the Bakkers' sets and puppets. Pat Robertson took over as host, and evolved his
700 Club by cutting back on music and preaching and heading toward the talk show format developed by Bakker. Robertson transformed the
700 Club from a nightly religious themed
telethon to a religious talk show.
The 700 Club originally aired only on WYAH-TV and other CBN-owned stations in
AtlantaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
(
WANX-TVWGCL-TV, virtual channel 46.1 is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Atlanta, Georgia area. Its city of license is Atlanta, and the station is owned by Meredith Corporation, making it the largest-market CBS station not owned by the network...
) and
DallasDallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
(
KXTX-TVKXTX-TV, digital channel 40 , is the Telemundo owned-and-operated station in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas Designated Market Area...
), and later Boston (
WXNE-TVWFXT is a television station owned and operated by the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station's studio and office facility is in Dedham, Massachusetts, and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts...
). The program entered
national syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
in 1974, as CBN purchased airtime on stations such as
WPIXWPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
,
KTLAKTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
,
WPHL-TVWPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by the Tribune Company and currently affiliated with the News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network...
in Philadelphia, and
WDCAWDCA, virtual channel 20, is a television station in Washington, D.C.. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, WDCA is a sister station to Fox network outlet WTTG , and is affiliated with the co-owned MyNetworkTV programming service...
in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, among others. The roster of stations carrying the program grew to over 100 markets by 1976. In some markets, the show aired on multiple stations, choosing between either the full 90-minute version or an edited 60-minute version. In 1977
The 700 Club received additional exposure nationally on the newly-launched
CBN Cable NetworkABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
where, like CBN's broadcast outlets, it aired three times daily.
1980 to the present
In 1980
The 700 Club moved its studios from WYAH's facilities in Portsmouth into CBN's then-new campus in neighboring Virginia Beach, from where the program continues to originate. During the 1980s the show evolved into more of a magazine-like format, with news/opinion and lifestyle segments interspersed with interviews.
Even after CBN sold its group of terrestrial stations later in the decade,
The 700 Club continued to air on CBN Cable as well as many commercial secular stations and Christian stations nationally. In 1987 the syndicated version was cut back from 90 minutes to one hour.
CBN Cable was rebranded as
The Family Channel in 1988. The Family Channel was packaged as part of a sale of International Family Entertainment to
News CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
and television producer
Haim SabanHaim Saban is an Egyptian born Israeli-American television and media proprietor. With an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 104th richest person in America.-Biography:...
in 1998. The channel was renamed
Fox Family Channel, but only three years later Fox Family was sold to the Walt Disney Company and was subsequently rebranded
ABC FamilyABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
.
The 700 Club now airs on ABC Family thrice daily, part of a contractual obligation originally made as part of the Family Channel's sale to News Corporation.
International versions of
The 700 Club are
Club 700 Hoy, broadcast in
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, and
The 700 Club With Paul and Fiona, in
Great BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. Begun in October 2004, the latter is co-hosted by Paul Jones and Fiona Hendley Jones.
The Pat Robertson version also airs in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
on
Revelation TVRevelation TV is a UK Christian television channel started by Howard and Lesley Conder in 2003; the channel broadcasts on Freesat channel 692 and Sky channel 581.-Programming:...
, Genesis TV,
GOD TVGOD TV is an international Christian television broadcaster that transmits the GOD Channel from Jerusalem.The network’s Free-to-air signal is carried via multiple satellites 24-hours-a-day providing programming at no charge to viewers. This ranges from Bible teaching to motivational seminars,...
, God Europe, Loveworld TV, Gospel Channel,
OBE TVOBE TV was a British television channel launched in September 2003. It showed film, food, advertisements, sports and talk shows as well as church service programmes. The channel was aimed at black audiences and showed programmes from South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana...
and KICC TV.
Philosophy
Between 1978 and 1980, discussions on current political issues became a part of the program, and news segments were added in the first 20 minutes of the show. Following Pat Robertson's lead,
The 700 Club clearly endorsed a politically
conservativeConservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
agenda supporting
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidates and causes as the
Christian rightChristian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
movement was beginning to emerge. According to Robertson, this had influence in the
1980 presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
as well as congressional elections. It also served as the basis for Pat Robertson's candidacy for the U.S. presidency in 1988.
The 700 Club strongly supports
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, especially in its conflicts with the Palestinians and the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Among its frequent Jewish guests are
Michael MedvedMichael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who share the Club's conservative
Judeo-ChristianJudeo-Christian is a term used in the United States since the 1940s to refer to standards of ethics said to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, for example the Ten Commandments...
beliefs.
The 700 Club Asia
An Asian edition of the show,
The 700 Club Asia, originally premiered in the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in the mid-1990s on
GMA 7GMA Network is a major commercial television & radio network in the Philippines. GMA Network is owned by GMA Network, Inc. a publicly listed company...
or
Global Media ArtsGMA Network is a major commercial television & radio network in the Philippines. GMA Network is owned by GMA Network, Inc. a publicly listed company...
. It was originally produced and hosted by Pat Robertson's son,
Gordon RobertsonGordon Perry Robertson is the CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network. He is a frequent co-host on The 700 Club, often filling in for his father, Pat Robertson....
, and co-hosted by broadcaster
Mari KaimoJose Mari Kaimo was born January 21, 1960 in Manila Philippines is a veteran Filipino journalist, host and anchor.Beginning in 1989, he anchored various newscasts on different TV stations including People's Television 4 , GMA Network, and Studio 23...
, and Philippine TV personality
Coney ReyesConey Reyes is an award winning Philippine Film/TV actress, television host and producer with Chinese and Spanish descent. She has been one of the co-presenters of Student Canteen and Eat Bulaga . She earned a degree of Bachelor of Arts major in Communication Arts at Maryknoll College...
.
In 1998, Reyes took over as host and producer of the show, with Tricia Amper Jimenez as co-host. When Reyes left the show in 2000 for medical reasons, it was retooled as
The Club, hosted by Jimenez, Peter Kairuz and Carla Martinez.
In 2001, the show reverted to its old format and moved to ABS-CBN 2 (a network unrelated to Pat Robertson's CBN and the rival network of GMA 7) and
ABC 5The Associated Broadcasting Company, Inc is a television network in the Philippines, with main broadcast facilities and transmitter located at 762 Quirino Highway, San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City. The network was previously known as the , Associated Broadcasting Company remains the legal...
(a network unrelated to the American or Australian networks), where it aired on its sister station,
Studio 23Studio 23 is a Filipino television network owned by the ABS-CBN Corporation. The network is named for its flagship station in Metro Manila, DWAC-TV, which is carried on UHF channel 23...
. Kairuz remained as host with veteran singer Maria Teresa "Dulce" Llamedo-Cruz and TV personality
Chat Silayan-BailonMaria Rosario Silayan-Bailon better known as Chat Silayan was a Filipina beauty queen and actress. She won the 1980 Binibining Pilipinas Universe crown and became the third runner-up at Miss Universe 1980. A year after her stint in Miss Universe, her acting career began and she became one of the...
(1959–2006), who later died of colon cancer.
In 2006, the show moved to GMA's sister station, QTV 11. Kairuz was retained hosts the show, with Reyes returning to co-host. The show also features
Kata InocencioKata Inocencio is a broadcast journalist, child rights advocate, and television host in the Philippines1. She was a candidate for Senator in the 2010 national elections under the Bangon Pilipinas Party of Bro. Eddie Villanueva....
,
Maricel Laxa-PangilinanMaricel Laxa is a Filipino comedian and actress. She performed in the 1992 movie "Iisa Pa Lamang" for which she won Best Supporting Actress awards in both the 1992 FAMAS Awards and 1992 Star Awards.She graduated with a degree of B.S...
, Alex Tinsay and Felichi Pangilinan-Buizon.
Since QTV-11 went off the air, the show was carried over
GMA News TVGMA News TV is a news and lifestyle-oriented channel in the Philippines. It is owned and operated by GMA Network Inc. through the supervision GMA News and Public Affairs...
and began airing there on February 28, 2011.
The 700 Club in India
An
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n
HindiStandard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
edition of
The 700 Club, named
Ek Nayee Zindagi, airs daily at 6:30 am and 1 am (repeat) on
Star PlusSTAR Plus is a Hindi language general entertainment television channel based in India. The channel is part of the STAR TV network's bouquet of channels...
.
Controversy
Following the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, Pat Robertson claimed that the terrorist attacks were God's punishment for America's loose morals as his own.
He also said publicly that
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
was a result of God's anger about
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
.
Scott Roeder, who murdered the abortion doctor
George TillerGeorge Richard Tiller, MD was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He was the medical director of a clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy .Pro-life group Operation Rescue kept a daily vigil...
on May 31, 2009, claimed that his murderous thoughts were influenced by discussions of religion and abortion on
The 700 Club.
Immediately after the
2010 Haiti earthquakeThe 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
, Pat Robertson said that it was "what happened when people make a deal with the Devil."
The U.S. National
Better Business BureauThe Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
says of the
Christian Broadcasting NetworkThe Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
and
700 Club: "...unable to verify the organization's compliance with 5 of the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability" ABC Family airs a
disclaimerA disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally recognized relationship...
before the show that states the views expressed in the program are not endorsed by the network.
External links