King World Productions, Inc. (also known as King World Entertainment, King World Enterprises, or simply King World) was a production company and syndicator of television programming in the United States founded by Charles King (1912–1972) that was active from 1964 to August 20, 2007.
Following his death, it was run by his son Roger until it was acquired by Viacom's CBS in 1999, and in September 26, 2006, merged with CBS Paramount Domestic Television to form CBS Television Distribution (now CBS Media Ventures). Following Roger King's death, the company and its subsidiary KWP Studios Inc. continue to exist on paper as intellectual property holders who maintain the copyrights for programs like The Little Rascals, Rachael Ray, and the Hollywood Squares format.
History
Founding with The Little Rascals
The division was started in 1964 by Charles King (1912–1972). It was a company that expressly handled television distribution of the Hal Roach-produced Our Gang short comedy films from the 1930s. When Roach lost the rights to the name Our Gang (it was retained by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer