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 Characters welcome.

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The USA Network is a cable channel owned by NBC Universal. Initially debuting as the Madison Square Garden Network from 1977 to 1980 (no, not the one that shows the Knicks and Rangers), USA Network has never really pigeonholed itself into one genre or target demographic; this has essentially rendered it immune to Network Decay. Over the years, it has shown a variety of series and events, most notably WWE Raw, Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, the Wesminster Kennel Club Dog Show and U.S. Open tennis.

One of USA's notable characteristics from the early 2000s onward has been their programming choices and their focus on unique characters, which gave the network the tag line USA: Characters Welcome . They like to make new shows, with unique premises, starring talented but largely unrecognized C- or D-list actors, but with an optimistic edge to their characters who are usually Jerks with Hearts of Gold and promoted by the network under a theme known as the "Blue Skies" concept. This has worked out pretty well; how many Emmys did Monk win again?[1] It also provides the network with a core concept that is wide-ranging enough that it can have shows with different premises while still successfully avoiding accusations of Network Decay (especially since the shows they've been airing since the "Characters Welcome" tagline came in have all been critically and popularly acclaimed). Often, they guest-star Hey, It's That Guy! actors from cancelled shows on sister NBC Universal networks Sy Fy and NBC.

Some other notable USA Network programs and blocks:

Also, USA Network tends to have a weekend marathon almost every weekend, picking one show from their popular lineup, which means (at the moment) all their current original series (with the exception of Fairly Legal, which doesn't have enough episodes quite yet), plus NCIS (ridiculously common) and Law & Order: SVU (less so).

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