Ozark Jubilee - Was The Jubilee "first?"

Was The Jubilee "first?"

The first (and first live) country music program on network television was Village Barn, broadcast from 1948–50 by NBC from a New York City nightclub. From the late 1940s through the 1950s, the U.S. networks carried a handful of other country music shows, including Hayloft Hoedown and ABC Barn Dance (ABC); Saturday Night Jamboree (NBC); and Windy City Jamboree and The Old American Barn Dance (DuMont). NBC and later ABC also aired Midwestern Hayride. The shows, however, were generally short-lived summer replacements and had few if any well-known performers.

Ozark Jubilee was the first network TV program to feature America's top country music stars, and as a result, was the first country music program to attract a significant national viewership. At five years, eight months it also holds the record for the longest-running country music series on network television (Hee Haw was syndicated after two years on CBS, and Austin City Limits presents a much broader variety of music).