facility began housing KTXH in 2001 when Fox acquired the station in a trade with Viacom after CBS acquired UPN. The studios were also used for production of syndicated programming from 20th Television, including the court shows Texas Justice, Cristina's Court, and Judge Alex. It also featured a landing pad for the station's news helicopter; a helicopter leased to KRIV crashed in 2000, killing the pilot. Programming News operation By 1982, with Metromedia owning major news-producing independent stations and planning a national news program (for which it attempted to poach Charles Kuralt and John Hart), KRIV was considering starting a news department of its own. This led to the August 1983 launch of KRIV's 7 p.m. newscast, the first prime time newscast in the Houston market. By 1986, it was attracting an audience that at times equaled the third-place 6 p.m. broadcast from KHOU, and a 12:30 p.m. newscast was added. When Fox began providing network programming in prime time, the newscast relocated to its present 9 p.m. position, which brought better ratings and a more loyal news audience. In 1989, the station began airing Sunday night news specials under the banner City Under Siege, focusing on drug-related issues in Houston. The program regularly featured drug busts, and what some viewers called an overemphasis on Black people being arrested led to rules being set by the Houston Police Department. The program later evolved into a general crime program and outlived several others using the same format at other stations. Since the 1990s, the station has conducted several major news expansions. In 1993, it started a morning newscast, initially at 7 a.m., as well as a Sunday night newscast. The morning newscast first expanded to three hours, then to four in 2003. On August 18, 2008, KRIV debuted an hour-long weeknight 5 p.m. newscast. On July 7, 2012, KRIV significantly expanded its news offerings on weekends beyond its one prime time hour, debuting a three-hour weekend morning newscast from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and expanding its hour-long 5 p.m. newscast to weekends for a total of eight additional hours of news on the weekends. Prior to the launch of the new newscasts, KRIV was one of only two Fox-owned stations – alongside Chicago sister station WFLD – that did not have an early evening newscast seven nights each week. On August 21, 2017, KRIV launched a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast