In place of the station's own children's lineup after Captain Mitch's retirement, the station aired programming from Fox Kids until the network eliminated the weekday afternoon block in September 2002; the Saturday morning lineup (which by that time, became known as 4Kids TV) was retained as it began being programmed by 4Kids Entertainment that year until Fox dropped children's programming from its schedule in December 2008. KTXL, along with NBC affiliate KCRA-TV, are the only Sacramento television stations to have never changed their network affiliations, as they were unaffected by affiliation swaps in 1995 (when KXTV acquired the ABC affiliation from KOVR, which in turn, switched to CBS) and 1998 (when KMAX-TV—channel 31—took UPN from KQCA—channel 58, which switched from UPN to The WB). KTXL was acquired by Tribune Broadcasting following the company's purchase of Renaissance Broadcasting in 1996. Sinclair and Fox purchase attempts; sale to Nexstar Sinclair Broadcast Group announced their purchase of Tribune Media on May 8, 2017 for $3.9 billion and the assumption of $2.7 billion in Tribune-held debt. Sinclair—which previously owned KOVR until selling it to CBS Television Stations in 2005—opted to sell KTXL to Fox Television Stations as one of 23 stations to be divested in order to obtain regulatory approval. The resale to Fox was later amended to be part of a $910 million deal. Tribune Media terminated the merger on August 9, 2018 and filed a breach of contract lawsuit, nullifying both transactions outright; these actions came after FCC lead commissioner Ajit Pai publicly rejected the merger and the commission voted to have the deal subject to review. Nexstar Media Group and Tribune Media agreed to an acquisition on December 3, 2018 for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The merger closed on September 19, 2019. Programming In 2016, KTXL began producing a midday lifestyle program called Studio 40 Live. This program's format is similar to that of rival station KXTV's Sacramento and Company. This program also utilizes a modified, re-colored version of KTXL's logo from the late 1980s to early 1990s. News operation KTXL presently broadcasts 61½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 11½ hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-highest local newscast output among Sacramento's broadcast television stations behind KOVR and KMAX-TV, which produce 79½ hours of local newscasts combined.