On May 23, 1994, New World Communications announced an affiliation deal with Fox in which twelve of its stations—including Phoenix's longtime CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV—would defect from their affiliations with ABC, CBS and NBC to join Fox. CBS approached KTVK for an affiliation, but the Lewises turned the offer down, expecting a renewed pact with ABC. Much to the Lewises' surprise though, the E. W. Scripps Company forced ABC to move its Phoenix area affiliation to the company's then-Fox affiliate KNXV-TV (channel 15) as a condition of retaining ABC on the company's two biggest stations, WEWS in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit, which were both approached by CBS themselves to replace stations that also switched to Fox in the New World deal. KTVK then approached CBS in an effort to secure that network affiliation, but Meredith Corporation, owner of then-independent future-sister station KPHO-TV (channel 5), convinced CBS to move its affiliation there as a condition of keeping the CBS affiliation on its Kansas City station KCTV.