Metromedia owned the station until 1986 when Rupert Murdoch, after buying 20th Century Fox, purchased the Metromedia television stations to form the nucleus of the Fox network.
WTTG became one of Fox's six original owned-and-operated stations when the network launched on October 9, 1986, all the while retaining consistently high ratings, a rarity for a Fox station in its early years of operation at the time, and continuing to easily out-rate WDCA and new competitor WCQR (channel 50, now WDCW).
Initially, its programming was similar to what it had run as a true independent station, since Fox only programmed for a few hours on weekends in its early years (the network would not have a full seven-day schedule worth of programs until 1993).

As channel 5 transitioned to an O&O and more independent stations signed on, it lost much of its cable audience.
Though not distributed as widely as it once was, it is still available on several cable providers in Maryland and Virginia outside the D.C. metro area.
For instance, it is still carried on cable in Charlottesville, Virginia, even though the city has had its own Fox affiliate, WAHU-CD, since 2005; both stations are carried on basic cable in the Charlottesville area.
It also served as the default Fox affiliate for Salisbury, Maryland until the debut of new default Fox affiliate, "Fox21 Delmarva", a subchannel of WBOC-TV, on August 21, 2006.

During the 1990s the station added more syndicated talk shows and reality shows.
It continued to air afternoon cartoons from Fox Kids until the fall of 2001, when the block moved to WDCA (only to be reduced to just Saturdays nationwide in 2002); WTTG reacquired Fox children's programming from WDCA later on in 2003, under the banners of FoxBox and 4Kids TV, and aired that block until it ended in December 2008.
On October 29, 2001, Fox bought WDCA from Viacom's Paramount Stations Group, creating a duopoly with WTTG.
The station continued to run top rated off-network sitcoms in the evenings.

From 1999 to 2006 WTTG utilized the "X-2 Package" for its theme music, but switched to the "O&O Package" in 2006, which they still use today.

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC (affiliated network of WJLA-TV, channel 7), announced its intent to buy WTTG's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WTTG and sister station WDCA as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formed Fox Corporation.
Metromedia owned the station until 1986 when Rupert Murdoch, after buying 20th Century Fox, purchased the Metromedia television stations to form the nucleus of the Fox network. WTTG became one of Fox's six original owned-and-operated stations when the network launched on October 9, 1986, all the while retaining consistently high ratings, a rarity for a Fox station in its early years of operation at the time, and continuing to easily out-rate WDCA and new competitor WCQR (channel 50, now WDCW). Initially, its programming was similar to what it had run as a true independent station, since Fox only programmed for a few hours on weekends in its early years (the network would not have a full seven-day schedule worth of programs until 1993).
As channel 5 transitioned to an O&O and more independent stations signed on, it lost much of its cable audience. Though not distributed as widely as it once was, it is still available on several cable providers in Maryland and Virginia outside the D.C. metro area. For instance, it is still carried on cable in Charlottesville, Virginia, even though the city has had its own Fox affiliate, WAHU-CD, since 2005; both stations are carried on basic cable in the Charlottesville area. It also served as the default Fox affiliate for Salisbury, Maryland until the debut of new default Fox affiliate, "Fox21 Delmarva", a subchannel of WBOC-TV, on August 21, 2006.
During the 1990s the station added more syndicated talk shows and reality shows. It continued to air afternoon cartoons from Fox Kids until the fall of 2001, when the block moved to WDCA (only to be reduced to just Saturdays nationwide in 2002); WTTG reacquired Fox children's programming from WDCA later on in 2003, under the banners of FoxBox and 4Kids TV, and aired that block until it ended in December 2008. On October 29, 2001, Fox bought WDCA from Viacom's Paramount Stations Group, creating a duopoly with WTTG. The station continued to run top rated off-network sitcoms in the evenings.
From 1999 to 2006 WTTG utilized the "X-2 Package" for its theme music, but switched to the "O&O Package" in 2006, which they still use today.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC (affiliated network of WJLA-TV, channel 7), announced its intent to buy WTTG's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WTTG and sister station WDCA as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formed Fox Corporation.
WTTG