T Dog’s Grab Bag: WCIU expands “You and Me” to three hours
Also: Tyra Banks plans returns to daytime TV
– Good news for fans of WCIU’s You and Me in The Morning (and for local television overall): the two-hour morning strip hosted by former Chicago radio personalities Melissa Forman and Jeanne Sparrow is expanding to a third hour in September. Now airing from 6 to 8 a.m. weekdays, the show is extending to 9 a.m., replacing a Dr. Phil rerun, which now airs at 8 a.m. Originally airing as segments between syndicated reruns on WCIU and the original MeTV, You & Me became a standard two-hour show featuring mostly lifestyle and light-hearted fare (yours truly actually spotted a crew from the show at the Comic Book and Entertainment Expo, i.e. C2E2 in 2013.)
Despite trailing other morning shows in the market, You & Me does respectable numbers in its key female 25-54 demo.
– Oh boy, we have another TV personality looking to make a comeback- this time it’s Tyra Banks, who recently signed a deal with Disney/ABC to develop a syndicated daytime show. The focus of this show is on lifestyle, fashion, and empowerment topics, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
Tyra Banks previously hosted a show for Warner Bros. from 2005-10 and cleared Fox owned-and-operated stations. In 2009, Warner moved the show to a daytime slot on The CW, lasting just one season.
No clearances have been announced for the show as of yet, though the ABC O&Os are expected to sign on. But yours truly hears there is already some pushback in the station community as some of them are wary of any “comeback” attempts, thanks in part to Ricki Lake’s failed reboot and more recently, Arsenio Hall, whose late-night return was canceled two weeks ago.
– It’s not like anyone noticed, but Fox has pulled Tuesday night reality/competition game show Riot and Joe Millionaire clone I Wanna Marry Harry after several weeks of subpar ratings.
– So how did Garry Meier do in his last WGN-AM appearance in afternoon drive before he was moved to WGN.FM in the same daypart? During the just concluded May PPM ratings period, Meier tied for 8th overall with a 4.0 rating (WVAZ’s Doug Banks finished first.) You wonder if DeCastro and the gang should be having second thoughts about this.
Meanwhile, the news was good for many of Chicago’s music stations in this latest survey, with WLIT, WLS-FM, WKQX, and WLUP all posting strong numbers. WVAZ remained on top, but was down nearly a full point from last month. And the race for CHR supremacy has become tighter between WKSC and WBBM-FM.
On the downside, WLS-AM continues to sink, posting its lowest numbers in a spring book since 1989, when it was still a music station.
Quick Hits and Bits:
– Syndication upfront gets off to a stumbling start
– Fox O&O’s, including WFLD/WPWR here, sign on to the Rentrak ratings service.
– The Hub begins airing Blossom reruns July 7
– So long WBEZ, hello WDCB: The Glen Ellyn jazz station becomes CAN TV’s new partner
– Dan Bernstein re-ups with WSCR