WGN-TV picks up show in Nexstar deal. Also: Access: Hollywood renewed through 2025 Are you ready to put up with Young Sheldon five nights a week? You’d better be. Already airing on Nick at Nite, the Big Bang Theory prequel has been sold in 90 percent of the country by Warner Bros. to broadcast stations this fall, including Nexstar stations […]
Also: Access Hollywood adds another show; Sinclair closes on Fox RSN purchase; McHenry radio station with historic calls ceases broadcasting At long last, NBC 5 (WMAQ) is joining the local lifestyle programming game. Beginning September 6, the NBC-owned station launches Chicago Today, a weekly half-hour show featuring entertainment news, newsmakers, places around town, the latest technologies, and restaurants among other […]
25 years ago this week, Fox’s Rupert Murdoch changed the TV world by inking a deal to trigger the biggest affiliation switch in history. It goes back to what happened on December 17, 1993. The networks were complaining about paying too much for sports – the NFL in particular – as the packages were losing money and looking to pay […]
Sun-Times article talks about a future without sports on WGN as station, teams head into transition In 2016, WGN-TV decided to cut their ties to The CW and become an independent station once again, going all in on sports featuring the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks. Come October 2019, WGN might not have any sports on its schedule at […]
New daytime show to air on NBC 5 locally; replaces Steve on NBC O&Os In a deal before the fall season begins, NBCUniversal Television Distribution has struck a deal with the NBC-owned stations to carry Kelly Clarkson’s new daytime talk show scheduled to debut exactly a year from now. The Grammy Award and first American Idol winner shot a talk […]
In market’s fourth affiliation change, NBCUniversal to move affiliation to WNEU-TV WHDH owner Ed Ansin promises fight Politicians question move In a bold move, Comcast Corp. announced Thursday it is launching a new NBC-owned and-operated station in Boston, the nation’s eighth-largest market approximately a year from now. NBC plans to move its affiliation to Telemundo affiliate WNEU-TV (Channel 60), a […]
ABC-owned station to run 25 games a season from 2015 through 2019 “Catch the action on WLS”… That’s right, you heard me… ABC-owned WLS-TV (that’s TV, not AM) struck a five-year deal with the Chicago Cubs to air 25 games a season beginning this spring. According to the station’s website, WLS would air games in daytime, primetime, and weekend […]
Lack of experience, awkwardness, and arrogance kept viewers away from former Real Housewives star’s daytime talker In a project that never should have seen the light of day, Warner Bros. (or Telepictures, or Lorimar, or whomever) decided last week to put former Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel’s talk show out of its misery after just five months on the air. […]
[Editor’s Note: The first item contains profanity. Reader discretion is advised.] In the latest episode of the sitcom that never ends – Everybody Loves Mancow – the IQ-deficient shit jock in a Chicago Tribune interview Monday announced he sold his Lincoln Park condo and is moving to the suburb of Wilmette. He called the city “unlivable” and ripped the city’s […]
Plus: LA’s KTTV news director “resigns” after only two years Fox’s WFLD fortified its news anchor lineup late Tuesday, detailing changes being made to its Good Day Chicago morning show and its 9 p.m. newscast. Former WMAQ sports anchor Jon Kelley is being paired with former KDVR/Denver reporter-anchor Melody Mendez for GDC and Natalie Bomke, who joined the show last […]
I’ll bet you’ve heard a lot of this in the last 48 hours: Jeff Probst …the tribe has spoken. CBS Television Distribution voted The Jeff Probst Show off the talk show island after one season, as the program could not find an audience. The Survivor host’s daytime talker had been averaging around a 0.7 Nielsen household live-plus same-day rating this […]
The Chicago journalism community is in shock after the sudden passing of WMAQ-TV sports anchor and reporter Daryl Hawks on Thursday. He was only 38 years old. Hawks was on assignment in Atlanta Thursday covering Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal between the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks when he missed a wake-up call at 9:30 a.m. in […]
Get ready, one of syndication’s top-rated prime access magazine shows is getting ready to coming at you live! NBC Universal Television Distribution has announced it is launching Access: Hollywood Live, an one-hour daytime “brand extension” of its prime-access magazine show on six NBC O&O stations, including WMAQ-TV in Chicago. The other five markets are New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, […]
It appears Jay Leno’s new 9 p.m. (Central) show isn’t having the drag many affiliates feared it would have on their late local newscasts. While ratings in the key 25-54 audience were down 12 percent from NBC affiliates and O&Os, ratings declines were also clocked in at ABC and CBS stations as well. To sum it up – ratings for […]
WMAQ-TV here in Chicago has become the first station in the NBC Local Media Group to re-launch its website. The site’s new name – NBCChicago.com – provides photos, improved traffic and weather information, separate sections for news, sports, and entertainment, as well as videos, blogs, and other goodies. Compare this right now to sis station WNBC-TV in New York. WMAQ’s […]