NATPE Update

Back after a hectic day yesterday – attended John Stroger’s funeral (R.I.P) at my church – not to mention battling a slight cold… But I’m back and ready to roll with a lot of stories for ya, so watch the blog today! First up…

With the National Association of Television Executives convention set to get underway Monday in Las Vegas, here is an updated list of programs being offered.

Among the main series being offered is The Doctors from CBS (a medical talk show, not related to the former NBC soap opera of the same name); Warner’s Bonnie Hunt, Debmar-Mercury’s Trivial Pursuit: America’s Game (which has cleared 55 percent of the country, including WFLD/WPWR in Chicago); and NBC Universal’s Deal or No Deal strip.

Katz Television Group is recommending all of the four above mentioned shows, as well as Sony’s new Judge Karen strip and Debmar’s Tyler Perry’s House of Payne sitcom. Katz is seriously recommending game shows, a complete turnaround from the early 1990’s, when most game shows launched in syndication in that era failed. However, Katz more or less, ignored the two new games that debuted last fall to low ratings: Crosswords and Temptation.

In addition to those two games, other programs reportedly on the fence for next season include Sony’s two year-old Judge Maria Lopez and CBS’ 18-year veteran Montel Williams.

Katz is also recommending several off-network sitcoms for the fall of 2009: NBC Universal’s The Office, Twentieth’s My name Is Earl, and CBS’ Everybody Hates Chris, with the latter offered on a three-year (156 week) licensing term, similar to what the syndicator offered with Girlfriends.

On the downside however, at least for Office and Earl, the programs are already or soon will air on TBS, which decreases their value to stations in syndication.

We’ll have another NATPE update later today.

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