T Dog’s Media Notepad: “Harry” shifts to 2 p.m.
Also: WLS-TV is late news winner; Quantico moves to Mondays; Tribune Media moves out of Tribune Tower
Harry, the NBCUniversal-distributed talk show hosted by Harry Connick Jr., has shifted from its 4 p.m. time slot to 2 p.m. on Fox-owned WFLD-TV and three other Fox O&O stations on Monday, according to Broadcasting & Cable. In three of the markets, Harry and TMZ Live are essentially swapping time slots, with TMZ Live now the news lead-in for WFLD, WNYW in New York and KTTV Los Angeles. A fourth Fox O&O in San Francisco (KTVU) is filling the 4 p.m. slot with local news beginning December 5.
Harry also lost its 9 p.m. slot on sister station WPWR and shifted to 12:30 a.m. My Network TV programming slid into the time period on Monday.
Fox officials hope the move to an earlier time slot fosters growth for the show and away from tough competition such as Judge Judy and Dr. Phil. In Chicago, Harry was up against Judy, The People’s Court, and newscasts on three stations, including top-rated WLS-TV’s. Now, the show in Chicago runs opposite Steve Harvey’s show on NBC-owned WMAQ-TV, which is moving from Chicago to Los Angeles to become more celebrity-focused.
Both Harvey and Harry are syndicated by NBCUniversal.
The show’s expense is also a issue for NBCU, given Harvey’s show is expected to cost more to produce. With Harvey’s new L.A. show given a “firm go”, the pressure is on Harry to improve his ratings and fast.
Currently, Harry averages a 1.2 rating nationally, but underperforms in top markets. According to TVNewscheck, ratings in Chicago for Harry in its new time period Monday declined from a 0.6 at 4 p.m. to a 0.5 at 2 p.m. in households, but grew a bit (0.2 to 0.3) in the key demo. The move was lauded by Katz Television’s ratings expert Bill Carroll.
In news you can see coming a mile away, ABC’s WLS-TV won the 10 p.m. November sweeps newsrace by a tenth-of-a point in the 25-54 demo and by a full ratings point and-a-half in households, according to Robert Feder. The victory comes despite tough competition from Cubs baseball and the Presidential election. The station with the greatest increases of course was WFLD, whose primetime average grew 173 percent from last year thanks to Cubs baseball. It’s also a plus, given Fox generally ranks fourth among the major networks among adults 18-49.
WGN-TV won mornings in adults 25-54, while WLS remained the market’s most-watched station overall.
CSN Chicago announced last week the launch of two new daily strips: In The Loop, which features a fast-paced view of the sports scene incorporated with viewer commentary, video, photos, and other material sent to its digital and social sites. The program is hosted by Luke Stuckmeyer and Leila Rahimi (no, not the King of Queens actress who’s currently fighting Scientology.) The series debuts Dec. 5 at 6p.m., 6:30 p.m., and 10 p.m.
On the same date, CSN is also launching is CSN Fast Break, a midnight sports highlight recap show.
CSN officials stated the reason for the changes was to better connect with sports fans. Out in the reshuffling is SportsNet Central, whose last airing is Sunday.
This is not the not the first time a show based from Chicago was called In The Loop: the title was used for a short-lived daytime strip during the 2007-08 season hosted by Bill Rancic, syndicated to NBC-owned stations. Taped at the NBC Tower, it was officially titled In The Loop With iVillage, after a now-defunct website portal.
Tribune Media, owners of WGN-TV and WGN Radio here, announced the company is vacating its longtime headquarters at Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue beginning next year. As first reported by Robert Feder, the company has leased two floors at the Illinois Center complex in the 303 East Wacker Drive building. The move comes as Tribune recently sold the Tower to a Los Angeles-based developer, who plans to redevelop the building for mixed office and shopping use.
According to Chicago Architecture Info’s website, the building – also known as Three Illinois Center, is the third building in the complex. 303 East Wacker is 28 stories high.
On the drawing board since 1961 and built over Illinois Central Railroad’s air rights, the first building in the Illinois Center complex opened in 1973 and was the headquarters of the Illinois Central for 25 years, until its merger with Canadian National in 1998. Media properties residing in Illinois Center are Fox-owned WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV on the ground floor of the 205 North Michigan Avenue building, and iHeartMedia Chicago, at 233 North Michigan. 303 East Wacker was opened in 1979.
In a major boost for ABC sophomore crime-drama Quantico, the series is shifting from its low-rated Sunday 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT time slot on Sunday to the exact same time slot on Monday. The difference? Stronger lead-ins from Dancing With The Stars and The Bachelor, which returns in January. The FBI series has averaged around a 1.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demo. However, the move doesn’t necessarily guarantee success: last fall’s Conviction bombed in the time slot and the network recently decided against extending the series’ run.
In a similar move, CBS has also decided not to extend the episode orders of Thursday night drama Pure Genius and Monday night sitcom The Odd Couple.