“You Bet Your Life”, “Daytime Chicago” headline local TV’s new fall season

New shows dot local schedules 

The new television season outside of prime-time begins Monday and you will see some new faces and new places.

For one, Jay Leno is returning to daily TV seven years after he left The Tonight Show for a second time. Now, he’s taking his act to earlier time slots with his new You Bet Your Life. While the launch of this version from Fox First-Run is decidedly less ambitious than the one with Bill Cosby (cleared on the CBS-owned stations in prime access and other key time slots for the 1992-93 season), Leno’s version has the Fox-owned stations as a launch group.

Starting Monday, You Bet airs at 3 and 3:30 p.m. on Fox-owned WFLD opposite the now-beleaguered Jeopardy! on ABC-owned WLS-TV (ABC 7) – just like it was in 1992 when the Cosby version aired on CBS-owned WBBM-TV (CBS 2). In New York, You Bet is on WNYW at 7:30 p.m. while Los Angeles’ KTTV has scheduled it at 11 p.m.

One face in a new place locally is Tamron Hall. Last Monday, her show relocated to ABC 7 at 1 p.m., giving her Disney-distributed show clearances on all the ABC-owned stations. Another is Judge Judy, whose out-of-production show starting Monday airs on Weigel’s WCIU (CW 26) at 5 p.m. in addition to the hour block airing on CBS 2 at 4 p.m. with episodes airing basically from 2012 onward given the shows shot from that point forward were in high definition (don’t pay attention to those promos falsely proclaiming September 13 is the “season premiere”.)

Starting November 1, Judy Shendlin resurfaces in a new show for IMDB called Judy Justice.

Also on Monday, Nexstar’s WGN-TV launches Daytime Chicago, a new daily hour-long strip hosted by Amy Rutledge and Tonya Francisco. Focusing on fashion, cooking, travel, the arts, and other subjects, the show aims to fill the void left by ABC 7’s Windy City Live, now reduced to a weekly Friday morning half-hour at 11:30 am. to make room for Tamron Hall’s show. Now titled Windy City Weekend, Val Warner and Ryan Chevilini continue as hosts.

Meanwhile, the first-ever nationally-produced show from Lexington, Ky. premieres Monday with the arrival of Relative Justice starring Judge Rhonda Willis from newcomer Wrigley Media Group. The show lands the 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. slots on CW 26.

September 27 sees the long-awaited arrival of Nick Cannon’s new talk show from Debmar-Mercury, airing at 1 p.m. on Fox 32.

New to weekends is Top Ten from Entertainment Studios (not to be confused with 1980s music countdown show America’s Top 10), airing Sunday mornings at 1 a.m. on CW 26, and Prime Crime from Dan Abrams’ production company, airing at 10 p.m. Saturdays on The U. The show is about what else? Crime stories.

Off-network

After striking deals with Nick at Nite and TBS, Warner Bros. is rolling out Young Sheldon in syndication starting September 27 with a plum primetime clearance on Nexstar’s WGN-TV at 8 p.m. Other Nexstar stations landing the show include WPIX New York, WPHL Philadelphia, and KDAF Dallas.

Weekends see five off-network dramas debut in syndication, the most in several years. CBS Media Ventures has decided to replace both NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans in syndication with Bull and SEAL Team, respectively and will take over their former slots in most stations around the country. In Chicago, both air back-to-back late Saturday and Sunday nights on CBS 2 (check your local listings.) 

Meanwhile, CW 26 has cut back on its syndicated Animation Domination block by adding double runs of the recent versions of CBS’ MacGyver (Sat. 5-7 p.m.) and Sony’s S.W.A.T (Sat. 9-11 p.m.) starting this weekend as The CW is adding a Saturday night primetime block starting Oct. 2. Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers reruns now air 11 p.m.-1 a.m. on Saturdays.

And for the first time, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios’ Chicago Fire enters syndication with a two-hour 7-9 p.m. Saturday block on WPWR (My50).

Back to weekdays, NBCUniversal’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit returns to off-network broadcast syndication as a strip, airing weeknights at 7 p.m. on My 50 starting September 20. Other new off-network shows debuting are Highway To Hell (5 a.m. CW 26, 10 a.m. The U), Trifecta Entertainment’s Storage Wars (6 a.m. CW 26, 1 p.m. The U), and from Canada, PPI’s The Liquidator (The U, Noon).

Other new shows

Another new syndicator – EW Media Group launches three new programs on Monday: Forensic Justice (9 p.m. The U), Scene Of The Crime (9:30 p.m., The U) and The Balancing Act (CBS 2, 1:40 a.m. and 2:10 a.m.). I couldn’t find much information on these three programs online but I can tell you the first two are not cooking shows.

Other schedule changes

– With the debut of Daytime Chicago, WGN is shifting Rachael Ray to 1 p.m. starting Monday.

– Animation not dominating: Weeknight episodes of Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers on CW 26 and The U and The Simpsons on Fox 32 shift to overnight time periods. Also getting disposed into overnights is game show Funny You Should Ask.

– With the departure of Jerry Springer reruns from The CW, WCIU filled the open 1 p.m. time slot with a People’s Court encore effective last Monday. But the syndicated reruns of the show now pop up at 8 p.m. weeknights on The U, replacing the departed Tamron Hall show.

– Trifecta’s Protection Court was canceled over a year ago, but was finally removed from syndication as of last Friday.

– With the end of A Little Late With Lilly Singh, NBC has given the 12:35 am. CT time slot – the longtime home of the Later franchise and Last Call, back to affiliates to program for the first time since 1988. In Chicago, NBC’s WMAQ has opted to repeat its 10 p.m. newscast.

– As reported here last month, CBS 2 swapped the time slots of The Drew Barrymore Show and Let’s Make A Deal, with the former moving to 9 a.m. and the latter moving to 2 p.m. on August 30.

Watch this space as this post will be updated when additional information on local schedules come in.