The Media Notepad: Sinclair launches “The Nest” as Stadium empties
Also: Bally Sports Arizona folds; SAG-AFTRA talks fail; your newest talk show host is…Ken Jeong?
With Sinclair out as partner in Stadium, the digital subchannel occupying the same will have a new name and new format effective October 30.
Called The Nest, Sinclair says the new channel features “family-friendly programming” but with reality cable TV show reruns. Shows featured in primetime include Growing up Gotti, Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, Steven Segal: Lawman, Ice Road Truckers, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Wahlburgers. (Nothing says “family-friendly” more than Ozzy and Jack Osbourne.)
Daytime programming features true crime and house flipping shows such as Cold Case Files, American Justice, Sell This House and Flipping [your city here.] Sinclair claims it has cleared Nest in more than 50 percent of the country in major markets including New York and Los Angeles. Nest joins Comet, Charge!, and TBD in Sinclair’s arsenal, but the only one currently available to Chicago viewers is TBD, airing on the fifth digital tier of WGN-TV.
“We’re excited to bring this breadth of hit library series to add another layer to The Stack, Sinclair’s portfolio of linear networks featuring Comet, Charge! and TBD, said Sinclair CIO Scott Ehrlich. “The Nest couples the power and growth of free-to-consumer, over-the-air distribution with great content that viewers love. We’re confident the combination will deliver a premium experience for audiences and a great environment for advertisers.”
As for Stadium, Silver Chalice Sports bought the remaining stake Sinclair had in the channel in May and is rumored to relaunch it as a regional sports network featuring the Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Blackhawks as their contract with NBC Sports Chicago ends a year from now. Stadium was carried as a digital sub of WJYS-TV until last year when the station and Sinclair failed to come to terms on a renewal agreement, but isn’t really missed if what “sports” the channel carried was any indication.
It’s over and out for Bally Sports Arizona, who announced Friday it is winding down operations after losing all three pro sports teams in its arsenal.
“Bally Sports Arizona is no longer providing coverage of your favorite local teams. We sincerely thank you for your loyal viewership over the years” in a statement posted on social media. The end of Bally Sports Arizona is a casualty of parent company Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy who lost rights to the Arizona Coyotes and Arizona Diamondbacks, with the former signing a new deal with Scripps Sports and the latter’s rights taken over by Major League Baseball.
The Phoenix Suns’ contract expired with Bally at the end of last season and signed a deal with Gray Television and streaming provider Kiswe.
The future of Bally’s regional sports network remains as cloudy as ever as a renewal deal with DirecTV reportedly hit a snag as Diamond is now demanding full payment for Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres games Bally didn’t provide to them. Meanwhile, MLB is ready to move on from the troubled RSN, possibly looking to pull their teams rights. Still, Bally recently came to renewal terms with the Los Angeles Kings and New Orleans Pelicans, so they can’t be counted out yet.
Even though Bally Sports Arizona no longer carries pro sports teams, the channel plans to remain active using a default national schedule until all of its carriage agreements expire (or they’re dropped by cable/satellite providers, whichever comes first.) This is the same tact the former Fox Sports Net Chicago used after it lost all pro sports teams to the then-new Comcast SportsNet in 2004, but straggled along until June 2006 when it finally shut down, mostly airing programming from FSN’s national feed.
The first syndicated project for fall 2024 was announced late Friday and it’s a talk show project featuring an unlikely candidate for one.
Debmar-Mercury taped a talk show pilot Friday featuring Ken Jeong – yes, that Ken Jeong, the actor and doctor (yes, he is really a doctor – an OB -GYN) and it’s being shopped to stations for next September. The pilot was shot under the SAG-AFTRA code, allowing actors to perform duties without running afoul of the current strike (for the latest on the work stoppage, see below.)
Ken is one of a handful of people in the world who has what it takes to succeed as a talk show host and we are excited to be in business with him,” said Debmar-Mercury Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein in a statement. “Audiences connect with Ken on many levels – not only because he is so talented, entertaining and unapologetically hilarious but [also because of] their sense that he is sincere, compassionate, fearless, friendly, just genuinely nice – all essential ingredients that make for long-term success as a talk-show host. He is also a talent capable of conquering any time period with his mix of comedy, Hollywood celebrity friends and ability to bring viewers.”
Jeong is currently a judge of Fox’s Masked Singer (hosted by Nick Cannon, who had his own daytime show with Debmar-Mercury two years ago) and an executive producer of Fox’s Now I Can See Your Voice. Jeong’s credits include Community, the nemesis in The Hangover, and the voice of Dr. Yap, the Belcher family’s dentist on Bob’s Burgers and featured in a commercial for dry eye medicine.
Jeong is executive producing with Jim Biederman, who credits include Kids In The Hall and the Tom Green Show, meaning this project might be a variety/ comedy-based project. Jeong would be the first Asian-American man to host a talk show.
Males daytime host were in scant supply in recent years as Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, Steve Harvey, and others are no longer in production with Karamo Brown and Steve Wilkos the only male hosts currently in daytime. Male-fronted variety shows have historically been difficult to pull off since the heyday of Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, with Martin Short, Wayne Brady, Tony Danza, and the aforementioned Cannon as those who flamed out in the last two decades.
So much for optimism: There were high hopes the SAG-AFTRA strike would be resolved quickly after the WGA ended their work stoppage after 148 days with a deal voted almost unanimously by members. But it looks like it’s back to square one for the actors as talks with the studios collapsed this past week.
Talks came to an abrupt halt Wednesday evening when the AMPTP rejected a proposal from the guild asking for two percent of all streaming revenue and couldn’t agree on how much a set rate would be paid to them, with the two sides far apart on cost – some $300 million. The studios walked away from the table, saying the gap between them and SAG-AFTRA was “too great” as the guild accused them of bullying tactics. Another continuing stumbling block is the use of AI, which the studios want.
With no new talks scheduled anytime soon, the SAG-AFTRA strike is already the longest on record at 96 days as of October 17, surpassing the 77 days the 1980 SAG work stoppage produced. On Friday, other Hollywood guilds released a joint statement urging the studios to return to the bargaining table.
Just curious, isn’t Steve Wilkos still working on his daytime talk show? I think it still has original episodes. If yes, that would be two male talk show hosts working this season.
It’s easy to forget Steve Wilkos.