WGN-TV launches new political show, “The Point”
Show to last only 15 minutes
[Editor’s Note: This article has been updated on January 27.]
Nexstar’s WGN-TV announced Wednesday it is launching a new, weeknight political show called The Point, anchored by political editor Tahman Bradley.
But in an unorthodox move, the program will air weeknights from 6:45 p.m to 7:00 p.m. starting January 26 for only fifteen minutes, according to the Newscast Studio (NCS) website. The Point will air on WGN-TV and its streaming app, WGN+.
The show plans to cover local and national politics, feature interviews with local political leaders, panel discussions, and original reporting. WGN-TV officials said The Point is intended to give pols more access and provide insight into public policy.
“This is the start of my 20th year as a news professional, and in almost every role, I’ve covered politics,” Bradley said, who has been with WGN News since 2016. “I still believe we need folks who call balls and strikes, professionals who seek and report the truth. It’s time to cut through the noise and get to the point.”
WGN previously produced a similar show for the former CLTV called Politics Tonight, which ended after Nexstar shuttered the channel in 2019 shortly after purchasing Tribune Media. They’re hoping for lightning to strike twice, as in 2020, WGN successfully launched GN Sports, modeled after the former Sports Tonight show.
WGN-TV already airs the generically-titled WGN-TV Political Report on Sunday mornings, hosted by Paul Lisnek (according to a Facebook post he wrote, the show was dropped.)
The Point debuts as local stations across the country are expanding their homegrown-produced shows to provide programming for their streaming apps (and their linear counterparts), with both WGN and Fox-owned WFLD leading the charge locally. Last September, Fox 32 debuted The Chicago Report, a similar show hosted by Paris Schutz, which airs at 10 p.m. most weeknights, with an earlier airing on the station’s Fox Local app. Although Schutz often has political topics and elected officials on his show, Report also has non-political topics and guests.
The fifteen-minute format of The Point is unusual, but not without precedent – in the early days of television, fifteen-minute programs were quite common on local stations, including newscasts. Until the 1980s, ABC ran weekend fifteen-minute late-night newscasts, and NBC-owned WMAQ-TV’s Sports Sunday was originally fifteen minutes long.
With the rushed fifteen-minute format, you also have to find time to air commercials, which whittles the content down to around eleven minutes. This would not be enough time to delve into any political issues, and perhaps limiting this to one topic a night would be necessary. With WGN’s three-hour news block repeating the same stories over and over again, why not air this for a full half-hour at 6:30 p.m.? It’s just another missed opportunity for local linear television.
I completely agree with you as I thought the same thing why not give this new show a full half-hour at 6:30 p.m. weeknights. Since we’re coming up on mid-term elections this year, I am sure part of the reason for this new show is to get political ads. It’s not about what’s best for the viewers but how much money the station can make.
I agree should be 30 minutes long in my opinion sister TV station WOOD TV has had To The Point since fall 2003 30 minutes on Sun now aired on SAT at 7:30PM when their isn’t any sports on in the timeslot in the fall doesn’t really air on SAT Night because of BIG 10 Football. Also is aired on CW-WMI/CW6 at 11AM on SUN along with 10AM on WOOD TV since it’s debut in fall of 2003.
With this new political show, what is going to happen to Tahman Bradley’s anchor role on WGN weekend evening news??? Since the article doesn’t say that he is giving up the role.
Jackie Bange is handling those duties solo now until a replacement is named.
Is nexstar following orders from Trump? Did they cancel the political report program with Paul Lisnik because Trump told them to? We liked the program. A 15 minute show with Tahman Bradley is not going to cut it with us.
WGN-TV’s political report show did not air yesterday for some reason, but is scheduled for this upcoming Sunday, according to Gracenote’s TV listings. The President has no direct say on the programming decisions made by WGN or any other TV or radio station.
Paul Lisnek confirmed on Facebook that Political Report has been canceled.
Thanks for the news
As for the weekend anchor slot, I have doubts that Tahman will be replaced. With how often weekend newscasts get bumped or shortened due to CW Sports, there’s no real reason to have regular co-anchors. And it’s not really a loss of an anchor, since Tahman is still around, if they need him on a weeknight. Look at ABC7. Karen Jordan is now a solo act because Mark Rivera got moved to lead investigator. They don’t have to pay a new weekend co-anchor, and you still get all the benefits of Mark being able to anchor on a weeknight, in addition to the I-Team.
Tahman Bradley’s new show The Point is not bad. My two complaints are that it should be 30 minutes long, not 15 minutes. Some of the items presented on the show could be more in depth if there was more time. I agree that WGN-TV could give up a full 30 minutes of news, so The Point has a full half hour. Also, Channel 9 should tape the show and air it late nights at 11 p.m. after GN Sports. That would give WGN-TV a full hour of local programming in late nights, which would be very good counterprogramming to the late-night network talk/comedy shows. My other complaint is that Channel 9 should not have cancelled WGN-TV Political Report with Paul Lisnek on Sunday mornings. The two shows are not in competition with each other so there should be room on the schedule for both, or Tahman and Paul could co-host The Point. Each one has his own special style and knowledge with presenting political stories. I doubt WGN-TV will end up doing the right thing here, but there is always hope.