NBCUniversal Syndication Studios exits first-run with cancellations of “Access Hollywood”, talk shows

“Karamo”, “Steve Wilkos” also axed

In a stunning development, NBCU Syndication Studios is exiting the first-run syndication business, canceling its four remaining shows: magazine Access Hollywood, Access Live, and conflict talkers Karamo and Steve Wilkos. 

“NBCUniversal is making changes to our first-run syndication division to better align with the programming preferences of local stations,” said Frances Berwick, Chairman of Bravo & Peacock unscripted for NBCUniversal, in a statement. “The company will remain active in the distribution of our existing program library and other off-network titles, while winding down production of our first-run shows. These shows have provided audiences with great talk and entertainment content for many years, and we’re very proud of the teams behind them.”

NBCUniversal plans to continue offering Steve Wilkos and Karamo to stations as reruns, something the syndicator is already doing with Maury and recently did with Jerry Springer, which ended original production in 2018 after 27 seasons on the air. Karamo and Wilkos are already out of production as NBCUniversal is vacating their Stamford, Conn. studios used to produce the shows, but will have fresh episodes to air through the summer. Access Hollywood and Access Live meanwhile, will wrap up their runs this September. 

The move comes as first-run syndicated programming is drying up amid shifts in the television landscape, with Debmar-Mercury recently canceling Sherri and NBCU’s Kelly Clarkson retiring. 

Another factor in these cancellations is the current media consolidation in the marketplace on the station side and the supplier side. Station groups are expected to merge, as current ownership rules are likely to change; groups such as Nexstar will likely produce their own programming or expand local newscasts to fill open slots. Nexstar is buying Tegna for $6 billion in a deal recently blessed by President Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. 

NBCU’s roots in syndication date back to the MCA TV days, established in 1951 before a 1962 merger with Universal Studios. The syndicator was a major player in first-run in the 1980s and 1990s with fare such as Puttin’ On The Hits, Charles In Charge, Out Of This World, My Secret Identity, Roggin’s Heroes, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules, and Vanishing Son. After retiring the MCA name in late 1996, the newly-named Universal Television Enterprises acquired Multimedia Entertainment a year later, giving them rights to Jerry Springer, Sally Jessy Raphael, and others, with Maury coming on board in 1998 after seven years at Paramount, becoming Studios USA after Barry Diller bought Universal’s domestic TV operations. Universal returned to the domestic TV business shortly thereafter by acquiring PolyGram Television. 

In 2002, Universal repurchased Studios USA and renamed it Universal Television Distribution. In 2004, it merged with NBC to become NBCUniversal Television Distribution, which was later renamed NBCUniversal Syndication Studios.

Access premiered in September 1996 with original anchors Giselle Fernandez and Larry Mendte, both former WBBM-TV news anchors, as a joint venture between NBC and New World/Genesis Entertainment, and underwent several distributor changes until NBC established its own syndication division, known as NBC Enterprises. The show enjoyed some notoriety in 2016 after then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump made a crude statement to then-host Bully Bush in an outtake dated back to 2005. 

Access is currently hosted by Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover. Scott Evans, and Suzi Hall. The show spunoff two other series; daytime talk/interview show Access Live, and All Access, a short-lived strip that only aired on a handful of NBC-owned stations from September 2019 to June 2021. 

The cancellations also bring down the curtain on the “conflict” talk show, which was somewhat pioneered by Morton Downey Jr., a raucous program MCA TV itself syndicated in 1988 and 1989, who basically invented the “trash TV” genre whose mantle Springer took over in the late 1990s. 

The Steve Wilkos Show started in 2007 as a spinoff of Springer’s show (Wilkos was the “head” of security on Springer’s show) and was taped at the NBC Tower in Chicago before both relocated to Stamford in 2009 to take advantage of tax breaks. Wilkos’s show had been missing a major clearance in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest market, where it hasn’t aired in years. 

Karamo premiered in September 2022 as a replacement for Maury, who retired after 31 seasons hosting his talk show. Like Wilkos, Karamo is also not on the air in Los Angeles. 

The cancellation of Access Hollywood leaves a hole in stations’ schedules, especially for NBC-owned outlets, which used Access as a lead-in to their primetime lineup. In Chicago, Access airs weeknights at 6:30 p.m. on NBC 5/WMAQ-TV, where it’s been since its premiere. Local news expansion is a possibility; excluding for brief periods from July to September 1991 and March 2020, NBC 5 has never aired a 6:30 p.m. newscast since the Big 3 networks stopped programming the prime access daypart in September 1971. 

Wilkos and Karamo air on Weigel’s WCIU and its sister station, WMEU/WCUU (The U Too.) WCIU relies more on syndication than the other Chicago stations, as it is an independent. Even after Wilkos’ show left Chicago in 2009, he returned to the city and made promotional and other special appearances for The U.

Recently, Warner Bros. renewed its only first-run syndicated programs currently on the air, The Jennifer Hudson Show and Extra, for the 2026-27 season. However, their future beyond that is in question, as Warner Bros.’ syndication division will likely be folded into Paramount’s CBS Media Ventures once its parent companies complete their merger.