“Regis” finale scores for WGN-TV

Regis Philblin’s departure from Live with Regis & Kelly on Friday drew big ratings for Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN-TV. According to numbers obtained from Marc Berman at TV Media Insights, WGN scored a 6.9 Nielsen household rating and a 22 share with Regis’ farewell, and coasted past ABC-owned WLS-TV’s local morning show Windy City Live, which replaced departing The Oprah […]

Big diginet fun

      NBC to launch Non-Stop Network; Bounce expands to N.Y. and L.A. Significant developments regarding digital subchannels on Thursday: – Don’t you wish it would stop? NBC announced it was overhauling its strategy for its nine-station Non-Stop digital subchannels, which is on the .2 (Channel 4.2, Channel 5.2, etc.) of all-NBC-owned stations except the Hartford/New Haven market, where […]

“Katie” clears 60% of U.S. for Fall ’12 launch

Disney-ABC Domestic Television Distribution’s new fall 2012 talk show strip featuring Katie Couric has now been cleared in 60 percent of the country. Titled Katie, the series has now cleared though several broadcast groups including Allbritton, Belo, Cox, Hearst, Gannett, and Scripps, in addition to the entire ABC-owned-and-operated station group (including WLS-TV here in Chicago.) To no one’s surprise, most […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Rewarding failure

“I failed at doing the CBS Evening News. Now ABC is going to reward me with a big contract for doing a talk show no one will watch. Suckers!! “ On Monday, Katie Couric joined The Walt Disney Company as a syndicated talk show host in what has to be the worst syndicated deal ever. The multi-year, multi-platform deal also […]

Katie Couric heads to the Mouse House

After flopping out at CBS, Katie Couric is looking to shine at ABC. In a deal announced today, The Walt Disney Company has signed the former Today and CBS Evening News personality to a multi-year, multi-platform deal, which includes a daily syndicated talk show and beginning this summer, a regular contributor to ABC News. Ms. Couric departed as anchor of […]

Stations make post- "Oprah" moves

Local stations nationwide are wasting little time when The Oprah Winfrey Show signs off on Wednesday. And ABC-owned WLS-TV isn’t the only Chicago station making changes Beginning this Thursday (yes, this Thursday), WLS is replacing Oprah at 9 a.m.with a local effort, Windy City Live. Oprah reruns will air on WLS at 11:05 p.m. until September 9. But WCIU (26.1) […]

WLS-TV names new morning show hosts

WABC-TV in New York City reveals Oprah replacement – a newscast. ABC-owned WLS-TV has finally chosen its hosts for its new morning show to succeed The Oprah Winfrey Show at 9 a.m. – WLS weekend sports anchor Ryan Chiaverini and WGN-TV morning news reporter Valerie Warner. The series’ working title is Morning Rush and is expected to debut sometime around […]

WLS-TV dominates households in November

ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was Chicago’s top entertainment (non-sports) program in November.  November sweeps came and went and as usual, ABC- owned WLS-TV won the 10pm news race, and also dominated the market overall (thank you Oprah and Dancing With The Stars.) While household numbers were only available at this time, look for WLS to dominate in all key […]

ABC sells two stations back to previous owners

In a rare move in the industry, The Walt Disney Company announced the sale of two of its O&Os – back to its previous owners. According to Broadcasting & Cable, WJRT-TV in Flint, Mich. (serving the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City market) and WTVG in Toledo, Ohio were sold back to SJL Broadcast Management, who sold the duo to what was then Capital […]

WLS-TV jumps into the 4:30 a.m. news derby

Remember when yours truly said an expansion for local news at 4:30 a.m. was inevitable in the Chicago market? Well, the race to have the first newscast of the day is getting awfully crowded. Just two weeks after Tribune’s WGN-TV announced it was expanding its morning newscast to 4:30 a.m. on August 16, ABC-owned WLS-TV announced yesterday it was expanding […]

WLS-TV to replace "Oprah" with live, local morning show

In news first reported Tuesday morning on Robert Feder’s blog at Vocalo, ABC-owned WLS-TV has announced plans to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show, which departs first-run syndication on September 9, 2011: The station is developing a live, local morning show to take her place. There is no word yet on a host or format, but it is expected to be […]

ABC O&Os renew "Wheel", "Jeopardy!" through 2014

In good news for the syndication business, two of the platform’s highest-rated shows are going to be around for at least a few more years. CBS Television Distribution’s game-show duo of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! has been renewed on the seven ABC-owned and operated stations who carry the programs through 2014. The news broke a week ago on TheWrap.com. […]

WFLD wins a Peabody, but still loses in the ratings race

WFLD continues to struggle at 9 p.m. with its local newscasts, despite the fact of a strong prime-time lead-in. The March numbers show the Fox-owned station continuing to lag behind WGN and the other stations in the market in households and key demos. According to Nielsen and numbers supplied by the Sun-Times, WFLD averaged a 3.1 household rating for its […]