Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 has dumped morning news anchor Mike Barz after just two years amid allegations he acted at a off-site party. The former WGN-TV morning sports anchor joined the station in 2007 from ABC’s Good Morning America, and fronted Good Day Chicago alongside Jan Jeffcoat. He was suspended from WFLD shortly after he joined the station, after allegations he […]
WWOR in New York also drops 10 p.m. newscast, but moves it to 11 p.m. Time’s up for The Ten. Fox-owned WFLD is dropping its 10 p.m. newscast titled The Ten after two uneventful years and will remove it from its schedule on September 18 (this blog’s birthday.) On September 21, WFLD will air off-network repeats of The Office in […]
In a blockbuster deal, the NBC Thursday night comedy 30 Rock was sold in syndication to cable networks Comedy Central and WGN America and to Fox and Tribune stations on the broadcast side, each for Fall 2011 debuts. NBC Universal decided to sell the sitcom to Fox and Tribune station groups, splitting the difference. Locally, 30 Rock will air on […]
Longtime media personality and fill-in anchor Bob Sirott and NBC-owned WMAQ-TV parted ways today, apparently over money regarding a contractual provision stating he would succeed retiring 10 p.m. anchor Warner Saunders, which would lead to an increase in salary. WMAQ tried to renegotiate Sirott’s contract to short the multi-year deal, so Sirott and WMAQ decided to end their relationship. This […]
Rachael Ray is on the move. After three underperforming seasons at CBS-owned WBBM-TV, Rachael Ray’s talk show is shifting to Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN-TV this fall. Rachael Ray has not fared well in its 2 p.m. time slot, with tougher competition coming from Chicago native Bonnie Hunt, whose talk show airs opposite it and has beat Rachael in the ratings. […]
A lot of items in The Grab Bag today: – Warner Bros. and HBO has sold the sitcoms Entourage and Curb Your Enthauism to the Tribune station group for late-fringe time periods begining in 2010 on all-barter basis (meaning stations don’t have to pay a dime – just surrender half of their ad inventory to the syndicator.) Locally, you can […]
So many local TV items today, so we’ll just stick them here in one post: – Fox-owned WFLD-TV announced the elimination of six full-time jobs today as well as a dozen vacation relief positions. This comes as ad revenues for the station plunged thirty percent from a year ago, reflecting general weakness in the economy and the lack of ad […]
KRON-TV San Francisco to dump Dr. Phil? It looks like these days viewers prefer the corruption, depression, politics, and crime to escapist fare. It what could be yet another blow to the syndication business, a story by Bloomberg News suggests local stations are dumping entertainment fare to air more local news especially in major markets. This comes as the fight […]
From the recently concluded March ratings period: Chicago: WLS-TV remained on top, as usual at 10 p.m., but CBS-owned WBBM-TV is up 50 percent in the same time period in households. At 9 p.m., WGN-TV’s newscast had a 43 percent advantage over an above-average WFLD-TV, despite popular Fox prime-time lead-ins. Milwaukee: And lead-ins didn’t matter here either, as NBC affiliate […]
CBS-owned WWJ-TV in Detroit is returning to the news business. This is not a April Fool’s joke. Really. WWJ, which has been out of the news business since 2002, is hooking with the Detroit Free Press to produce a new morning newscast airing from 5 to 7 a.m. with cut-ins during The Early Show (you mean its no longer called […]
Fox-owned WFLD-TV here in Chicago (and sis station KTTV in Los Angeles) have picked up the half-hour syndicated version of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader from Twentieth Television for this fall. The game show, produced by Survivor creater Mark Burnett and hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, has aired on prime-time on Fox to respectable ratings. The program has cleared […]
The alternative title is being used to describe today’s News & Notes, as there is sad news to report: – Chicago Defender sports journalist Larry Gross passed away Wednesday at the age of 59 due to complications from lung cancer. Gross covered mostly local sports for the paper, including Chicago Public School Prep action. The wake will be held Feb. […]
Warner Bros’ move of Judge Jeanne Pirro from The CW to syndication is now complete, with a group deal with the Fox Television Group. The all-barter deal, which includes Fox’s duopoly of WFLD and WPWR, gives Pirro a clearance rate of 75 percent of the United States. Pirro may have benefited from the cancellation of Cristina’s Court on Friday, which […]
Fox-owned WFLD-TV has hired former WBBM-TV news director Carol Fowler to work in the same capacity. Fowler replaces Andrew Finlayson, who today took a job with News Corp. as director for online content and business for the Fox Television Stations Group. Fowler was news director at CBS-owned WBBM for six years before being fired last fall in a newsroom shakeup. […]
More Twentieth Television news: The syndicator has cleared NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl in 47 percent of the country beginning this fall, including nine out of the top ten markets. Fox-owned My Network TV stations are part of the deal, including WPWR-TV in Chicago. The program is also expected to run on sister station WFLD-TV. Earl has also cleared […]
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