The answer is yes for one, maybe for the other. A decision will be made soon on when Warner Bros. The New Adventures of Old Christine and Twentieth Century Fox’s American Dad. This comes as the recession practically froze the market to sell anything in syndication for the last few months. Christine is currently in trouble – the Julia-Louis Dreyfus […]
A ton of news on the animation beat this week: – Cartoon Network held its upfront in New York on Wednesday, and revealed a bunch of new programming. Renewals include Star Wars: Clone Wars, Ben 10, and Total Drama Island. New additions include some live-action programming (including original movies) and yet another Scooby-Doo television series, titled Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. plus […]
– CBS has re-upped Warner Bros.-produced Two and a Half Men for three more seasons and The Big Bang Theory for two. CBS and Warner Bros. also settled a pending lawsuit (so I guess CBS can go ahead and cancel Cold Case and Without A Trace…) – Is it a good sign when a network shaves twenty minutes off your […]
Syndication switcheroo; Universal Sports add more clearances; Young files Chapter 11. – With another ratings period ahead, two Chicago stations have made some major changes to their syndicated lineups: * Beginning today, WCIU-TV is swapping time periods with Warner Bros.’ The People’s Court and Sony’s now-canceled Judge Karen. With Karen now out of production, WCIU has moved the show to […]
As the NATPE convention draws closer and closer (next month in Vegas – assuming it doesn’t snow), you’ll be seeing these updates more and more here. So, here we go… – TNT’s The Closer has been sold to all Fox-owned stations for weekend play, including WFLD/WPWR here, as Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution hopes Closer’s success on TNT will translate […]
The ongoing saga of Tribune bankruptcy will have a big effect on the syndication business. Tribune owes four major syndicators money: Warner Bros., NBC Universal, Disney-ABC, and Twentieth. As a result of the Chapter 11 filing (with Tribune restructuring debt), the studios aren’t going to see a dime of the cash anytime soon. This puts some stress on the studios’ […]
In a move that comes as a bit of a surprise, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution announced Thursday the move of The Tyra Banks Show to CW from first-run syndication – giving the network two hours to fill in its daytime lineup starting next September. CW, home already to Ms. Banks’ America’s Next Top Model, acquired the program to run […]
– WLIT has added a new afternoon guy: His name is Kevin Gossett, and he takes over the 2-7 p.m. time slot beginning yesterday at the Clear Channel-owned Adult Contemporary station. One problem, though: he’s being voiced tracked from Phoenix, where he works as PD and afternoon personality at KEZ-FM. So if you hear him talk about how nice and […]
The new five first-run strips debuting in syndication last week entered the new world of expectations – holding the lead-in and at least matching the year-ago time period share. The five programs are Deal or No Deal from NBC Universal Television Distribution; The Doctors from CBS Television Distribution; Family Court with Judge Penny from Program Partners; The Bonnie Hunt Show […]
Chicago contributes to programs’ decent start The new 2008-09 season in syndication began on Monday with the debut of five new strips – and all got off to a decent – if not spectacular start: Program RTG SHR Lead-In TP 9/07 Bonnie Hunt 1.1 3 -21% 0% Deal or No Deal 1.3 3 -13% -7% The Doctors 1.6 4 -11% […]
Quick, when was the last true first-run syndicated hit? Though many syndicators would argue, it was six years ago with Dr. Phil averaging a 4.4 Nielsen rating in its freshman season. Before that, you would have to go all the way back to June 1996 for the last breakout hit – Warner Bros.’ The Rosie O’Donnell Show. And if you […]
Is the off-network sitcom drought about to come to an end in syndication? It very well may be. But stations may have other ideas. This story from TVNewsday reports on the off-network sitcom drought this coming season and the number of sitcoms coming down the pike in September 2009. For the first time in recent memory, there are no fresh […]
This is the 1,200th post. Hurray for the blog! Three syndicated freshman strips from Warner – Two and a Half Men, TMZ, and George Lopez scored gains in the just-concluded May sweeps, according to Nielsen. Men ranked as the top off-network sitcom in syndication last month, while Lopez surprised everyone by finishing fifth among all off-net sitcoms, jumping up 41 […]
New court show from Warner Bros. featuring Jeanine Pirro to be taped here; new show is part of new Warner-supplied daytime block on CW Chicago is getting another television production to be beamed coast-to-coast. The new show from Warner Bros. is Judge Jeanine Pirro, a new daytime courtroom strip, which will be taped at NBC Tower, where Warner’s Judge Mathis […]
KidsWB.com relaunches as well; The CW announces new name for its Saturday morning lineup The WB died in the merger with UPN to form The CW two years ago, but now the frog is being resurrected online. Time Warner announced Monday it is relaunching The WB brand online along with a revamped KidsWB website. The WB launches as a beta […]
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