Believes CBS-owned syndicator isn’t delivering the revenue needed for shows Sony Pictures and CBS are headed to court in a real-life game of hangman. Sony sued CBS Media Ventures Thursday for breach of contract, alleging the syndication company had undersold Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, failed to reap significant revenue from each show’s sales, and made unauthorized deals under market value in foreign […]
Also: So long My50…again; “Wheel”, “Drew” off to strong ratings start; ABC 7 promotes Nwosu to marketing position While NBC Sports’ other RSNs are preparing for the future, NBC Sports Chicago is ending its 20-year run Monday – but not quietly as the station plans to air over 36 hours of live and past content Sunday, celebrating its time on […]
Also: Final Wheel with Pat Sajak draws four-year viewership high; Tegna’s Daily Blast Live to end The WNBA continues to soar to new ratings heights as Sunday’s Chicago Sky-Indiana Fever game illustrated thanks to the heated rivalry between the two teams courtesy of Caitlin Clark. Despite the 11 a.m. Chicago start time, the contest airing on CBS drew 2.252 million […]
A year dominated by labor strife, awful Chicago sports teams, and – oh yeah, Elon If you watched the WWE, you remember Vince McMahon playing himself as an arrogant CEO and billionaire, ruling over anything and everything – the ultimate heel. It’s a real-life trend we’re seeing as we close 2023. Led by billionaire Elon Musk, CEOs – whether […]
Comes at a time of uncertain future for local institution While all the hoopla was over WGN-TV celebrating its 75th year of broadcasting, let’s not forget there’s another station celebrating its 75th, too. ABC-owned WLS-TV, branded as ABC 7 since the 1990s, celebrated its 75th on September 17. Although there was no two-hour special to comminate the occasion like WGN’s, […]
Takes over from retiring Pat Sajak in fall 2024 In news talked about for weeks, Ryan Seacrest will succeed Pat Sajak as host of Wheel Of Fortune beginning next fall. On June 12, Sajak announced he was retiring from Wheel after the 2023-24 season. Wheel and sister show Jeopardy! was renewed thru 2028 by the ABC-owned stations as both shows […]
Also: Person, Place, or Thing gets greenlight to fall series; Pat Robertson dies; Chris Licht out at CNN After forty-plus years as host of Wheel Of Fortune, Chicago native Pat Sajak announced on Monday he was stepping down effective at the end of next season. The 76-year old made his announcement Monday evening on Twitter: Well, the time has come. […]
Also: Fox re-ups Animation Domination as White Sox voices Jason Benetti and Steve Stone get reneweals, too; DirecTV adds a NewsMax replacement; Blackhawks’ ratings sag as does the rest of the NHL Even though it’s a ratings period most radio stations not playing Christmas music ignore, the “Holiday” book for iHeartMedia’s 93.9 FM The Lite dominated to no one’s surprise […]
Jennifer Hudson and Sherri Shepherd also have their shows renewed While there are those who are eagerly awaiting the presumed death of linear TV, Wednesday was a reminder there’s still a lot of life left in the platform – especially in the world of first-run syndication with the renewals of four shows. Case in point – CBS Media Ventures and […]
After nine shows were wipe off the schedule, a quieter 2023 is ahead If there’s anything after the great syndication purge of 2022, 2023 is shaping up to be much different. An article on NextTV’s website Tuesday detailed how there are very few first-run syndicated programs in development as this year’s new entries are likely to stick around. Even though […]
Shepard Smith also exits the business channel [Editor’s Note: This post was updated November 9.] Back in September 2020, we looked at whether or not news marketed as unbiased and straight down the middle – the near simultaneous launches of CNBC’s The News With Shepard Smith and NewsNation, would be viable in a sea of opinionated cable news networks. After […]
On September 14, 1987, NBC’s owned-and-operated stations decided to launch a bold experiment, airing a different sitcom every weeknight leading in to prime-time. It was a disaster. Before streaming, where you can watch what you want when you want – or what day you want, there was a time where local stations did something called “checkerboarding”. As you know, prime-time […]
New offerings include devoted channels to Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Judge Judy; National Geographic, and Canada’s CBC as business continues to grow The growth of free, ad-supported streaming television channels – or FAST for short, isn’t just blooming – it’s exploding. On Monday, Paramount Global’s Pluto TV announced the addition of channels dedicated to classic Jeopardy! and Wheel of […]
Numerous stations still struggling as of Tuesday; station group facing a host of other problems A ransomware attack on Sinclair’s local stations has crippled the nation’s second-largest broadcast group. The attack has hampered e-mails, phone systems, and computer networks; affected stations’ traffic departments as they were unable to run commercials, costing stations ad revenue; and unable to produce graphics and […]
Also out as Wheel showrunner due to controversial comments in past weeks after he stepped down as Jeopardy host The other shoe dropped Tuesday as Mike Richards, who stepped down as host of Jeopardy due to comments made on a years- old podcast, was removed from his position as executive producer of Jeopardy and Wheel Of Fortune by Sony Pictures […]