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What will WGN fill in its 10am timeslot this fall?


CircleSeven

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According to Feder this morning, WGN is considering options to fill-in its 10am timeslot this fall, as Rachael Ray will be moving to Channel 7. One option that the station is considering is a locally-produced talk show to fill-in as a bridge between the end of the morning news and the beginning of their midday news.

 

Another possible replacement would be to air a new syndicated game show "Celebrity Name Game" hosted by outgoing "Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson.

 

Whatever it is, I'm kind of happy that they're not talking about adding yet another hour of news, yet I was worried that they could possibly do that, since its cheaper than filling it with another syndie show. But I'm not a fan of having news at times where they would otherwise air other kinds of program. They already promote the most hours of news a week, than any other station in town. Do we really need to hear them say "nine straight hours of news" every weekday in daytime?

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If the noon news was still just that, they would extend til 11 or shift around start at 11. I think the fact that the one hour bridge would make for 9 hours of news is the ONLY thing keeping them from putting news at 10.

 

I don't know, it's just how the chips fall, and it isn't really anyone's fault (not even Idler), but it's almost funny how channel 7 has more programming in their pocket than they have space for, and WGN is literally throwing stuff at the wall just trying to kill time. Over at WLS, I do have to commend Idler for sticking with 'Windy City Live', though. Yes, they probably should have a formal midday newscast, but it's not like they couldn't fall back to it someday. If they had killed WCL last year, there wouldn't have been any shot of it coming back.

 

It's completely uncharted territory, but I wonder if 7 and 9 would EVER explore the idea of shifting WCL to WGN. I know there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of that happening, but it would be an interesting concept.

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A little sidebar for a moment. Today, WGN-TV and the Blackhawks came to terms on a 3-year broadcast contract extension. It may include the radio properties, as well, but I'm not sure, as it was just announced.

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I don't know, it's just how the chips fall, and it isn't really anyone's fault (not even Idler), but it's almost funny how channel 7 has more programming in their pocket than they have space for, and WGN is literally throwing stuff at the wall just trying to kill time. Over at WLS, I do have to commend Idler for sticking with 'Windy City Live', though. Yes, they probably should have a formal midday newscast, but it's not like they couldn't fall back to it someday. If they had killed WCL last year, there wouldn't have been any shot of it coming back.

 

It's completely uncharted territory, but I wonder if 7 and 9 would EVER explore the idea of shifting WCL to WGN. I know there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of that happening, but it would be an interesting concept.

 

WLS does not have more programming than it does space. Katie Couric is being swapped for Rachel Ray. Other than that there may be some rearranging.

 

Why do you think if they had killed WCL last year, there wouldn't have been any shot of the news coming back? What makes it different from this year? The 11am news was dropped because of Live with Kelly & Michael coming on to the schedule, not because of low ratings!

 

WCL would make better sense on WGN, but I can't see it being moved as is. That being said, I could see in the future it being scaled back to a half hour with the other half hour being filled by news. Also, if Millionaire is renewed for a few more seasons, and it remains on the other O&Os, I could see it making its way to WLS too.

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WLS does not have more programming than it does space. Katie Couric is being swapped for Rachel Ray. Other than that there may be some rearranging.

 

Do you mean to tell me they wouldn't like to have a midday on-air newscast? That's 30-60 minutes of programming that they don't have space for. And who knows what's in the future if ABC wants to take back an hour?

 

 

Why do you think if they had killed WCL last year, there wouldn't have been any shot of the news coming back? What makes it different from this year? The 11am news was dropped because of Live with Kelly & Michael coming on to the schedule, not because of low ratings!

 

I know the 11AM news ratings were great. They were a solid #1. When I said "If they had killed WCL last year, there wouldn't have been any shot of it coming back", IT was referring to WCL.

 

'Windy' isn't doing great in the ratings (not poor, just mediocre...3rd in a tight race). If they were to ax it at some point, re-installing a newscast would be easy. Had they dropped the talker last year, it would have been dead and buried, set destroyed and talent reassigned or canned. Even if it isn't yours or my cup of tea, having some locally-produced content is far more valuable than yet another hour of news in a crowded landscape. It would've likely hurt the chances of WLS or any other station dipping their toes in the entertainment pool again.

 

 

That being said, I could see in the future it being scaled back to a half hour with the other half hour being filled by news. Also, if Millionaire is renewed for a few more seasons, and it remains on the other O&Os, I could see it making its way to WLS too.

 

I don't see any of that happening. I have a feeling it's WCL OR news...not both. 'Windy' is too big of a production to be limited to 30 minutes, and it would require a significant format shift for it to be cut down. It would likely only resemble a shell of its past, and wouldn't last too long. As for 'Millionaire', Terry 'Old Spice Guy' Crews is taking over as host and it's moving to Connecticut. Talk about something that's a shell of its former self. Yikes. I really don't see the game lasting past 2016.

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Do you mean to tell me they wouldn't like to have a midday on-air newscast? That's 30-60 minutes of programming that they don't have space for. And who knows what's in the future if ABC wants to take back an hour?

 

 

I know the 11AM news ratings were great. They were a solid #1. When I said "If they had killed WCL last year, there wouldn't have been any shot of it coming back", IT was referring to WCL.

 

'Windy' isn't doing great in the ratings (not poor, just mediocre...3rd in a tight race). If they were to ax it at some point, re-installing a newscast would be easy. Had they dropped the talker last year, it would have been dead and buried, set destroyed and talent reassigned or canned. Even if it isn't yours or my cup of tea, having some locally-produced content is far more valuable than yet another hour of news in a crowded landscape. It would've likely hurt the chances of WLS or any other station dipping their toes in the entertainment pool again.

 

 

I don't see any of that happening. I have a feeling it's WCL OR news...not both. 'Windy' is too big of a production to be limited to 30 minutes, and it would require a significant format shift for it to be cut down. It would likely only resemble a shell of its past, and wouldn't last too long. As for 'Millionaire', Terry 'Old Spice Guy' Crews is taking over as host and it's moving to Connecticut. Talk about something that's a shell of its former self. Yikes. I really don't see the game lasting past 2016.

 

If ABC wants the hour WCL goes bye-bye. They obviously saw more value and demographic opportunities in killing the 11am then killing WCL. That means they didn't want the 11am anymore and were willing to sacrifice it. Now if WCL slips more and falls behind further then WCL could die and the 11am would probably be restored. But until that happens WCL looks here to stay. The fact that Central time stations lose an hour of programming by being on an eastern schedule is the real problem. If this were an Eastern station then WCL would be on between Kelly and Michael and The View, at 10am. News would be at noon and problem solved. But alas they don't keep the times the same as Eastern and run programs on delay or run another edition of World News. That is what the schedule hinges on. They could easily move everything up an hour and make the news 4, 5 and 6 like it is in eastern time and have a separate feed. But that horse is out of the barn. Can you imagine the confusion that would cause?
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As for WGN, I doubt that Craig Ferguson's show has a shot at the 10am slot. It will get eaten alive. It would have a better chance at 3, replacing 'The Test', but would likely have the best shot at 4, displacing (or completing ousting) reruns of 'The Middle' already at that time.

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As for 'Millionaire', Terry 'Old Spice Guy' Crews is taking over as host and it's moving to Connecticut. Talk about something that's a shell of its former self. Yikes. I really don't see the game lasting past 2016.

Millionaire is having its best season in years. I don't see it going anywhere, anytime soon.
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  • 1 month later...

That's awfully late ain't it? 3pm would've been a more logical time to place it on.

 

I'm happy they're putting something else, in lieu of going crazy and add another hour of news like the rest of the Trib stations are doing. They already air TOO MANY hours of news as is.

 

Hopefully we'll know what they'll do with the 10am timeslot soon.

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That's awfully late ain't it? 3pm would've been a more logical time to place it on.

 

I'm happy they're putting something else, in lieu of going crazy and add another hour of news like the rest of the Trib stations are doing. They already air TOO MANY hours of news as is.

 

Hopefully we'll know what they'll do with the 10am timeslot soon.

News.
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News.

 

SMMFH.

 

But I'll say this though. If they would've announced their possibly "locally-produced" program at 10am, they would've been announcing that news by now. I'm not sure which other syndie show they'd even pick up this year. I'm not sure if they're keeping The Middle, and moving that to 3pm (IMO, that's not a good lead-in to their new 4pm news).

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SMMFH.

 

But I'll say this though. If they would've announced their possibly "locally-produced" program at 10am, they would've been announcing that news by now. I'm not sure which other syndie show they'd even pick up this year. I'm not sure if they're keeping The Middle, and moving that to 3pm (IMO, that's not a good lead-in to their new 4pm news).

 

I think they may wait until August even if it's a new program, they wouldn't start promoting it till after that anyways so what's the incentive to say anything right now? We have a 7-9am news block coming here next month and there hasn't been a word about it yet. WGN seems pretty relaxed anyways.

 

As for the middle it is currently not a top 25 Syndie as of the week ended June 29th.

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I think they may wait until August even if it's a new program, they wouldn't start promoting it till after that anyways so what's the incentive to say anything right now? We have a 7-9am news block coming here next month and there hasn't been a word about it yet. WGN seems pretty relaxed anyways.

 

As for the middle it is currently not a top 25 Syndie as of the week ended June 29th.

 

Are you talking about WMYD? If they are about to implement it, that would be 3 hours of news a day for them, that's way more hours of news than the previous owners. That's good for them. I'm talking about WGN and their soon-to-be 61 hours of news. I don't see any reason why they need to fill almost 40% of their entire weekly schedule worth of news. And if they fill-in 10am with news, that would give them a supreme 9 hour news block, totaling 66 hours. To me, that would be insane. And average viewer would turn on Channel 9 and think, that's all they show is NEWS and nothing else.

 

News is important, Yes. But is it even necessary to fill-in even more hours of it, especially since you already have a cable-news channel as well. I don't think so. It needs balance.

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Are you talking about WMYD? If they are about to implement it, that would be 3 hours of news a day for them, that's way more hours of news than the previous owners. That's good for them. I'm talking about WGN and their soon-to-be 61 hours of news. I don't see any reason why they need to fill almost 40% of their entire weekly schedule worth of news. And if they fill-in 10am with news, that would give them a supreme 9 hour news block, totaling 66 hours. To me, that would be insane. And average viewer would turn on Channel 9 and think, that's all they show is NEWS and nothing else.

 

News is important, Yes. But is it even necessary to fill-in even more hours of it, especially since you already have a cable-news channel as well. I don't think so. It needs balance.

 

Actually I was saying that even if it's a talk show there is little incentive to promote it now. The reason for all the news is because news is relatively cheap to do and syndication is expensive, balance be damned. The 7-9am on WMYD will be an extension of 7 Action News This Morning.
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Actually I was saying that even if it's a talk show there is little incentive to promote it now. The reason for all the news is because news is relatively cheap to do and syndication is expensive, balance be damned. The 7-9am on WMYD will be an extension of 7 Action News This Morning.

 

I distinctive get the fact that news is cheaper than syndie. My point for all of this is why they need to just go the easy way out and air more news, I don't care how cheap it is to produce. It's just plain crazy. Even if Channel 9 does have a solid news operation (and It does), those endless hours of news may not be a good thing.

 

I'm not complaining about WMYD airing news. It's good to have competition against WJBK.

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I distinctive get the fact that news is cheaper than syndie. My point for all of this is why they need to just go the easy way out and air more news, I don't care how cheap it is to produce. It's just plain crazy. Even if Channel 9 does have a solid news operation (and It does), those endless hours of news may not be a good thing.

 

I'm not complaining about WMYD airing news. It's good to have competition against WJBK.

 

I agree it is good that they are competing and giving WJBK a local competitor, it's about time. They may not be (and how many individual stories can you really enterprise with all those hours. While nobody watches the every minute of news, I would still think that at some point it dilutes the viewership, having less news and a good operation would result in pent up demand. It's a balance and I think they are going overboard myself. I just know money is the reason, just like Scripps syndication and the cheapness at the FOX O&O's (footpedal prompters for example).
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I agree it is good that they are competing and giving WJBK a local competitor, it's about time. They may not be (and how many individual stories can you really enterprise with all those hours. While nobody watches the every minute of news, I would still think that at some point it dilutes the viewership, having less news and a good operation would result in pent up demand. It's a balance and I think they are going overboard myself. I just know money is the reason, just like Scripps syndication and the cheapness at the FOX O&O's (footpedal prompters for example).

One example is WJBK's hour news block (4:30am-12pm). I understand the last hour is their midday program (and like you said, no one is watching all those hours of news), but damn. Something's got to give.

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One example is WJBK's hour news block (4:30am-12pm). I understand the last hour is their midday program (and like you said, no one is watching all those hours of news), but damn. Something's got to give.

 

Yeah they run a 430-12, 5, 6, 10 and 11. What's worse is that the 9-11 is some kind of talk/lifestyle/news hybrid called "The Nine". I've always thought this is one of the reasons FOX is only sort of a network, it's stations only sort of have schedules. It's almost like a better version of the CW.
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  • 4 weeks later...

So, it turns out that Craig Ferguson's 'Celebrity Name Game' will get three airings a day on WGN. In addition to the single 10pm broadcast announced last month, the show will also fill the 10 & 10:30 am slots upon its debut.

 

http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/6757-the-rachael-ray-show-move-causes-changes-to-two-local-tv-station-daytime-lineups-in-september

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So, it turns out that Craig Ferguson's 'Celebrity Name Game' will get three airings a day on WGN. In addition to the single 10pm broadcast announced last month, the show will also fill the 10 & 10:30 am slots upon its debut.

 

http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/6757-the-rachael-ray-show-move-causes-changes-to-two-local-tv-station-daytime-lineups-in-september

 

Well. I'm happy that's finally settled. No super nine-hour block of news with a 10am window. But they're still going to cge clobbered by Price & whoever's watching The View at this point.

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Well. I'm happy that's finally settled. No super nine-hour block of news with a 10am window. But they're still going to cge clobbered by Price & whoever's watching The View at this point.

 

Probably more watching The View and Price than will ever watch Name Game I would think. I thought the news made more sense but content wise that would really stretch it...
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