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When would be the last time this ever happened with a syndicated show? 

 

He should just walk away entirely and let Sony decide how to fill out the time. 

 

Stations have that time under contract and pulling it out of a given region yet still airing it outside of Pennsylvania still gives a federal candidate a mouthpiece to do their bidding.  The internet transcends state lines,  and Pennsylvanians will still have ways to see the show in indirect ways, especially if an out-of-market (and out of state) station even can be seen over-the-air anywhere in Pennsylvania.

 

At least in my neck of the woods, he's buried on the MyNetworkTV station sometime in the afternoon.

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Oz doesn't have anywhere near the cachet (or the audience) he did even just a couple season back. That said, I'm frankly surprised his show website has become his candidacy website, but I'm sure he has ultimate control over the URL.

According to the L.A. Times, Oz's show will have a permanent replacement if he makes it through the primary:

 

Sony has a long-term plan if Oz wins the Republican nomination and spends 2022 running in the general election. Starting in mid-January, Oz’s daughter Daphne — a chef, author and TV personality — is slated to take over Oz’s time periods with a program called “The Good Dish,” according to two people familiar with the plan.

“The Good Dish” would replace “Dr. Oz” for at least the rest of the 2021-22 TV season, said one person who does business with TV stations that carry “Dr. Oz.” A representative for Sony Pictures Television had no comment on its plans. Daphne Oz is a judge on the Fox reality series “MasterChef Junior” and was a co-host on the ABC daytime series “The Chew.”

11 minutes ago, phillynewslover said:

I checked WTXF's article on this, and this message was at the bottom:

 

FOX 29 will no longer be able to air the show because of his candidacy.

That's one way to spin it to the core audience: "we wanted to but we're not allowed".

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2 hours ago, mvcg66b3r said:

You left out Washington DC (Fulton County is part of that market). Also, I don't think Charleston WV would be affected.

By cable, it's likely some homes carry their station in PA if they can't get WTAE. Since the affiliate list got pulled BTW, here's what it was for PA before the political site went up; (current Google cache)

 

image.thumb.png.68e3fe318b672632f5abe5949216c122.png

 

Since WPGH and WATM are non-news Sinclair-managed stations it'll take a bit to ascertain their status. WICU hasn't noted anything yet in their story, nor has WBRE or WKBN.

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I read this from LA Times. It explains about FCC's equal time provision.

Quote

The decision to pull the program is necessitated by the FCC’s equal time provision for broadcast TV stations. If a declared candidate for political office is given free airtime on a TV station, the same opportunity has to be given to other contenders.       

Observing that rule would be a logistical nightmare for TV stations that run “Dr. Oz,” a daily hourlong talk show syndicated across the country by Sony Pictures Television. The most likely option for TV stations is to replace the show with other programming during the campaign.

 

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16 hours ago, phillynewslover said:

I don't think stations in Pennsylvania will carry him anymore, at the very least (if he ends up winning).

I can confirm both WPGH and WPNT has dropped Dr. Oz in Pittsburgh. WPGH is currently airing "The Doctors" in Oz's old timeslot. 

Screenshot_20211201-100607_SSTV Smarters Pro v3.jpg

13 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

By cable, it's likely some homes carry their station in PA if they can't get WTAE. Since the affiliate list got pulled BTW, here's what it was for PA before the political site went up; (current Google cache)

 

image.thumb.png.68e3fe318b672632f5abe5949216c122.png

 

Since WPGH and WATM are non-news Sinclair-managed stations it'll take a bit to ascertain their status. WICU hasn't noted anything yet in their story, nor has WBRE or WKBN.

WATM has also pulled Oz for The Doctors this morning. 

 

WICU is still airing Oz for now according to their programming manager. 

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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Hasn't Oz's show pretty much had low ratings for a while but only stays on because of how cheap it is to produce? With his campaign announcement and stations dropping it for obvious reasons, why not drop it everywhere, have the affiliates run a different show for a few months, and then his daughter's show can replace it on every one of the stations it airs? 

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Even if I were to agree or not with Dr. Oz on the issues, if I were a station manager dropping his show would be justified. The last thing any station would want to have on their watch is the appearance of partiality towards one candidate in such a critical race - and certainly an open U.S. Senate seat in a penultimate swing state (one that called the ENTIRE presidential election for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020) fits that category to a T.

 

Of course, his fans in New York City may complain over WNYW's decision to drop him all because of exurban Pike County, but bucolic Shohola Falls folks are just as entitled to have a say amongst the voters and is as much an informed electorate as the likes of Brooklyn, Westchester, Paramus and Long Island, and the last thing Dr. Oz's opponents want - whether it's a former US Ambassador to Denmark under Trump (Carla Sands), an unconventional, gritty Lieutenant Governor under Wolf (John Fetterman), a rightish businessman from the Philadelphia suburbs (Jeff Bartos) or a leftish baby-faced congressman from outside Pittsburgh (Conor Lamb) - is for their right to a fair and level playing field to be undermined over whatever free airtime Dr. Oz would have gotten had his show been allowed to continue airing in PA and beyond, especially given that one of the candidates recently dropped out in the wake of a domestic abuse case and custody dispute rolled into one giant burrito. At least until The Good Dish goes into production and begins airing, every station that carries Dr. Oz needs to find a way to fill the time slot, even if it means throwing on Sinclair must-runs, TEGNA's Daily Blast LiveShepherd's Church out of Arkansas, ancient I Love Lucy tapes collecting dust, or even random infomercials from Cindy Crawford, Emeril Lagasse or that Sam Davis guy from Humana.

 

As for outside of PA, the need for replacements is not as dire, but it's hard to imagine the schedules not changing anywhere Dr. Oz is on the air. In Houston, KRIV has him on at 1:00pm with a repeat on KTXH the following day (or Monday if it's a Friday show) at 8:00am before The 700 Club. The onus would especially be on stations like KRIV and other Fox O&Os like WNYW, not only because of the obvious media exposure Dr. Oz is going to get on Fox News, but also given the history of some of Fox's stations (including WWOR, which itself was subjected to intense FCC scrutiny due to the impropriety-ridden RKO General scandal of yore) with regards to equal airtime and fairness provisions.

 

It's not even the biggest headache going for them - KRIV also carries Wendy Williams at 10:00am, and there's no telling whether or not her show goes on given her own health issues there. Throw in Extra (whose host Billy Bush is from the politically (in)famous family with Houston ties) at 12:30pm, Judge Judy now relegated to highly-rated reruns at 4, the fallout from Ellen leaving the air (and however those effects go beyond KHOU) and Kelly Clarkson potentially going to KPRC next year depending on whether or not Graham breaks up and whether or not KPRC becomes an NBC O&O, and it's fair to say KRIV is going to have its hands full going forward. Expect a very busy and productive January in Miami at NATPE.

Edited by SS8609
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On 12/1/2021 at 9:06 AM, Kenneth Kissel said:

WICU is still airing Oz for now according to their programming manager. 

They're taking a major hit; Justice with Judge Mablean (which has been out of production since the pandemic) on a double-run is their replacement.

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54 minutes ago, phillynewslover said:

Yikes. You never see that show on a Big Three station.

I've always wondered if big three affiliates deliberately steer away from shows like The Real, Divorce Court, and the more obvious Maury and Steve Wilkos. I was surprised to find out Maury used to be on WNBC back in the 90s and that Wendy Williams is on WPTV (NBC) in West Palm Beach.

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On 12/1/2021 at 11:43 PM, SS8609 said:

Even if I were to agree or not with Dr. Oz on the issues, if I were a station manager dropping his show would be justified. The last thing any station would want to have on their watch is the appearance of partiality towards one candidate in such a critical race - and certainly an open U.S. Senate seat in a penultimate swing state (one that called the ENTIRE presidential election for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020) fits that category to a T.

 

As for outside of PA, the need for replacements is not as dire, but it's hard to imagine the schedules not changing anywhere Dr. Oz is on the air.

This begs the question of what happens to Dr. Oz in Youngstown, Buffalo, Binghamton, Elmira and Wheeling. The stations carrying the program in Youngstown, Buffalo and Elmira (WKBN, WNLO and WYDC/WJKP) are based in markets with at least one Pennsylvania county in the DMA (Mercer County in the Youngstown DMA, McKean and Potter Counties in the Buffalo DMA, and Tioga County in the Elmira DMA); in the other two cases where the station’s home market doesn’t legally include any Pennsylvania counties, WTRF’s OTA signal (as well as WTOV’s) reaches as far into the state as Pittsburgh proper and WBGH (mainly via the WIVT simulcast, considerably less so with the main LD signal) spills over into much of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market. (Incidentally, all of those stations, except for WYDC/WJKP, are owned by Nexstar, which pulled Dr. Oz from WJW mainly because of its significantly viewed status via cable in northwestern PA.)

 

Secondly, would the equal time rules or, moreso, the perception that adding the show would be seen as a(n indirect) violation of said rules dissuade the Pennsylvania and PA-spillover stations from carrying The Good Dish, since Daphne Oz will be the host and it would be used as filler for the timeslots intended for her dad’s talk show per Sony’s current distribution contract for the latter?

 

As an aside, WBRE has replaced Dr. Oz with Access Daily at 3:00 p.m., so it appears that only the rural Pennsylvania counties based in DMAs originating in surrounding states and D.C. can still watch Oz… for now.

Edited by T.L. Hughes
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6 hours ago, iron_lion said:

I've always wondered if big three affiliates deliberately steer away from shows like The Real, Divorce Court, and the more obvious Maury and Steve Wilkos. I was surprised to find out Maury used to be on WNBC back in the 90s and that Wendy Williams is on WPTV (NBC) in West Palm Beach.

After Jerry Springer's commentary caused Ron Magers and Carol Marin to defect from WMAQ, that seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for the trash talk shows on most network affiliates. NBCU still distributed them, but never on their own stations (except for the edge cases like KDNL where Sinclair got quickly cheap after they bought out River City and programmed it like a UPN station).

 

The court shows weren't that way on purpose; local news went from just 6pm to adding a 5pm show around the late-80s, then filling the other half-hours from 4-6 (which were prime Big Three syndication hours then) from 1992 on, and they hit a crater around 1995 as syndicators had trouble finding timeslots before the Fox/CBS switch. Once Judge Judy hit in 1996 though, there were two categories; Judge Judy and all the other court shows. The same change pretty much took Big Three affiliates out of the sitcom business for the most part (again there are still edge cases like WFRV with their hour of "Friends" at 3pm because Nexstar plain got sick of all their talk show acquisitions bombing after a season).

 

Then came the end of Fox and The WB filling the afternoons with kid's content. A lot of open timeslots, but also a bunch of stations who didn't have Oprah or Ellen helping them out, or at the very least game shows (when Family Feud was in a low place itself). So we ended up with a glut of court shows, many of them narrowcasting, or like "Divorce Court", choosing to go downmarket/real and cheap to fill a schedule at little cost as possible.

 

Surprised to hear about Wendy on WPTV myself (it's also very odd they get to delay Live! for two three (!) hours, which much make the 'Trip Trivia' players in South Florida very unhappy, as WPLG also delays it an hour), but paired with WFLX via SSA, it seems like they can build the schedule for both stations rather than having to take a struggling show otherwise.

Edited by mrschimpf
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51 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

Surprised to hear about Wendy on WPTV myself (it's also very odd they get to delay Live! for two hours, which much make the 'Trip Trivia' players in South Florida very unhappy, as WPLG also delays it an hour), but paired with WFLX via SSA, it seems like they can build the schedule for both stations rather than having to take a struggling show otherwise.

WPTV airs Live! at 12pm, after Today on 5 at 11am. So that's a THREE hour delay. That's late as hell.

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When NBC doubled the length of Today (with the 9 &10am extensions), Live! was cast aside in many places because of this.  WPMI was one of the stations that did this by bumping it to 11am until 2019.   WEAR picked it up and airs it "live" at 9am.  Tamron Hall got the old timeslot on WPMI.

 

Speaking of WPMI, they were a charter station for Dr. Oz, until dumping the show for Wendy Williams in it's 3pm time slot.   WALA had it for a few years, and now the show lives on in obscurity on WFGX's daytime schedule with The Doctors, another WALA castoff.  This probably happened sometime under Meredith's ownership.

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15 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

The Doctors, another WALA castoff.  This probably happened sometime under Meredith's ownership.

The Doctors, was also surprised to realize that it was still on the air. It was moved from WCBS to WLNY I believe to accomodate Hot Bench, which itself was also moved to WLNY to accommodate Drew Barrymore. 

 

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On 12/6/2021 at 9:57 PM, iron_lion said:

I've always wondered if big three affiliates deliberately steer away from shows like The Real, Divorce Court, and the more obvious Maury and Steve Wilkos. I was surprised to find out Maury used to be on WNBC back in the 90s and that Wendy Williams is on WPTV (NBC) in West Palm Beach.

That was a different show entirely (The Maury Povich Show), before Maury got trashy.

 

WNBC-TV had the early seasons of The Jerry Springer Show as well, thanks to its long-standing relationship with Multimedia (channel 4 also carried Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael, Multimedia's two flagship talkers). In New York, both programs moved to WPIX around 1998, long after Springer went all-conflict and just as Maury was heading in that direction.

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