2023-24 Syndication News

[MediaZone4K 1509]

Probably mentioned here already, but for the first time as my memory serves me stemming from childhood, Dr. Phil will not be on the WCBS lineup. Judge Judy is pushed back to 3 o'clock with Hot Bench returning to the channel and taking the 4 PM slot. I'm surprised they didn't put Hot Bench at 3 and leave Judge Judy as the lead in to the 5:00 news.

 

TV passport also shows Dr Phil reruns popping up at 3:00 p.m. on WPIX! 

 

I see family feud now on the WNYW line up at 6:30 after the news. This is a good move.

Edited September 13, 2023 by MediaZone4K

[TVNewsLover 727]

15 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Another inaccuracy here. Your Life Arizona goes back to an hour at 10am, two episodes of Last Man Standing at 11am, and the newly expanded hour-long Arizona's Family News at Noon.

 

 

Maybe if the changing newscast blog was still a thing, people wouldn’t be getting things wrong, and you wouldn’t have to shame them for doing so. 

Edited September 11, 2023 by 24994J

[Nelson R. 560]

I just realized something. The last 30 minutes of Monday Night Countdown is being simulcast on ABC affiliates this year the weeks that they simulcast a MNF game. It preempts Entertainment Tonight on WSOC which is being rerun in late night. So you know what else won’t be shown on the East Coast O&O’s? The season premiere of Wheel of Fortune. I’m sure @WheelWarrior will be just thrilled to hear about that. I guess WTVD could air it during Daytime Jeopardy’s time slot in late night. 

[WheelWarrior 92]

Yes, I've been meaning to mention this. ABC is dropping a huge bomb on the access syndies with this new MNF pregame, especially Wheel because of the O&O's and because of its prime access/one feed only rules.

 

I imagine Wheel wasn't aware of this until it was too late, but considering the first three Mondays have MNF on ABC (with 9/25 having a game that starts at 7:00), they really should have pushed back the season premiere (which would have also pushed back Pat Sajak's final week so that it won't overlap with NBA Finals and result in pre-emptions on the West Coast). The bigger issue here is that assuming the MNF deal is the same next year, Ryan Seacrest's first episode will very likely suffer this same problem and be pre-empted in about a third of the US (counting the West Coast).

 

I did the math and Wheel is impacted by the new pregame show in about 2.5x the areas J! is. The biggest market where J! is impacted is DC (WJLA). And in the case of J!, at least they'll likely re-air the missed episodes in a few months on Daytime J!, and ET also offers an overnight or next-morning encore (and every segment goes on the YouTube channel anyway). Wheel offers neither of these. ET is also not restricted to prime access, nor is J! in the Central Time Zone. There will also be some affiliates that opt to replace Wheel with J!, one of them being WRIC.

 

At this point, Wheel being forced to air in prime access with not even temporary exceptions allowed, plus still only having one feed a day (when even Who The Bleep, despite its low clearance, has two, when the number of markets carrying both feeds can be counted on one hand, even NYC is only carrying one), is only hurting it more than it's helping it. These rules are only still in place because it had these rules to avoid competing with the NBC/CBS daytime version that hasn't aired since 1991. All four networks are finding more reasons to start primetime at 7:00 or 7:30 on special occasions. ABC has Day 2 of the NFL Draft, the CMA Red Carpet on O&O and Nexstar stations, and now national MNF days, CBS has March Madness, FOX has World Series pregame, NBC has The Olympic Zone and the Hall of Fame and NFL Kickoff pregame.

 

Wheel's rules really need to change. It makes no sense in cases like WFTV where they air Daytime J! at 3:30 and first-run J! and 7:00 but Wheel is forced to air at midnight on a Saturday night. They should be allowed to have Wheel replace Daytime J! either day-of or the next day. And with some markets now carrying Feud up to eight or even NINE (Denver) times a day despite "only" six unique feeds, a second Wheel feed (maybe a Dr. Phil-style rerun package of Pat's last few seasons after Ryan takes over?) would get eaten up, especially since the general public doesn't really know when Wheel is new or a repeat.

 

It's sad that ABC is suddenly treating Wheel like this. This is far worse than when Thursday Night Football came about on CBS and NBC since more and larger markets are affected.

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by WheelWarrior

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

ABC has bigger things to focus on, like the network programming, not syndication for a few episodes. No one is somehow doing something to Wheel, nor any specific show. It’s just the nature of the business. Win some, lose some. Ultimately, the benefit of MNF across the network far, far outweighs a couple preempted game show episodes. 

[Nelson R. 560]

9 minutes ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

ABC has bigger things to focus on, like the network programming, not syndication for a few episodes. No one is somehow doing something to Wheel, nor any specific show. It’s just the nature of the business. Win some, lose some. Ultimately, the benefit of MNF across the network far, far outweighs a couple preempted game show episodes. 

I get it, but Wheel should be allowed to air earlier in the day or the next day if preempted 

[Nelson R. 560]

The best way to get around the asinine Wheel rule is for Wheel to move up to 7 and let Jeopardy be the one to replace Daytime Jeopardy although in the case of WTVD it airs in late night.

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

But where earlier in the day on most stations? They have full schedules for the most part. Yes, some here and there have Daytime Jeopardy. But if we’re talking the O&Os as an example, there isn’t space. Wheel isn’t going to bump the news, the View or Tamron. That’s just not reality. 
 

Could the O&Os make better use of—and promote—Localish for these kinds of things? Sure. They’ve used it for overflow before…and sometimes rely on the overnight slots. Both have their pluses and minuses. 
 

It’s just Wheel of Fortune. It’s an important piece of their schedule, but when you have more programming than hours in the day, something has to give. 

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

2 minutes ago, Nelson R. said:

The best way to get around the asinine Wheel rule is for Wheel to move up to 7 and let Jeopardy be the one to replace Daytime Jeopardy although in the case of WTVD it airs in late night.

WPVI doesn’t even run Daytime J. And even if they do, now you’re irking the Jeopardy fans—and a show where normally continuity matters—and disrupting the schedule further. And given the ratings in recent years, if it comes down to bumping Wheel to late night on barely a handful

of nights vs rearranging the lineup and bumping Jeopardy…the right business decision is to keep Jeopardy in its slot. 

[WheelWarrior 92]

1 hour ago, Nelson R. said:

The best way to get around the asinine Wheel rule is for Wheel to move up to 7 and let Jeopardy be the one to replace Daytime Jeopardy although in the case of WTVD it airs in late night.

 

That will only lead to more outcry from viewers especially in markets where DJ! airs overnight like WABC. It is a fair approach for markets that air DJ! in the afternoon, though I think it would be better, for the sake of messing with only one first-run show and not two, to just show Wheel in place of Daytime J! the day of or the next day, so J! fans don't go, "What do you mean Jeopardy! aired a few hours ago? I missed it because of you moving up Wheel of Fortune?!" We know most J! fans don't care for Wheel unlike the other way around. There was a time in 2020 where WTHR accidentally aired the two shows in reverse order (J! first instead of second) and realized it mid-show and ran a crawl announcing that J! would continue in the 7:00 slot and Wheel would air at 7:30. Indy J! fans on Twitter were ticked that they missed it and some even demanded that they air the episode again in place of Wheel the next day (obviously, they didn't).

 

That being said, KPTH-DT3 (formerly KMEG) did this when TNF was on CBS and managed not to break Wheel's rules. They're one of the few Big 3's in the Central Time Zone that aired J! at 6:00 PM instead of news, so on TNF days, J! would move up to 4:30 (where much of CTZ airs it) and Wheel would move up to 6:00, and they would air a special promo announcing such: "Your favorite game shows, just a little earlier". KAUZ also did this during March Madness (moved primary J! up from 4:30 to 4:00 to replace DJ!, and Wheel to 4:30) until CBS Media Ventures stopped them.

 

The O&O's also don't use the Localish subchannel anymore for Wheel or J!. WABC, WTVD, and WPVI used to use it more often than not when needed; WLS I don't believe ever did. I think a more fair solution for the O&O's would have been to air impacted Wheels the next day at 10 AM after Live! and cut down the new 10 AM newscasts to half an hour on those days only. Cutting an hour newscast in half to accommodate a syndie isn't unheard of; WLUK frequently cuts down its 5:00 newscast to air Wheel an hour early when pre-empted by FOX sports (even when both Wheel and J! are impacted).

 

The Wheel premiere is also pre-empted on WIVB and WROC since the Bills are playing and they air specials just about any time the Bills are in the spotlight. Not a huge loss for WIVB since they're a duopoly with WNLO, but WROC frequently bumps Wheel overnight. J! is impacted by this on the much smaller WETM (moves to 18.2).

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by WheelWarrior

[WheelWarrior 92]

And combined with WKRN's deal with the Titans, Nashville will only get Wheel three days a week for its first three weeks; it will miss 40% of its first-run September episodes. That is extreme and shouldn't go unnoticed by Sony or CBSMV.

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

30 minutes ago, WheelWarrior said:

 

Cutting an hour newscast in half to accommodate a syndie isn't unheard of; WLUK frequently cuts down its 5:00 newscast to air Wheel an hour early when pre-empted by FOX sports (even when both Wheel and J! are impacted).

 

 

 

Cutting a highly visible half-hour of their newly touted newscast on an O&O has zero chance of happening. And yeah, I get WPVI cuts a half hour of the early Saturday AM news for the Penn State football show in season. But a weekday newscast? That's not even remotely in the realm of good business options. 

[mrschimpf 2051]

2 hours ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

Ultimately, the benefit of MNF across the network far, far outweighs a couple preempted game show episodes. 

But when the same network partners with you on primetime episodes there should be some basic considerations made to make both camps happy. At the very least you can bump up Kimmel a half-hour currently with no issue, so why not do that to get WoF in a viewable time slot?

[T.L. Hughes 746]

5 hours ago, TVNewsLover said:

Maybe if the changing newscast blog was still a thing, people wouldn’t be getting things wrong, and you wouldn’t have to shame them for doing so. 

Actually, Roly is restarting the blog, moving it from WordPress to Substack.

Edited September 11, 2023 by T.L. Hughes

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

1 hour ago, mrschimpf said:

But when the same network partners with you on primetime episodes there should be some basic considerations made to make both camps happy. At the very least you can bump up Kimmel a half-hour currently with no issue, so why not do that to get WoF in a viewable time slot?

What reason do we have to think Sony is all that upset (not happy)? It's Just a simple business decision. Sliding back Kimmel, even under the current strike situation, further than it already may be if MNF runs long, is likewise not realistic. A couple of episodes of a game show airing late at night really isn't that big a deal. 

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

17 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

I’m guessing the arrangement is KTVK and KPHO will both simulcast the first half-hour of the newscast, and then KTVK carries it exclusively at 12:30?

 

From the schedules I've seen, yes.

3 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

Actually, Roly is restarting the blog, moving it from WordPress to Substack.

 

Thanks for the promotion. Later tonight or early tomorrow, the first posts will be up. (I don't mean going off topic here, sorry. Hahaha.)

[CoopInTheHouse 63]

Here’s some syndicated shows that you haven’t heard about but have/will premiere(d) today/this weekend.

 

In the Reality genre: Storm of Suspicion (from the people who make 48 Hours). Will air weekends.

 

In the Lifestyle genre, Portia (for some reason). Originally on WAGA FOX 5, but has made its way to FOX Soul.

 

In the Reality/Crime genre, Fatal Crimes (which I could not find any information about).

[WheelWarrior 92]

22 minutes ago, CoopInTheHouse said:

Here’s some syndicated shows that you haven’t heard about but have/will premiere(d) today/this weekend.

 

In the Reality genre: Storm of Suspicion (from the people who make 48 Hours). Will air weekends.

 

In the Lifestyle genre, Portia (for some reason). Originally on WAGA FOX 5, but has made its way to FOX Soul.

 

In the Reality/Crime genre, Fatal Crimes (which I could not find any information about).

 

Storm of Suspicion is Saturdays at 2 on WLNY. The other two have not been cleared in NYC.

 

Also, speaking of weekend syndication, it happened at some point last season -- The Good Doctor, which debuted last season, originally had two feeds, one for single run markets and one for double run. At first, double run markets just got the next two episodes each weekend, while single runs just got one, to not mess with the show's heavy continuity in either case. At some point, they changed this so that for double run markets, the "A" episode is a repeat of last weekend's episode, and the "B" is the same episode that single run markets get. I'm guessing they did this either to keep both single and double run markets in sync with each other so the doubles don't get "ahead" (plus they would have looped back to S1 by now since the single run is currently on late S3), or because of how double run markets that might put one of the two runs in an undesirable slot would essentially rob viewers of alternating episodes. WPIX has only been carrying one run though it's pre-empted about half the time by Mets games and CW sporting events.

[Georgie56 3059]

It turns out Michaela has been delayed to midseason.

[Action Newsroom 1149]

Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed is

expanding from CBS local (and the rest of first-run syndication) to CBS proper for a limited time only, starting September 18.

 

https://deadline.com/2023/09/comics-unleashed-with-byron-allen-cbs-late-night-1235543726/

Edited September 11, 2023 by Action Newsroom

[mrschimpf 2051]

Paramount Global has this huge library of shows to draw on, but they go with a show they literally have to pay nothing for moldy standup programming that hasn't been updated since like 2009?

 

What, did Rob Dyrdek somehow reject them playing Ridiculousness repeats? You might as well just give the time back to the affiliates for 1am news or informercials or something.

Edited September 11, 2023 by mrschimpf

[ColtFromGulfcoast 695]

21 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed is

expanding from CBS local (and the rest of first-run syndication) to CBS proper for a limited time only, starting September 18.

 

https://deadline.com/2023/09/comics-unleashed-with-byron-allen-cbs-late-night-1235543726/

CBS is sorry as hell for this.  At this point just do edited versions of past Paramount hits. I wanna know which executive decided that (insert Paramount show here) was not a good idea and this was.  

 

They honestly could just try to temporarily import Clone High (i know its technically on Max but still) and a few other shows to temporarily compete against Fox (if on Sundays or Mondays) or Adult Swim (if in late night) for example, if it's this bad.  Do a special late night Drew Barrymore or something. It's one thing to recycle content but at least show something that's relevant.  

Edited September 11, 2023 by ColtFromGulfcoast

[Glimmer 238]

20 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed is

expanding from CBS local (and the rest of first-run syndication) to CBS proper for a limited time only, starting September 18.

 

https://deadline.com/2023/09/comics-unleashed-with-byron-allen-cbs-late-night-1235543726/

Oh my god they’re more desperate than I thought…

[ColumbusNewsFan 217]

1 hour ago, Action Newsroom said:

Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed is

expanding from CBS local (and the rest of first-run syndication) to CBS proper for a limited time only, starting September 18.

 

https://deadline.com/2023/09/comics-unleashed-with-byron-allen-cbs-late-night-1235543726/

They said AMPTP is doing okay?!? Just make the deals that need to be made and get the hell out of your way NOW! CBS has given up on Late Night with this move. At this point, give the station the option to do news until Midnight and push late-night shows back 30 minutes until the strike is done... (ABC could push Nightline first  at 11:35 pm or do this plan at this point)

 

But with this move, Late Night is Dead and You can L out of Lover because it's OVER!

[tyrannical bastard 3443]

There are so many things better than having to resort to Byron Allen for a NETWORK timeslot.....

Color Bars.

Test patterns.

Tower Cams.

A black screen with soothing sounds.

Anything readily in the public domain.

Infomercials (of any kind)

Any 1980's first-run syndication (bonus points for She's the Sheriff or Small Wonder)

 

I give TV as we know it until the end of the year unless someone reaches a deal.

And Stephen Colbert better have a long beard like Letterman did during the last strike!