[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Sep 2 2003, 11:37 AM\']
I just think that WBBM needs to get out of the news business all together.
A big 4 network with no news? Yeah, right.
I've seen it happen (although in a smaller market than Chicago -- I believe WBBM is a network O&O). When I lived in Durham, NC, the NBC affiliate there didn't run any local newscasts -- just occasional one-minute cut-ins and CNN Headline News. (They have since reversed that policy.)[/quote]
Actually, if not for Joe Ahern becoming WBBM general manager, I have the feeling that \"Judge Judy\" would've replaced the 10 p.m. news this year--WBBM, like many CBS O&Os, has had a rough go with local news for many years and the CBS O&O in Detroit, WWJ, *did* drop news completely last year (although it should be pointed out that the newscasts were produced by sister UPN affil WKBD [!] and that the station, thanks to the former Storer/New World stations' en masse switch in affiliation to Fox and CBS' inability to be placed anywhere else in Detroit but a barely-known UHF station that showed reruns of musty 50s shows, is probably America's least-watched network-owned station).
Meanwhile, those of us who are game show fans in Chicago have a Hobson's choice at 11 a.m., since it looks like \"H2\" and \"WWTBAM\" are going at it head-to-head. It also looks like Disney's going to allow double run situations for \"WWTBAM\" this year, since Tribune and Fremantle proved with \"Feud\" last year that you can do double runs with each run in its own sequence (as in something continuing, like champs on \"Feud\" or games on \"WWTBAM\"). In fact, with the Chicago time slots and the format or prize structure changes both shows have made, it definitely looks like KW and Disney are repositioning \"H2\" and \"WWTBAM,\" respectively, for daytime play instead of the prime access trenches, which with all of the tabs and sitcom reruns (and \"Wheel\" and \"J!\", of course) daytime may just be a better place for both shows.
And as for \"TWL,\" the show's toast--WCIU's just playing out the string in the same time slot where they let Caroline play out her string and will replace it by the end of September with infomercials or a vintage rerun.