This past Monday at around 10:57 a.m., for the first time in years WBBM viewers in Chicago got to see a clean, full-screen "TPIR" plug list instead of a squeezeback as an anchor promoed the 11 a.m. news (for the last few months, with Frank Gari's "Enforcer" arrangement of the famous Dick Marx WBBM news theme in the background instead of the "TPIR" theme). That's because there's no news at 11 a.m.--"H2"'s on instead.
"H2" had moved to 6 p.m. from 4 p.m. last month to cover "WWTBAM"'s move to WGN. However, this was temporary from the start--WBBM's general manager, who was at the helm at ABC-owned WLS in Chicago for many years, had poached anchor Diann Burns from WLS and wanted to put her in a new 6 p.m. newscast as soon as her contract with WLS ran out (she'd been pulled off the air on ABC7 since May, with the station still paying her). Her WLS contract ran out on Oct. 1 and this past Monday, she began anchoring the new 6 p.m. show and the established 5 and 10 p.m. shows. "H2" had to go somewhere, and luckily for us it was to 11 a.m. (replacing that newscast) instead of after-Craig Kilborn. Considering that King World's repositioning the show as a daytime entry, that's not that bad of a move.
However, 11 a.m.'s "WWTBAM"'s air time on WGN--and the second run at 11:30 a.m. is still showing shows from last season. Which means game show fans in Chicago have a lot of potential switching back-and-forth and alternating taping and/or PVRing to do. All I ask is that the next millionaire on "WWTBAM" doesn't happen during Game Show Week 2 on "H2."