Author Topic: WEWS/Cleveland Giving Up On The 7-8p Games... (Read 3100 times)

TimK2003 · « **on:** June 05, 2011, 10:00:34 PM »

Long-time game shows on Cleveland's WEWS/Channel 5 are on the outs.

As of this past weekend, the Ohio Lottery Show & nightly drawings have moved over to WKYC/Channel 3 (actually 6/1 on the draws and 6/4 on the weekly game show).

And beginning in the 2012-13 season, the Wheel & Jeopardy power hour will be moving over to CBS affil WOIO/Channel 19.
Story here

It's interesting of note because in the OH(!) Lottery's case, WEWS has been the exclusive Cleveland home for all live lottery drawings and associated weekly game shows since 1974. WEWS would also house the actual draws in their studios for most of their almost 40-year relationship. And as far as the Wheel/J! hour, WEWS has had both shows since their premieres in 1983 & 84 respectively.

It's also a safe bet that the various incarnations of Ohio Lottery shows -- beginning with (IIRC) "Pot Of Gold" in the mid 70's -- and the 2 Griffin games were the 3 of the 4 longest-running non-news programs in the station's history...The 4th program is "Academic Challenge/It's Academic" which could be THE longest, depending on how you count it, since it was off for a few seasons, switched names a couple of times, and it only airs/aired from Fall through Spring. Same could be said for counting the years of the The Ohio Lottery Shows -- various name changes, and gaps between some of their incarnations as well.

WEWS cites the high cost of fees for the rights to air them is the reason why they dropped at least Wheel & J!. Not exactly sure why the Ohio Lottery parted with WEWS. And as of yet, there is no word on what will replace the weeknight hour for now since there is still another round of syndication offerings for the 2012-13 season yet to come next spring.

toddyo · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2011, 11:24:14 PM »

Cincinnati is doing the same. Must be a Scripps move. Raycom's WXIX (Channel 19) gets Wheel and Jeopardy starting in 2012. The Ohio Lottery has bounced between WCPO and WLWT once....it didn't work. Weren't all Scripps stations Ohio Lottery stations from the start?

aaron sica · « **Reply #2 on:** June 06, 2011, 02:54:50 AM »

Quote from: toddyo on June 05, 2011, 11:24:14 PM

Cincinnati is doing the same. Must be a Scripps move. Raycom's WXIX (Channel 19) gets Wheel and Jeopardy starting in 2012. The Ohio Lottery has bounced between WCPO and WLWT once....it didn't work. Weren't all Scripps stations Ohio Lottery stations from the start?

I do believe it *is* a Scripps move. I did a little search and found that WMAR-2 in Baltimore (a Scripps-owned station) will also be exiting the Wheel and Jeopardy biz. WBFF-45 (FOX) and WNUV-54 (CW) will be getting the two shows in 2012.

MikeK · « **Reply #3 on:** June 06, 2011, 06:29:14 PM »

Quote from: TimK2003 on June 05, 2011, 10:00:34 PM

As of this past weekend, the Ohio Lottery Show & nightly drawings have moved over to WKYC/Channel 3 (actually 6/1 on the draws and 6/4 on the weekly game show).

The lottery draws and Cash Explosion don't move to WKYC until July 1.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 06, 2011, 11:55:05 PM »

Quote from: MikeK on June 06, 2011, 06:29:14 PM

Quote from: TimK2003 on June 05, 2011, 10:00:34 PM
As of this past weekend, the Ohio Lottery Show & nightly drawings have moved over to WKYC/Channel 3 (actually 6/1 on the draws and 6/4 on the weekly game show).
The lottery draws and Cash Explosion don't move to WKYC until July 1.

Whoops, from my "remote outpost", I thought I saw an web article which said June & not July.

Jumpondees · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2011, 06:34:05 PM »

Quote from: aaron sica on June 06, 2011, 02:54:50 AM

Quote from: toddyo on June 05, 2011, 11:24:14 PM
Cincinnati is doing the same. Must be a Scripps move. Raycom's WXIX (Channel 19) gets Wheel and Jeopardy starting in 2012. The Ohio Lottery has bounced between WCPO and WLWT once....it didn't work. Weren't all Scripps stations Ohio Lottery stations from the start?

I do believe it *is* a Scripps move. I did a little search and found that WMAR-2 in Baltimore (a Scripps-owned station) will also be exiting the Wheel and Jeopardy biz. WBFF-45 (FOX) and WNUV-54 (CW) will be getting the two shows in 2012.

WOW! As long as I could remember WMAR-2 held both shows, I am surprised that neither WBAL-11 or WJZ-13 would pony up the cash to claim those two shows, especially with the latter being a CBS O&O and that CBS syndicates both shows.

Now how is it going to work with the Sinclair stations? I am assuming that WBFF-45 being the stronger of the two stations (IMO) would get the first run 7-8pm slot with WNUV-54 getting to rerun those shows the next day say during midday. I can't imagine splitting those shows between the two stations. Also, I don't recall hearing any other Sinclair station airing the two game shows. Is this a first for Sinclair, or did Sinclair sign a deal to get the shows on their station group that I missed?

Tony Peters · « **Reply #6 on:** June 07, 2011, 11:52:10 PM »

Quote from: Jumpondees on June 07, 2011, 06:34:05 PM

Also, I don't recall hearing any other Sinclair station airing the two game shows. Is this a first for Sinclair, or did Sinclair sign a deal to get the shows on their station group that I missed?

I don't know of any instances of a Sinclair station airing both Wheel and Jeopardy!, but the latter does air on Sinclair's Nashville MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP at 6PM Central Time against newscasts on the market's Big 3 (one of WUXP's triopoly sister stations, Fox affiliate WZTV, has sitcom reruns at that hour, plus airs Jeopardy!'s daily previous-season reruns at noon).

As for your other point about most of the CBS O&Os being reluctant to pick them up, most of those stations already air ET and The Insider, which are also syndicated by CBSTVD and more likely bring in younger demographics (and therefore more ad money). True, there is the case of Boston's WBZ-TV, but CBS already had the Boston rights via WBZ's duopoly sister WSBK and merely swapped the 2 stations' 7PM Eastern Time lineups. AFAIK, the other CBS O&Os don't have such an option.

Scrabbleship · « **Reply #7 on:** June 08, 2011, 07:51:13 AM »

Quote from: Jumpondees on June 07, 2011, 06:34:05 PM

WOW! As long as I could remember WMAR-2 held both shows, I am surprised that neither WBAL-11 or WJZ-13 would pony up the cash to claim those two shows, especially with the latter being a CBS O&O and that CBS syndicates both shows.

The issue with WJZ would be that they're one of the last breed of stations that airs network news at 7:00 PM and the last half-hour of their 6:00 news beats both network newscasts. The only option to keep everyone happy would be to split the shows a la the arrangement in Dayton which I think is grandfathered but that'd scramble the whole 7:00 hour at all three stations.

Regarding the Boston mention, the Wheel/Jeopardy! combo took a major hit when it went from WHDH to WSBK which it's only starting to truly recover from on WBZ. Of course, running the two from 6:00-7:00 for two years then 5:00-6:00 for a year didn't help matters.