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Local news on WGN America

A

ansky212

Why does WGN America continue to show the local WGN-9 Chicago newscasts at noon and 10pm (ET)? Since they are a national cable network with an otherwise completely different schedule than WGN-9, why would they show local news? Aside from a few transplants, I doubt anyone outside the Chicago area cares about the Chicago news. You would think they would use the 10pm primetime slot for a show that would bring in higher ratings.
 
ansky212 said:
Why does WGN America continue to show the local WGN-9 Chicago newscasts at noon and 10pm (ET)? Since they are a national cable network with an otherwise completely different schedule than WGN-9, why would they show local news? Aside from a few transplants, I doubt anyone outside the Chicago area cares about the Chicago news. You would think they would use the 10pm primetime slot for a show that would bring in higher ratings.
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How do you know that WGN's news doesn't bring in profitable ratings in terms of national clearance? Tribune controls the content and banks all of the ad time sold in those slots. WGN 9 News might be the best known original programming produced by the channel.

Your answer seems to lie somewhere there, considering the several years its been since the national/local split.
 
ansky212 said:
Why does WGN America continue to show the local WGN-9 Chicago newscasts at noon and 10pm (ET)? Since they are a national cable network with an otherwise completely different schedule than WGN-9, why would they show local news? Aside from a few transplants, I doubt anyone outside the Chicago area cares about the Chicago news. You would think they would use the 10pm primetime slot for a show that would bring in higher ratings.
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It's probably part of a stipulation where it has to maintain a certain amount of WGN programming in order to keep both the "WGN" name and because it's like the ABC Family situation where if they dump "WGN", they dump all of their contracts.

But also, it's because WGN is still one of the strongest local news departments in the country and many people watch out of pure annoyance with whatever their Fox or CW affiliate calls "news". Also with the Weather Channel going LCD, Tom Skilling's weather rundown is about the most intelligent on cable television these days, and the people in Iowa really need it; they get their Iowa Lottery's Pick 3 and Pick 4 numbers from the Illinois Lottery, which has their drawings on WGN.

Finally, what are they going to do at 10? The ratings for "Entourage" and "Curb" (what were to be the big syndicated 'gets' of this year) have been laughably awful in syndication. Better to run a newscast for pennies that people do watch than time-dated sitcoms nobody will watch.
 
From what I have seen in the past few years, WGN wants to evolve from a superstation into a cable network like TBS did. I also remember Tribune was also interested in Leno when he was going to "leave" NBC in 2009 to have him host a show on their chain of "superstations" and WGN America. Would have been interesting to see how that would have panned out.
 
ansky212 said:
Why does WGN America continue to show the local WGN-9 Chicago newscasts at noon and 10pm (ET)? Since they are a national cable network with an otherwise completely different schedule than WGN-9, why would they show local news? Aside from a few transplants, I doubt anyone outside the Chicago area cares about the Chicago news. You would think they would use the 10pm primetime slot for a show that would bring in higher ratings.
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Perhaps the local WGN News gets BETTER RATINGS that the off-network reruns they are airing? After all, "Old Christine" and "HIMYM" are both in heavy syndication. I think they air 3-5 times daily in my market. Cable networks monitor ratings very closely. Look how often A+E or Spike or TVLand junks their schedule and plugs in changes, often after only a few days. Nick@Nite has yanked heavily promoted weeklong marathons in mid-week when the ratings aren't there. WGN and Tribune get those same ratings reports. If they saw a huge dropoff when WGN Local News came on, they would change it. Plus, the nation is full of Chicagoans who have moved elsewhere. I bet a few Bears fans are tuning into WGN this week to catch some of the sports. And probably more than a few will tune in the Sunday Night News/Sports combo to see more than the same repetitive mish-mash that ESPN shows. At some point, the ratings won't be there and WGN America will show something else.
 
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