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WCHS Eyewitness News 8 at 11:00 open (May 16, 1999) WEAU NewsCenter 13 at Noon (October 10, 1996)

Propecy again fulfilled. Rachael had a good run and a good show, the program kind of just faded to the background in the last few years. Now...all eyes on Divorce Court in the next few seaons. We really new some new blood in daytime, not just more newscasts and not current events discussion shows that regurgitate the pop culture stuff on newscasts. EDIT: The future of the remaining soaps will be the biggest blow to daytime. CBS heads just fired Y&R's entire breakdown staff --not that they were doing a good job though.

I feel like he comes around to be a cackling mascot for certain segments more often than filling in for Ginger.

As if the bland-o WCBS graphics and Enforcer were any better. The uniqueness of KCNC withered away when CBS stripped out the last of the NBC look back in 2003…

Very Fake - Actors from LA. Unlike the traditional court shows, producers don't look through small claim cases in different cities.

I'm surprised Byron hasn't tried getting Judge Joe Brown a court show yet.

Didn’t realize KCBS tried a hybrid KABC and WNBC knockoff set going back in time after the over contemporary ice block desk set. Looks like a design from the late 70s/early 80s but debuted in 87.

Byron Allen waiting in the wings to buy TEGNA and will sell how many TV stations to get the deal done, I don't know how many Allen would have to sell to get deals done the only one I can think of is Fort Wayne IN. Soo Kim blew it sell the TV stations you needed to from different TV station groups than Cox.

Not that surprised. The show was just "There" for at least a few years now. It seems almost like a mutual decision on her part. The syndies keep dropping like flies.

Rachael Ray is done.

WCBS's best graphic pagace and set look. They really gutted this after 1995. The "2 News" era also looked pretty good.

Sure and you have a bridge in Arizona to sell. WSB still commands 50% of the audience share in last year ratings WSB won every newscast. When it was WGCL it tied with WXIA or beat WXIA. You definitely have to slaughter WXIA and WAGA to take on the 800lb gorilla. They will beat WXIA for sure, but they have their work to touch WAGA.

Roland Martin = Armstrong Williams. I'm surprised that he somehow wasn't gifted money to buy WUSA and WXIA........

Roland never worked for BNC. He had a morning show on TVOne ("NewsOne with Roland Martin") for a few years before it was canceled. Roland was, however, critical of Allen's decision to convert BNC into another entertainment channel. As if between BET, Bounce, TVOne, Aspire, Revolt and Fox Soul, there aren't enough of those already.

Probably because they got paid to air live sports and didn’t have to pay production costs. We might see bad ratings and a harmful association w/ Saudi Arabia, but Nexstar sees an opportunity to run low cost programming on a low rated network and make a quick profit. It worked. For better or worse, this kind of thinking is perfectly in line with how Nexstar runs the rest of its media operations, including NewsNation.

Byron bought his former employer (BNC) after they collapsed and used the distribution contracts (even on Pluto) for TheGrio.tv. So of course this comes off as payback and sheer pettiness on Roland’s part.

Yeah, because iCrime, the Bryron Allen SAG Card Court Show Mill and The Balancing Act are the most illustrious programs on broadcast television, Harry. Pleeeeeease! It's a bad deal for everyone.

And here comes the defense squad.

You know, I get those vibes myself. And the thing is, this is setting a dangerous precedent if that is indeed the case. All the man had to do was sell or even TRADE stations and this would have all been settled.

So Soo arranged for multiple kickbacks with Roland, giving him multiple cross-platform crossovers with his own properties, and we’re just finding out about this? Did Roland hope he could become another Armstrong Williams?

I could see Rush Hour moving up like you suggested. It’s my understanding that it’s one of their strongest blocks. Having a show like ‘The Hill’ at 7P would be a good alternative or giving Elizabeth 2 hrs. to lead into Cuomo. Morning in America is dreadful and is in dire need of a change. Bankert is way too opinionated. I don’t have an issue with opinion-based shows, but it’s best to keep them to prime time (or early evenings). The majority of the day should be ’news-heavy,’ but that’s probably asking too much of them.

I wonder if Rush Hour with its current name and format moves to an afternoon timeslot after the expansion is complete - Maybe like 3pm-5pm ET, or earlier? Then maybe one other news show to bridge the gap between Marni's NewsNation Live and Rush Hour? Perhaps bump Morning in America up to 6am-9am ET to match the general industry standard, followed by NewsNation Live starting at 9am ET?

Okay, but he could have struck this deal with any other group. Why does he have to do it with Tegna?? Why couldn't he do it with Gray?? Nexstar? Hearst??? Or one of the network groups??? Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day when I would call someone dumber than Chris Ripley and David Smith but here we go. I thought Soo Kim would at least have the sense God gave a fireant. Evidently not. It's so ridiculous until I have to just laugh.

Soo Kim needs to move on and buy another distressed retailer. Look what happened to Radio Shack under his watch.

Is he aware that the issues with the deal have absolutely nothing to do with Soo Kim being a POC? Also, I think Byron Allen might like to have a word with him...

...and the even bigger piece of that article is that Sook says that the network is converting to 24 hours of news programming Monday through Friday by the end of April this year. Entertainment programming will remain only on weekends, albeit temporarily, as their goal is to move weekends to all-news by the end of 2024. Sounds like they're going all-in and not backing down.

The three related transfers are all tied together with the big Tegna deal. If the big deal gets scuttled, the other related deals are also scuttled as well. Soo continues to make a complete ass out of himself, begging the FCC to vote, after they just handed him that HDO paper. Once they hand that paper, it's no longer in the Commissioners' hands. It's in the ALJ's hands now. What Soo needs to do right now, while he's barking at the FCC, he needs to be pleading with the Tegna board to not sue him when the outside date hits in May for all that wasted time.

It’d be hilarious if Apollo sued Soo. (Try to say that three times fast!)

Tegna has every right now to terminate the deal and sue him for breach of contract because the FCC issued this HDO. The buyout agreement actually contains that provision. h/t @Samantha So basically, Soo has next to no leverage against Tegna despite his huffing and puffing and crying and whining. They hold all of the relevant cards now.

Given all the crap he's pulled, between his past ripping apart of companies, Sinclair-level shell company tactics, and shameless exploitation of historically marginalized groups as a shield against any and all criticism, he frankly deserves to lose the case. Tegna as it has been in the past few years has been a mess, as a few people here have pointed out, but would letting the company fall into the hands of a Machiavellian bankster be any better for the stations involved?

Rosenworcel didn’t explicitly say it in the order, but the retransmission fees mention does come off as addressing objections from the telecoms, in which they interpreted Apollo and SG as jointly benefitting from higher cable bills. All an ALJ needs to do is see the evidence and come to the conclusion this was an attempt to collude and game the system. I’m taken aback by Soo bullying the FCC to vote on the deal. He’s given the D commissioners every reason in the book now to vote “no”, so it’ll fail in at least a 2–2 tie. Is he hoping for it to fail so he can litigate and cry that the system is prejudiced against him? Or is he consumed by delusions of grandeur? Or both??

I'm really surprised that the the order sending it up to the alj judge didn't specifically call out the ownership structure. There is precedent for attributing interests in many areas of the law, especially tax and securities law. If you own 10% of a company, your wife owns 10%, and each of the three kids own 10%, in many contexts the law says you own 50%. I don't care whether Apollo has any say in direct day-to-day management or not, they still have a say by virtue of where they are parking their money and the profit they will be making from the Tegna stations in markets where they double up. They should not allow this deal simply based on that.

Incredibly, Soo is yelling at the FCC to vote on the deal anyway instead of sending this to an ALJ. Because that’s exactly what you should do, said no one ever. Bullying the FCC chairperson to vote for your deal when she tacitly rejected it in the ALJ order might be THE ultimate galaxy brain move.

What @nycnewsjunkie said. All SG had to do was agree to put the Tegna stations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, and Seattle up for sale (no need to make Coxpollo sell its stations when this whole thing was Soo Kim's brainchild) and the deal would've happened. Instead, Kim/SG and ApollCox are joining Sinclair in sitting in the corner wearing egg on their faces. Eggs are for eating, not wearing.

I’m probably going to be preaching to the choir here, but this is precisely what I don’t get about Apollo and SG’s handling of this. If they had just spun off the conflicts in Cox markets, and possibly a few other stations, I’m pretty sure they’d own Tegna right now. How could they be so greedy and arrogant as to shoot themselves in the foot? I’d go as far as to say that this was more incompetent than the failed Sinclair/Tribune merger. Sinclair/Tribune established the precedent that even an M&A-friendly FCC wouldn’t tolerate companies trying to blatantly circumvent ownership rules. Apollo/SG knew that precedent (and knew they were dealing with a stronger FCC), and decided to circumvent those rules anyway. That’s just stupidity IMO.

Here's the thing. This deal would have failed anyway with or without Gigi: a 2-2 deadlock still sinks the deal. Standard General and Apollo had one full year to get this right. Either party could have offered to divest market conflicts in Atlanta, Seattle and Jacksonville. Apollo could have asked the deal be amended so they don't get WFAA, KHOU, etc. Standard could have offered Graham an olive branch and their pick of a station or offered them a stake in the company. Soo could have shown the bare minimum of humility and self-awareness instead of saying the same boilerplate talking points over and over again. This is a textbook case of how NOT to conduct an M&A. Soo came off as a belligerent novice in the field of business that for some inexplicable reason previously managed to merge Young, LIN and MediaGeneral out of existence.

Another year to go to trial. I'm telling you what's going on. Tegna is what used to be Gannett. Tegna employees have a lot of friends in Washington and they are whispering in a lot of ears right now. The government will take care of its friends and I think it's a good thing in this particular case. As bad as you guys say Tegna is, I can think of far worse. I see no evidence that Tegna is an operation that is financially not sound. They seem to be profitable, just not to the level that the banksters demand. There is a risk of being in limbo, however. Management has its hands tied and is not undertaking new initiatives. Probably also hard to attract new management knowing that the new owner might be booting them out the door.

I for one can’t wait to read how this all came down in Soo’s forthcoming memoir…

With the amount of time that has passed on this deal, Soo Kim should have found a new backer other than Apollo. That alone would have made this deal closed by now. But at this rate, he'll probably bring it to a hearing, plead his case all over again, and lose. Tegna would probably spiral into bankruptcy and get auctioned off piecemeal to the highest bidders. At some point, maybe we'd get a new company or two out of it. Someone else to possibly bail out Sinclair, Gray and Nexstar down the road when they have to pay their debt down...

@Samanthaand I were considering the likelihood that Tegna terminates the deal and sues Standard General (and possibly Apollo?) for breach of contract. Which is what Tribune did to Sinclair after terminating that deal. If they go that route, it might not be for a few weeks.

That's only if the current leaders of Tegna don't walk away from the deal once it reaches the Outside Date. I wouldn't give Soo any breakup fee before then. This was his mess. He wanted Tegna so bad.

Mathis will likely move to CA with the rest of the Allen-produced court shows. It wouldn't make much financial sense to remain in Chicago unless they can make some sort of deal with the owners of the NBC Tower. Pretty sure they would hate to lose Judge Mathis as it would be an end of a era. I could see him pushing for having real court cases as he's better at feeding off real people. That's my hope at least.

He reminds me of Tyler Perry. Billionaire status, alot of resources and money, but still insists on putting out a cheap product (OWN soap operas and quickly produced movies). Allen's court shows damage the genere furthering the notion that ALL daytime judge programs are fake. Even the logo for Allen's production company gives off that low budget vibe.

His writers must be cheap af. But you'd think it'd be cheaper to...idk....not pay both writers and actors and just do real cases. I'll even forgive him cheaply using the same set. He seems to keep that same energy with his TV stations and everything else. For him to have all that money...... well, that's why he has all that money.

Too bad Lionel Hutz is no longer with us. He alone would add another 20 years to the Simpsons parodying all of the legal tricks and ads since Phil Hartman's passing.

Sounds like a waste of Mathis's talents. He sounds great with the real cases.

So Judge Mathis will become another time-filling (insert court type) court with (insert Judge name) host in the Byron Allen media empire? I can''t tell the difference between any of his shows. Probably even use the same "plaintiffs" and "defendants" as well as audiences.

Okay, if y'all are writers for the Simpsons just say so.

The problem with late-night talk shows is that they have all been largely using the same exact formula for decades, a formula that Johnny Carson largely set in motion: A live announcer to introduce the program, announce the guests and cue the host to enter. A live in-studio audience. An in-house band. A desk for the host with adjacent couches or chairs for the guests. Maybe it includes an old-timey microphone! A monologue by the host, varying in length depending on the host. A second segment (either after the monologue or the first commercial break) with an extended series of comedy bits. Could be live in-studio or via tape. The guests come out one-by-one for extended interviews and (depending on the host) softball questions. A stand-up act or musical number by a guest band or singer to conclude the program. Even as James Corden used Graham Norton's setup of having the guests come on all at once, he still used a house band and had a monologue. CraigyFerg didn't have a house band--or much of anything--but he still did a monologue (many of which were deeply compelling and riveting), interviewed guests and had a robot as his announcer. While Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and (especially) Seth Myers are exceptionally political, they all follow the formulas to some degree. But at least you can tell one Jimmy apart from the other Jimmy.