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Not great for The CW, since it leaves the rest of Montana unaccounted for AFAIK, but I think I know what Scripps' endgame is. They recently bought the broadcast rights to the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights, and with The CW gone, I noticed they've turned those subchannels into independents. Since Montana is in the Golden Knights' territory, they're probably going to run the games on those channels.

Backstory: After NBC terminated its contract to air Miss USA and Miss Universe because of Trump’s infamous comments about Mexicans in his speech announcing his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Reelz carried the 2015 telecast. It was included as part of Fox’s deal to broadcast Miss Universe starting in 2016, but moved back to a cable-exclusive telecast in 2020, when A+E Networks picked up the rights to carry Miss USA on FYI. Miss Teen USA (which will be livestreamed on The CW’s app and website on September 29, the same night as Miss USA) has been off linear TV much longer, having been on streaming exclusively since 2008 and last seen on TV for its 2007 edition on NBC. (NBC was apparently unable to broadcast it in 2008 because of a scheduling conflict with the Summer Olympics.) Given that most of the contestants in that pageant are underage (the age cutoff to be eligible to compete is 19), there are understandable reasons why the Miss Universe Organization has forgone a traditional Miss Teen USA telecast for 15 years.

https://deadline.com/2023/09/fcc-senate-confirmation-anna-gomez-democrats-1235539010/

Adding a 10AM newscast is purely a business decision. Adding another hour of news will cost less than any syndication, which carries heavy fees and ad time splits in major markets. Stations will likely add only a couple of people, who will probably be freelancers. And since there’s no advertising split with syndicators, all the commercial time belongs to the station. That’s a very big deal headed into 2024. Election year campaign spending will be off the charts. Because campaigns love to buy time in news shows, that extra hour of news a day will be a bonanza in political ad sales. There’s no brain surgery or overthinking required in understanding the 10AM show. It’s dollars. Pure and simple.

Comcast/Xfinity has dropped several Imagicomm stations, and some Cox stations might be next: https://www.xfinity.com/programmingchanges/

Bad news.