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No, that's not a mistype. Dr. Phil plans to launch a new cable network by February which will feature him in primetime from a new base in the DFW Metroplex and former staffers with the talk show have also moved out there. And yes, he plans a news operation of some kind led by Joel Cheatwood, so make of that what you will. All I can say is it would probably be easier to lease time on OWN or another existing cable channel than launching a new one during the decline of the format, but apparently I'm not mainlining Dr. Phil's out-of-date gut here.

WMYD should’ve been chosen from day one. They are a much better option for CW. Also, never do business with Kevin Adell. The man is a pariah!!

I've already got the answer. NGL, I Kevin kinda blew it here. I get that the FCC wasn't eager to greenlight the sale to Mission, but demanding more money from Nexstar in the age of reverse compensation cost WADL dearly. On the other hand, the fact that Scripps was willing to sacrifice what might have been eventual prime time space for the Tigers/Pistons/Red Wings if/when DSG goes belly-up suggests they can be talked into keeping The CW on at least some their stations.

What a great move if this was the year 2004

The NBA in-season tournament has begun, and Bally gave its scoreboard a darker look with gold accents. Am I the only one who thinks this is an improvement?

Hahaha. I love that Spongebob moment but it sounds true for what's happening to WADL right now.

I’d buy that it could be a TBN Inspire replacement over the idea of Merit being a replacement for the main network. In the past decade, TBN has: * launched TBN Salsa (a bilingual network aimed at Latinos, otherwise redundant in target audience with the Spanish-language Enlace USA), only to drop it three years later; * combined the OTA schedules of JUCE TV and Smile (a la Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim) into one subchannel to make room for Salsa, only to restore their separate 24-hour feeds after Salsa disappeared; * turned JUCE into an online-only channel, and launched Positiv (which carries both faith-based and secular family movies, including some mainstream theatrical films) to fill JUCE’s former linear channel space; * and relaunched The Church Channel as Hillsong Channel and then Inspire (after the Hillsong scandals came to light). But the fact that it’s being advertised as a cable network (in the cord-cutting era), suggests otherwise. We’d need more details to confirm, especially as Merit being a replacement for a TBN network would require a channel-lease deal. (TBN has owned all of its networks, including Inspire during its existence as Hillsong Channel, which was at that time a co-venture with Hillsong Church.)

“I absolutely love talking to real people about real problems. People who aren’t just complaining but are actively looking for real solutions to better their lives,” McGraw said. “American families and our core values are under attack. I love this country, and I believe family is the backbone of our society. Together we are going to stand strong and fight for the very soul and sanity of America and get things that matter back on track.” This Dr. Phil quote from the announcement feels kinda TBN-ish in tone, now that I think about it

Apologies for the bump. Here's a picture of WKRG's old set in use at the University of South Alabama. They kept the desk, and parts of the backdrop. This was during a visit of Alan Sealls, who also teaches meteorology classes at South Alabama.

“Despite all my rage, I am still snorting coke in the cage.” (IYKYK)

ESPN has not modified their scoreboard, for the tournament, but the NBC regionals have. (As captured on WMAQ, tonight.)

Technically, Sox Entertainment (don’t know how new to the distribution game it is) is the one distributing it. Seems odd that Amazon didn’t assert syndication rights to Judy Justice through MGM.

I think this is a really nice upgrade. Sure it's not super exciting, but I genuinely don't know what more people could possibly want from a news set. It's by no means a small set, the materials and overall design are much more cohesive and high quality than 3K. It's absolutely a set worthy of DMA #1. I think back to the 2012 3C set, which despite its size looked amazing, and was way ahead of its time, launching a design thread that even persists into this current set, 11 years later. That set didn't get in the way of telling the news then, so I truly don't understand the present gripes about a lovely, expensive new set that is almost double the size of 3C.

The old set was rough... it gave off a bomb shelter feeling. TOO MUCH BRICK!

Looks like the Retro Local on the 8s and Twilight Live are dead - schedule now has Heavy Rescue in those timeslots.

Did some digging, their website Whois info points to Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and their press release and trademark applications also mentions "Ft. Worth, TX" as building a new "state of the art" facility there, well guess what TBN has been doing since 2021, building a state of the art facility in Ft. Worth that's scheduled for completion by Jan 2024, exactly one month before the new Dr. Phil Primetime show is announced to premiere. It's 100% replacing TBN.

As mentioned above, CNN's new Saturday morning premiered today. First of All - Victor Blackwell says he wants to add more context to stories and showcase voices and places people are not familiar with. Interestingly, the desk says CNN Center on it, even though I don't think the new location is called that. (I think this set is mostly used for CNN International, right?) After the longtime Smerconish, it's The Chris Wallace Show. The setup reminded me of The McLaughlin Group (Wallace actually said something like: I hate to play John McLaughlin here but you're right, you're wrong!). I'm just not sure the mix of a pretaped show with Chris Wallace, who seems pretty old and has a strong accent, is formula for success but we'll see. And then there was The Amanpour Hour, also not live, and of course with an international focus. The music seems to keep the signature from her "Amanpour" show and the open has some elements of the design as well. One of the more interesting parts to me was "The Amanpour Archive," when they played a few minutes from a documentary Christiane Amanpour did for CNN in 2007 (which was relevant to today's Israel-Hamas war), followed by a clip from an interview she did in 1996. But otherwise, putting a two-hour block of taped programming every Saturday morning in this age of war of never-ending political news seems like an odd choice to me.