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Can't help but to think of the Maury Show when seeing the WMLW logo. - Matt

WBBM used to be number one and they went from this To this and audiences returned briefly and then abandoned ship and never came back .

The Spirit News Library- by William Meeks Productions.

From experience living in the south, and the dominance of the SEC, this could certainly hurt viewership on Saturdays. As SEC college football is king in the south. Also, there is a thin possibility that it could help in markets like Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte and Nashville due to the amount of people that are transplants from historical BIG10 territory (Atlanta has a lot from rust belt, Charlotte and Nashville is more from across the country).

Yes! CBS shows appeal to an older audience. I can also see why CBS stations do well in rural smaller areas. Historically the network has run rural comedies like Green Acres and in the 90s *shows* like Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Walker Texas Ranger etc. Today they've got an endless portfolio of procedurals. It's definitely a watch with your grandparents kind of channel which must trickle down to the newscasts.

CBS O&Os that were formerly Group W stations tend to outperform their CBS peers. While WCBS seems to have stabilized over the past few years, WBBM is blown up every few years in favor of the next best thing that will turn things around and in LA they threw in the towel on KCBS in favor of KCAL.

Realistically, the network isn't giving up that real estate to NBC and CBS. The benefits, hypothetical at that, of stations like WPVI for example doing an hour of news are more than offset by the lost revenue of abandoning the genre. Of course, there is the money to be made from those who view later in clips or on-demand, et al. Non-owned stations making more cash does nothing for Disney directly. Keeping something competitive in that slot does. They may try and fail with an initial replacement. Such is life. But if, and it's a big if based on one comment at this point, he leaves after this contract, that slot is going to remain in ABC's control. Personally, I'd love to see Nightline reclaim the spot, but I know that isn't the smart business play here. It's just a personal preference from someone with no skin in the game.

By mayoral proclamation, today is Tom Skilling Day in Chicago, in honor of his 72nd birthday & next week's retirement.