2025-26 Syndication News

[phillynewslover 166]

It would be interesting if they expanded their lifestyle shows to a full hour and moved them to the afternoons, but I don't really see them doing that. WCAU's is only 15 minutes long anyway, since their 11am newscast is 45 minutes. 

[TheRolyPoly 3509]

12 minutes ago, phillynewslover said:

WCAU's is only 15 minutes long anyway, since their 11am newscast is 45 minutes. 

 

No. Not really. The host of Philly Live left the station, and the station decided to end the program, thus returning WCAU back to a full hour at 11am.

 

[TVNewsLover 861]

Could they bring back DAYS OF OUR LIVES to the broadcast/linear/mother channel?

 

I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for them to make a syndicated version of Password to air at 7:30. 

Edited March 14 by TVNewsLover

[phillynewslover 166]

38 minutes ago, TVNewsLover said:

Could they bring back DAYS OF OUR LIVES to the broadcast/linear/mother channel?

 

I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for them to make a syndicated version of Password to air at 7:30. 

Well, keep in mind that all of the shows that are ending are syndicated, so not every NBC station would need to fill gaps. If they wanted to bring back DOOL, they would need to either replace NBC News Daily (which wouldn't solve the problem since there would still be two empty hours), take another hour from the affiliates, or syndicate DOOL/make it exclusive to the O&Os. None of those seem all that likely to me, but I guess anything is possible.

Edited March 14 by phillynewslover

[atlnewsfan03 93]

39 minutes ago, phillynewslover said:

Well, keep in mind that all of the shows that are ending are syndicated, so not every NBC station would need to fill gaps. If they wanted to bring back DOOL, they would need to either replace NBC News Daily (which wouldn't solve the problem since there would still be two empty hours), take another hour from the affiliates, or syndicate DOOL/make it exclusive to the O&Os. None of those seem all that likely to me, but I guess anything is possible.

I personally wouldn't be surprised if the NBC O&O stations go the route of filling timeslots where syndicated shows would air with locally produced fanfare, such as advertorial type happy talk themed talk shows, similar to those seen on TEGNA stations, or adding new daily newscasts, like a 3PM newscast to their station line-ups.  Unless the stations opt for non-NBCU syndicated shows, or sitcom reruns.

If NBC was to put the soap opera Days Of Our Lives back on their daytime schedule, they could easily cut Today morning franchise back to 3 hours by merging the 3rd and 4th hour into a new "Later Today" hour with Jenna and Sheinelle getting 3 new co-hosts, and NBC News Daily program sticking around.

This would be a wait and see.

[MediaZone4K 2660]

51 minutes ago, atlnewsfan03 said:

I personally wouldn't be surprised if the NBC O&O stations go the route of filling timeslots where syndicated shows would air with locally produced fanfare, such as advertorial type happy talk themed talk shows, similar to those seen on TEGNA stations, or adding new daily newscasts, like a 3PM newscast to their station line-ups.  Unless the stations opt for non-NBCU syndicated shows, or sitcom reruns.

If NBC was to put the soap opera Days Of Our Lives back on their daytime schedule, they could easily cut Today morning franchise back to 3 hours by merging the 3rd and 4th hour into a new "Later Today" hour with Jenna and Sheinelle getting 3 new co-hosts, and NBC News Daily program sticking around.

This would be a wait and see.

As much as I would like to see Today condensed, I doubt that will happen. At this point the affiliates seem to be struggling to fill airtime so I'm not sure one or two hours less of Today is a benefit. 

 

As for Days... was it doing badly compared to NBC News Daily that it had to be cut from the tv schedule?

[Weeters 2173]

 

1 hour ago, MediaZone4K said:

As much as I would like to see Today condensed, I doubt that will happen. At this point the affiliates seem to be struggling to fill airtime so I'm not sure one or two hours less of Today is a benefit. 

 

As for Days... was it doing badly compared to NBC News Daily that it had to be cut from the tv schedule?

NBC News Daily replaced Days, because Days was doing very well on streaming, to the point that since the move, the last couple seasons have charted viewing minutes in the billions and often one of Peacock's top shows. Streaming is the natural home of soap operas, considering how frequently they used to be recorded on VHS/DVR for later viewing. It made sense to move it streaming-only and free up the linear time for even lower-cost programming.

 

Basically, Days is a draw for Peacock, so I doubt they will be reversing that anytime soon.

 

I could see NBC just expanding NBC News Now programming and making that available to local stations. MSNBC's departure from 30 Rock has left them with several studios and control rooms sitting idle, so the resources are there to just come up with some podcast-format show that they can produce for cheap.

[Reweivvt88 173]

I'm really not surprised. The internet has made celebrity newsmagazines pointless and it has been that way for at least a decade. I'm sure every NBC owned station is thrilled Access Hollywood & Access Daily are being cancelled. Ratings have fallen dramatically over the years and it was pretty clear they were only airing in high profile time slots on NBC O&O's because they were produced by NBC Universal. If you look at markets where NBC doesn't own stations, these were not airing in high profile time slots if even cleared at all. Access Hollywood had been demoted to overnight on a lot of non-NBC O&O's and there are a lot of major markets where Access Daily was not even broadcast. All these shows were doing is bringing down the ratings for NBC O&O's. It's a better problem to have to find new programming than be stuck with dying shows that you are only buying because they are produced by the network that owns you.

 

My guess is the NBC O&O's either launch another local daytime newscast or start broadcasting a 2nd hour of NBC News Daily to replace Access Daily and I expect all stations to expand their 7pm newscasts to a full hour to replace Access Hollywood. NBC stations have the benefit of little local news competition in the 7:00pm hour as most ABC stations are committed to Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy while FOX is with Extra / TMZ and CBS is with ET / Inside Edition. I do think it will be hard for local news to rate worse than Access Hollywood. 

[phillynewslover 166]

5 hours ago, Reweivvt88 said:

If you look at markets where NBC doesn't own stations, these were not airing in high profile time slots if even cleared at all. Access Hollywood had been demoted to overnight on a lot of non-NBC O&O's and there are a lot of major markets where Access Daily was not even broadcast. All these shows were doing is bringing down the ratings for NBC O&O's.

Last year I started an archive of contemporary TV listings for all 210 markets, and you're definitely correct. I thought that these shows had good slots in most places because I live in an NBC O&O market, but they really don't. Especially Access Daily -- it's in a prime afternoon slot on the O&Os, but in most other markets, it either doesn't air or is on at 7AM on the MyNetworkTV affiliate or something.

[mvcg66b3r 103]

19 minutes ago, phillynewslover said:

Last year I started an archive of contemporary TV listings for all 210 markets...

Link please?

[KS-IL-IA 63]

I really wonder what's going to happen to the CW, MyNet and independent stations, since the trash talk was a staple.

[Glimmer 340]

4 hours ago, KS-IL-IA said:

I really wonder what's going to happen to the CW, MyNet and independent stations, since the trash talk was a staple.

NBCU is continuing to offer Steve and Karamo as reruns, and apparently the Maury reruns they distribute get surprisingly good numbers in a number of markets (Milwaukee being one of them).   
 

I also wonder if simulcasting blocks of stations’ diginets could be a strategy; maybe Sinclair stations could simulcast parts of Comet or ROAR’s schedules 

[l_miro 245]

6 hours ago, Glimmer said:

NBCU is continuing to offer Steve and Karamo as reruns, and apparently the Maury reruns they distribute get surprisingly good numbers in a number of markets (Milwaukee being one of them).   
 

I also wonder if simulcasting blocks of stations’ diginets could be a strategy; maybe Sinclair stations could simulcast parts of Comet or ROAR’s schedules 

That might be a licensing nightmare 

 

We might end up seeing shows originally on Netflix air on broadcast linear, this year through 2030 a lot of the rights to Netflix "originals" from its growth spur are starting to expire and they probably have limited monetization potential but enough to fill airtime

Edited March 15 by l_miro

[DucNguyen0131 65]

16 hours ago, l_miro said:

That might be a licensing nightmare 

 

We might end up seeing shows originally on Netflix air on broadcast linear, this year through 2030 a lot of the rights to Netflix "originals" from its growth spur are starting to expire and they probably have limited monetization potential but enough to fill airtime

It was very sad news for fans of NBCUniversal's syndicated series!

[MediaZone4K 2660]

On 3/14/2026 at 6:12 AM, Reweivvt88 said:

I'm really not surprised. The internet has made celebrity newsmagazines pointless and it has been that way for at least a decade. I'm sure every NBC owned station is thrilled Access Hollywood & Access Daily are being cancelled. Ratings have fallen dramatically over the years and it was pretty clear they were only airing in high profile time slots on NBC O&O's because they were produced by NBC Universal. If you look at markets where NBC doesn't own stations, these were not airing in high profile time slots if even cleared at all. Access Hollywood had been demoted to overnight on a lot of non-NBC O&O's and there are a lot of major markets where Access Daily was not even broadcast. All these shows were doing is bringing down the ratings for NBC O&O's. It's a better problem to have to find new programming than be stuck with dying shows that you are only buying because they are produced by the network that owns you.

 

My guess is the NBC O&O's either launch another local daytime newscast or start broadcasting a 2nd hour of NBC News Daily to replace Access Daily and I expect all stations to expand their 7pm newscasts to a full hour to replace Access Hollywood. NBC stations have the benefit of little local news competition in the 7:00pm hour as most ABC stations are committed to Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy while FOX is with Extra / TMZ and CBS is with ET / Inside Edition. I do think it will be hard for local news to rate worse than Access Hollywood. 

I'll say the one relevant thing left for celebrity shows is that they are a reliable source for celebrity gossip unlike many online bloggers. Stefon Diggs and Cardi B breaking up sounds more reliable coming from Access Hollywood than some blogger.

On 3/14/2026 at 7:53 PM, Glimmer said:

NBCU is continuing to offer Steve and Karamo as reruns, and apparently the Maury reruns they distribute get surprisingly good numbers in a number of markets (Milwaukee being one of them).   
 

I also wonder if simulcasting blocks of stations’ diginets could be a strategy; maybe Sinclair stations could simulcast parts of Comet or ROAR’s schedules 

Because the situations on Maury (likewise with daytime court shows) are evergreen. Are one of these 6 men the father of my baby? is a timeless dilemma lol.

 

Talk shows however rely on current events and guests promoting current projects.

Edited March 16 by MediaZone4K

[Glimmer 340]

Tamron Hall renewed for eighth season

[KS-IL-IA 63]

Are there any off-net strips coming this fall? Ghosts and Abbott Elementary each have 90+ episodes. 

[Glimmer 340]

Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Hot Bench, Flip Side and The Perfect Line all renewed for next season

[phillynewslover 166]

On 3/24/2026 at 7:32 PM, KS-IL-IA said:

Are there any off-net strips coming this fall? Ghosts and Abbott Elementary each have 90+ episodes. 

I'm sure Ghosts is. It had a weeknight test run on the CBS sidecar stations in the fall, and WPSG (and possibly other stations too) is still airing it on the weekends.

 

Abbott definitely could, especially since they hit their 88th episode (the bare minimum) just last night. Or they could wait until next fall.

[nathannah 2792]

I had a feeling when we hadn't heard anything about it this year, but it's official that NATPE is no more.

[Megatron81 343]

Seem like I hadn't heard anything from NATPE since 2020 or 2021 it was when Billy Bush was on Extra as host was down in Miami for the convention and doing Extra poolside.    

[nathannah 2792]

The state of syndication isn't really good going by WVTM's acquisition of Family Feud for next season; it'll replace both Kelly in the afternoon and the station's 6:30pm CT newscast across three airings.

[Glimmer 340]

On 4/10/2026 at 2:00 PM, nathannah said:

The state of syndication isn't really good going by WVTM's acquisition of Family Feud for next season; it'll replace both Kelly in the afternoon and the station's 6:30pm CT newscast across three airings.

This is the second Hearst station in as many months to pick up Family Feud for next season; WBAL is using it to replace Kelly as well.  I wonder if this is a group-wide deal

[susquvalleywgal 531]

4 hours ago, Glimmer said:

This is the second Hearst station in as many months to pick up Family Feud for next season; WBAL is using it to replace Kelly as well.  I wonder if this is a group-wide deal

God I hope not.  

 

Family Feud has been on the air now for 50 years.  That's not the thing I'm concerned about.  It is Steve Harvey.  Horrible host.  Just my two cents.

 

-- Matt 

(Yes, I'm finally back on the Local News Talk website ... mostly tho on the Discord.  Hope all is well with all :)) 

Edited April 12 by susquvalleywgal

[Megatron81 343]

Family Feud is overkill where I live it's in a 3-hour block 5PM to 8PM in West Michigan.