30 Rock Reruns Coming to Comedy Central, WGN America in Fall 2011; NY's WWOR Makes Historic Change

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

30 Rock Reruns Coming to Comedy Central, WGN America in Fall 2011; NY's WWOR Makes Historic Change

30 Rock is heading to off-network syndication in fall 2011 and has already sealed a cable deal. Both Comedy Central and WGN America have acquired the off-network cable rights to the critically acclaimed but ratings challenged comedy. They both will share the cable rights to the sitcom airing weekdays starting fall 2011 and have paid a combined $800,000 an episode, approximately speaking. That is similar in price to FX's buy of Two and a Half Men, but that was only FX buying it and not a shared deal. FX starts Two and a Half Men in fall 2010.
30 Rock will be coming to cable the same time it starts local broadcast syndication as well. That usually doesn't happen, as usually it takes 3 years or more for a show to hit cable after it hits local broadcast syndication, as is the case with Two and a Half Men. So far 30 Rock has not had any local station clearances for fall 2011, but that is still a while away. If the series gets canceled after next season, that might not even happen anyway.
Comedy Central currently airs only two actual sitcoms--Scrubs and Just Shoot Me. 30 Rock would make a nice pair with Scrubs, but Scrubs' deal would be over by fall 2011, unless they renew it. As for WGN America, they are trying to be an all-around network, as they have also acquired Entourage for fall 2010 and South Park for this fall, both as we previously announced. This type of programming is geared for their late night line-up. Classic TV will still be a big part of WGN America's line-up as well, so don't fret!
30 Rock is entering its fourth season on NBC this fall, airing Thursdays at 9:30pm ET/PT. We will certainly have more on the syndication deal as we get more information.

WWOR (My9) in New York is making some drastic and historic changes starting next week. Historic because they are moving the long time 10pm newscast to 11pm and removing the weekend newscast totally! We first reported this on our message boards on Monday, but we wanted to do a story on this as well. WWOR will air The Wendy Williams Show now weeknights at 10pm following MyNetwork TV programming, replacing the hour-long 10pm newscast with Brenda Blackman and Harry Martin. The Wendy Williams Show is a encore from earlier in the day from sister station WNYW (Fox5), which will air it at 10am. So the WWOR news moves to 11pm, and will now only be 30-minutes but will be continued to be anchored by Blackman and Martin. Law & Order: Criminal Intent shifts from 11pm to 11:30pm weeknights as a result of this change. On weekends, the news hour is completely gone--so on Saturdays we now get The King of Queens at 10pm and on Sundays the second run of House at 10pm.
There are tons of other changes during the day on weekdays starting July 13 as well, most notably are sitcoms now from 1pm-2:30pm with One on One, Scrubs, and That '70s Show. WWOR is preparing for the fall as they are cutting the double-runs of canceled shows to just one airing like Family Court with Judge Penny and Trivial Pursuit. WWOR will also have a big hole to fill in the fall when Tyra Banks Show moves from syndication to The CW Daytime.
Sister station WNYW is also making changes. This week they added a test-run of Beyond Twisted, which is an eight-week trial run on Fox owned stations (WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, KDFW Dallas, WJVK Detroit, KSAZ Phoenix and KMSP Minneapolis) at 12am. Then starting next week, Good Day NY expands into the 9am hour as well, bumping the canceled Morning Show with Mike & Juliet to 12 noon for now. As we mentioned, The Wendy Williams Show will air weekdays at 10am on WNYW. And the second run of Everybody Loves Raymond moves from WWOR to WNYW, airing weeknights at 12:30am. WWOR will air the first run but will move it to weekdays at 6:30pm. Finally, starting July 20, another test run show will air on WNYW. Weekdays at 11am Deadlock or Wedlock (a sort of a Divorce Court spin-off) will get a six-week trial run on Fox owned stations in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, Orlando and Memphis.
View the full changes for WWOR and WNYW in a list form. We will have more on WWOR and WNYW later this month (along with cable networks and other NYC market stations) in our annual fall schedules barrage blog posts! So stay tuned!

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Wednesday, October 16

The Goldbergs - "Animal House" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Barry decides to rush a fraternity, but it doesn’t quite work out as he expects. Meanwhile, Beverly and Murray find themselves getting closer to being empty nesters, which means more hobbies and activities for Beverly and more TV for Murray.

Schooled - "Kick Like a Girl" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Hoping to improve the football team’s chances at winning the title, Coach Mellor and Principal Glascott recruit star soccer player Felicia to kick field goals. But soon, she is treated like one of the guys, which affects her relationship with fellow player Reza. Meanwhile, CB chaperones an overnight ski trip and hopes to get in some quality time with Lainey but is constantly thwarted by socially awkward Tom Scott.

Modern Family - "Pool Party" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Mitch and Cam help Lily overcome her insecurities about wearing a bathing suit to a pool party but discover their own. Meanwhile, now that Gloria’s new internship is taking up so much of her time, Jay is feeling particularly neglected.

Single Parents - "Big Widow Wives" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
After a house incident leaves Graham in fear of staying in his and Angie’s home, Angie enlists Will to help her get the house back together; however, there is a hiccup in the plan as Angie discovers a possum on the loose that she has to deal with. Meanwhile, Poppy discovers that Douglas is lying to her about a weekly poker game he must attend, as he participates in a weekly widow’s support group instead, causing Poppy to get a little jealous of his emotional vulnerability with the women in his support group.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - "The Gang Chokes" (FXX, 10:00PM ET/PT)
Annoyed that the gang failed to react as he nearly choked to death on an appetizer, Frank decides the waiter, his savior, is the only person who has his back.

Family Time - "Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number" (Bounce TV, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Devin starts dating an older woman, which has Tony and Lisa concerned; Ebony's school project inspires her to go vegan.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of October 14)

Wednesday, October 16

Jennifer Aniston (Friends/Muddling Through/Ferris Bueller/Molloy) - Watch Jennifer on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Dane Cook (Maybe This Time) - Dane appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Whoopi Goldberg (Whoopi) - Whoopi is a guest on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
John Goodman (The Conners/Roseanne/Center of the Universe/Normal, Ohio) - John appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Ed Helms (The Office) - Ed is a guest on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie/Burning Love/Players) - June appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Thomas Lennon (The Odd Couple/Sean Saves the World/Reno 911!) and Whitney Cummings (Whitney) - Thomas and Whitney are panelists on Lights Out with David Spade at 11:30pm on Comedy Central.
Alyssa Milano (Who's the Boss?/Romantically Challenged) - Alyssa chats with the ladies of The View about her book Project Middle School (Alyssa Milano’s Hope #1) on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly/Samantha Who?) - Melissa visits The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Michael Rapaport (Awkward/The War at Home) - Michael stops by The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory/8 Simple Rules) - Kaley is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Paul Rudd (Living with Yourself/Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later/Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp/Wild Oats) - Paul talks about Netflix's Living with Yourself on CBS This Morning sometime between 7-9am.
Ali Wong (American Housewife/Are You There, Chelsea?) - Ali talks about Dear Girls on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) - William talks about The Good Place on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and on New York Live on WNBC in New York at 11:30am ET.
Angela Kinsey (The Office/Haters Back Off/Your Family or Mine) and Jenna Fischer (Splitting Up Together/The Office) - Angela and Jenna talk about the Office Ladies Podcast on NBC's Today in the 10am hour and on the BUILD Series at 2pm.
Julie Andrews (Julie) - Julie talks about her book Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years on the BUILD Series at 5pm.