In '16, Not Many Station Slots Available for Programmers

摘要

Syndication's selling season basically started and stopped in October when NBCUniversal sold variety strip Harry, starring Harry Connick Jr., to the Fox-owned stations. That deal meant multiple things for 2016, but mostly the closing off of available time slots for national launches. The NBC-owned stations, instead of acquiring the show developed for them by their sister company, are expected to launch local news at 4 p.m. by this fall. As a result, Warner Bros.' Ellen will be pushed to 3 p.m. in NBC-owned markets, and notably New York, and NBCU's own Steve Harvey will move back to 2 p.m. NBCU's Meredith Vieira, which now airs at 2 p.m. in NBC markets, is expected to wrap its run after production ends this May.