Fox TV Stations To Test ‘The Jason Show’

A local talk show that Fox has been airing for nearly a year on its Minneapolis station will get a four-week test in three other markets starting next Monday, Fox Television Stations announced Wednesday.

The five-day-a-week, one-hour strip is called The Jason Show, hosted by Jason Matheson, entertainment news anchor at Fox-owned KMSP Minneapolis (and a local radio personality). Beginning next Monday, the show will be tested on Fox-owned KTTV Los Angeles, KDFW Dallas and KSAZ Phoenix to see if it has the potential to grow into a national show.

The show was developed at KMSP, which has been airing it since last August. It’s part of a growing trend on the part of TV station groups to develop and produce their own programming.

“This show is the first of what we hope to be a series of shows developed at our O&Os,” said Stephen Brown, EVP, programming and development, Fox Television Stations. “Jason has a dynamic and hilarious personality and we believe [The Jason Show] will resonate well beyond the Minneapolis market.”

The show’s test on three out-of-town stations is part of another trend too — station groups testing shows for a few weeks on some or all of their stations with the goal of learning if the shows have potential for success in other markets — perhaps even leading to national syndication.

FTS is particularly active this summer in the testing of prospective shows. Just yesterday, the company announced a test, also set to begin next week, of a new daily newscast for millennials called Top 30. FTS stations will also begin testing a show adapted from the gossip page of the New York Post — Page Six TV — beginning in July.