syndication

The longtime Wheel of Fortune host announced on Twitter Monday that the syndicated staple’s upcoming season will be his last as host. “Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last. It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all,” the tweet said.

Person, Place or Thing — Fox First Run’s new game show hosted by Melissa Peterman — has been sold in nearly 90% of the U.S. for a fall 2023 launch. The show will premiere on Fox-owned stations as well as on stations in the Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray, Scripps and Tegna groups in 161 markets.

Viewers can’t seem to get enough of The Drew Barrymore Show. The syndicated talk show has delivered more than 6.9B minutes viewed season-to-date across platforms including linear television, Paramount+ and Pluto TV streaming, and social video, according to CBS. That makes it the fastest growing talk show on TV, CBS reports, with a 65% increase in total viewers year-over-year. It was also the only talk show to grow from the first to second half of the 2022-23 TV season across key demos, including +17% among adults 25-54.

The Rachael Ray Show has served its final course. The nationally syndicated daytime talk show wrapped Wednesday after 17 seasons of cooking, talk and lifestyle segments. In her final episode, an emotional Ray cooked her last dish (a “crabby carbonara” per request from her husband John Cusimano) and was sprinkled with sweet video messages from Oprah Winfrey and Donnie Wahlberg.

What is on the horizon for the U.S. syndication business in this massive moment of change — with all things moving to streaming and digital? Can TV stations keep up? At a recent event, Mort Marcus, co-president of Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, said things may not be so bad. But many are taking nothing for chance, looking to expand their locally produced TV news content — programming where they can control all the ad inventory versus national syndicated programming, where stations must share ad inventory/revenue with major TV-studio based media companies.

Production on the Fox syndicated game show You Bet Your Life has halted amid the ongoing writers strike. Series host Jay Leno, who has been seen at multiple picket lines delivering donuts, supports the move. “As a member of the Writers Guild for almost 40 years, I truly understand and stand in solidarity with my fellow union members,” Leno said in a statement. “For that reason, we are suspending production of our game show, You Bet Your Life until such time when an agreement can be reached.”

Clarkson issued a statement on her Instagram page Saturday. She addressed the allegations after 11 current and former employees complained about being overworked and underpaid on her syndicated The Kelly Clarkson Show and also called their work “traumatizing to their mental health” in Rolling Stone’s Friday report.

NBCUniversal says the workplace complaints around The Kelly Clarkson Show are taken seriously. Following complaints of a toxic environment from anonymous employees on the show, the network has issued a statement responding to the accusations, which were first reported by Rolling Stone.

Jeopardy! has become one of the first game shows to be impacted by the writers strike.

Jeopardy host Mayim Bialik has decided against hosting the final week of filming for season 39, standing in solidarity with the striking writers. However, production on the final run of episodes for the season is going ahead with Ken Jennings taking over hosting duties. The final episodes of the season will be filmed at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City between Tuesday, May 16, and Friday, May 19.

Original Amazon series like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will be sold off-platform to third parties for the first time, the company announced Monday as it launched the new Amazon MGM Studios Distribution. A revamp of MGM’s pre-existing distribution team, the division will now handle Amazon Studios/Prime Video originals in addition to current and library titles. Chris Ottinger, who led the MGM distribution team for more than a decade, will oversee the new division.

For the past two seasons, Kelly Clarkson has shot her talk show’s premiere weeks in New York City, but now, she is taking her show to the Big Apple for good. The Kelly Clarkson Show will move production from the Universal lot in Los Angeles to NBC Studios in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York next season.

Disney TV Animation, responsible for 1,200 half-hours of animated content, including Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, is the latest division to be hit as it also merges the current and development teams. This has led to the departure of a number of executives including Khaki Jones, SVP current, who has been with the company for nearly 13 years, as well as a number of director level roles. Disney’s first-run syndication operation has been dissolved. Departing as part of that is Brent Jones, director and head of production finance and operations for first-run syndication.

You know when Drew Barrymore sits crossed-legged, things are about to get serious. Videos keep going viral of Barrymore sitting with her guests, and talking about the most intense issues a person could talk about. That is not, for the record, how daytime TV works. The hosts don’t usually sit criss-cross-apple-sauce and stare deeply into your soul. Interviews conducted by Barrymore keep being shared because of how aggressively they don’t subscribe to that usual model.

Station groups and syndicators are looking to collaborate more in an effort to make new shows work for everyone.

The appearance will mark the first time an elected national leader has been a guest on The Jennifer Hudson Show, which debuted in September. While the topics of their conversation have not been shared, the interview comes at a time with a heavy public discussion regarding recent shootings, LGBTQ rights, climate change and a possible national TikTok ban.

Ryan Seacrest said goodbye to Live With Kelly and Ryan on Friday, leaving the syndicated daytime show after six seasons. Kelly Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos, will join her as co-host starting April 17.

The syndicated daytime series will break the 9,000 episode mark with the renewal, which sees it cleared in over 75% of the U.S. Extra has been renewed by Fox Television Stations, which took over from the NBC stations in 2019, Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, TEGNA, Hearst, CBS, Scripps Broadcasting, Weigel Broadcasting, Sunbeam Television, Draper Media, Entravision, Circle City Broadcasting, McKinnon Broadcasting, News-Press & Gazette Company, Waterman Broadcasting and Marks Radio Group.

The talk-show host gives shout-outs to her favorite comfort food in Harlem, New York’s tough comedy crowds and the actor she believes “got greater later.”

Justice for the People with Judge Milian gets a firm go for fall as the company’s ninth syndicated court show.

The history of syndicated TV programs stretches back to the early days of broadcast television. And although TV syndicators are mindful that the TV viewing audience continues to fragment more and more, they’re not frightened by this fact. That’s because they’re accustomed to it. Pictured: Divorce Court (with Star Jones as its new host) from Fox Television Stations is one of the longest running syndicated TV shows.

Host Judge Greg Mathis will actively partner with TV stations to provide legal commentary and insights to current news stories when the new show debuts this fall.

Kelly Ripa has spent 22 years as the host of a single daytime talk show, now earning a salary in the range of $20 million a year. She not only got movie-star rich as the co-host of “Live!”; she’s part of TV history, in a league of legends — Regis Philbin, Phil Donahue, Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey — who changed TV as they greeted millions of stay-at-home moms and dads each day.

NBCUniversal Syndication Studios reups the talker, which airs in 88% of the U.S. and appears on leading station groups, including Nexstar, Sinclair, Weigel, Tegna, Sunbeam, Hearst, Scripps, Bahakel, Cox, Block, CW Plus and more.

Live with Kelly and Ryan will say goodbye to Ryan Seacrest on Friday, April 14, Kelly Ripa and Seacrest confirmed on ABC’s Countdown to Oscars 95: The Red Carpet Live Sunday night. Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos, who has guest-hosted the show many times, will become the official co-host on Monday, April 17, and the show will be renamed Live with Kelly and Mark.

After launching the first original court show on streaming with Judy Justice on Amazon Freevee, Judy Sheindlin could make history again with the first streaming show to sell in broadcast syndication. Former CBS executive Scott Koondel’s Sox Entertainment, which distributes Judy Justice, is actively exploring selling the show’s library — approximate 260 episodes — to TV stations for fall 2023 or fall 2024, sources tell Deadline. Additionally, cable syndication also is a possibility.

How Drew Barrymore overcame her past to embrace herself — and a new role.

CBS Media Ventures’ nationally syndicated daytime talk show Rachael Ray will be coming to an end after its current 17th season when it will stop original production. “In my more than 20 plus years in television I have had 17 wonderful seasons working in daytime television with Rachael,” Ray said in a statement. “However I’ve made the decision that’s it’s time for me to move on to the next exciting chapter in my broadcast career.”

Tamron Hall, Hall’s eponymous daytime talk show, has been renewed for a fifth season across the country, including on television station groups including Cox Media Group, Gray Television, Hearst Television, Nexstar Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co. and others, Hall announced during the show today. Last year, the ABC Owned Television Stations Group gave the show a two-season renewal, taking it through next season.

TMZ is teaming with parent company Fox on a four-week trial run of game show Who the Bleep Is That?, hosted by comedian Jeff Dye. The show will premiere on Fox Television Stations in 12 markets — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Detroit, Orlando and Milwaukee — on Monday, March 6.

The company’s eighth daily court series will be available for fall 2023 in broadcast syndication and cable.