T.D. Jakes

The freshman syndicated talk show has been canceled by Tegna “due to the current economics of daytime TV,” and will be replaced by a renamed BOLD, a half-hour that will feature several live feeds a day to affiliates in all four U.S. time zones.

The pastor from Dallas wants to be more like Oprah than Jerry Springer in his new syndicated talk show. “It’s possible to tackle tough issues in a serious way on mainstream television and still make it entertaining,” the Dallas-based pastor, author and entrepreneur says. “That’s something I want to explore.”

The cable net, with 80% U.S. coverage, will debut Tegna’s new talker a week after it makes its broadcast premiere.

The Tegna-produced talk show, set to debut on Sept. 12, is now slotted in 50 markets on stations owned by Scripps, Cox and others in addition to Tegna outlets.

Launching a syndicated show is never easy, and it’s made even more difficult when there’s no established syndicator attached. That doesn’t seem to faze T.D. Jakes. “Everything I ever did started at ground level zero,” he says. “It is the fight that attracts me. If everything were nice and neat and all put together, I’m not sure I would be as energetic.”

Among the new offerings for first-run syndication in the works or being pitched for 2016-17 is Ice & Coco (above), which got a three-week test this summer on Fox-owned stations in eight markets. Another show that just finished a test is Debmar-Mercury’s The T.D. Jakes Show. More projects on the drawing board include a talker with Harry Connick Jr. from NBCU, Daily Mail TV from CBS, and the possible return of two former TV judges, Glenda Hatchett and Joe Brown. There are also two game shows being discussed: Sony’s Chain Reaction and a daily version of Scientific Games’ Monopoly Millionaires’ Club.

The new hour-long syndicated talk show distributed by Debmar-Mercury will debut Aug. 17 for four weeks in afternoon time periods on Tegna stations in Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Cleveland.