Lopez, Jakes Join First-Run Fray for 2009

Activity in the first-run syndication market for the fall of 2009 is picking up, with as many as five major new weekday shows now angling for station clearances and a chance at the syndication gold.

The latest to emerge as viable players are shows featuring a charismatic preacher and a well-known comic -- Bishop T.D. Jakes and George Lopez.

Rumors abound that CBS Television Distribution has all but sealed a deal to launch a new talk show featuring Jakes on the Tribune stations next fall, but neither Tribune nor CBS will confirm.

The series has been in development for months by CBS and Dr. Phil McGraw's Stage 29.

As pastor of The Potter's House, the Dallas-based mega-church with more than 30,000 members, Jakes' sermons air on the Trinity Broadcast Network and Black Entertainment Television. He also has written more than 20 books.

Comedian Lopez -- whose eponymous talk sitcom enjoyed a five-year run on ABC and is now performing well in syndication -- also may be part of the syndication class of 2009 with his own late night talk/comedy show, sources say.

Execs from distributor Warner Bros. Domestic Television have already met with Fox Television Stations to discuss prospects for launching a Lopez show, the sources add.

Warner Bros., which would not comment on a Lopez program, is reportedly pursuing options with Tribune Broadcasting as well.

Should Jakes and Lopez secure their spots in the 2009-10 lineup, their series would bring to five the number of talk shows scheduled to launch next fall.

The others are Dr. Oz, the joint production featuring Oprah show regular Dr. Mehmet Oz from Sony Pictures Television and Harpo Entertainment; Program Partners' Marie featuring Marie Osmond; and The Wendy Williams Show from Debmar-Mercury.

Twentieth Television also will be offering a daily version of its nighttime hit, Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader?

With the list of 2009-10 potentials growing, television industry analysts are now starting to wonder where and how those shows will land.

To make room for Jakes, Tribune may have to carve time out of its midday Jerry Springer-Maury-Steve Wilkos blocks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, which involve double runs of Maury and in some cases Springer.

Though substantial clearances for Dr. Oz and The Wendy Williams Show have already been announced (Dr. Oz will launch on Fox stations in the top three markets and Boston; Fox will also launch Wendy Williams on more than a dozen stations.), Program Partners has yet to make any Marie clearances public.

"That could mean anything or it could mean nothing," said Bill Carroll, Katz Television Group vice president and director of programming. "They could still be negotiating."

The NBC stations are the most likely launch platform for Marie, since they have the most daytime holes to fill and have compatible programming.

Program Partners says that an announcement on key clearances that will confirm its launch is imminent.

Both distributors and station execs also will be paying close attention to how at least two 2008-09 debuts -- CBS's The Doctors and Warner Bros.' The Bonnie Hunt Show, which airs on NBC-owned stations -- perform in the November sweeps, which run Thursday through Nov. 26.

In national ratings for the week ending Oct. 19, The Doctors earned a 1.5 rating, it's highest to date. Bonnie Hunt's ratings, however, remained low, at just a 0.8.

Right now, the distributors of the show profess faith in them. But that could change after November, opening up more opportunities and drawing out more shows for 2009.

Boosted by its primetime exposure, NBCU's daytime Deal or No Deal remained the winner among the current season's newcomers, with a 1.8 rating. Debmar-Mercury's Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, this fall's other new game show, logs in with a 0.6.

The new first-run court shows, Sony's Judge Karen and Program Partner's Family Court with Judge Penny, earned a 1.0 and 0.6 respectively. Penny's fate is certain. In fact, Program Partners announced new markets and upgrades for the show just last week.

Heading into a year in which advertising revenue is expected to fall off sharply, broadcasters can't promise a lot of support for the new shows.

Paul Karpowicz, president of the Meredith Broadcasting Group, says his first priority is to further syndicate Meredith's own hour-long daytime show, Better, which currently airs in 42 markets.

And though the 2009-10 prospects look good, he says, spending time and money to drum up audiences will not necessarily be easy on  stations.

"It's just tough to say I'm going to put a huge push into a daytime talk show," he says.

"The promotion dollars are scarce," he adds, saying that money would more likely be spent promoting local or primetime shows.

Although stations typically start looking to replace shows that don't perform by November, distributors and producers often don't like to declare a show officially dead until later in the season, possibly as late as February.