{"id":6029,"date":"2014-12-17T15:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T21:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=6029"},"modified":"2014-12-17T15:38:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T21:38:23","slug":"wttws-ponce-welcomes-7-p-m-rival-we-wish-the-new-program-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/12\/17\/wttws-ponce-welcomes-7-p-m-rival-we-wish-the-new-program-well\/","title":{"rendered":"WTTW\u2019s Ponce welcomes 7 p.m. rival: \u2018We wish the new program well\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Phil<\/a>

<\/a> Phil Ponce<\/p><\/div>\n

How big is the audience for local news at 7 p.m. in Chicago? We\u2019re about to find out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than 25 years since a commercial station here courted news viewers on the cusp of prime time. In 1987, Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32<\/a> inaugurated its news operation with a newscast at 7 p.m. (promoted as \"the news that doesn't get home before you do\u201d). By 1989, Fox 32 News had shuffled off to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s WCIU-Channel 26\u2019s<\/a> turn. On Tuesday, Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, owner of The U, announced plans<\/a> to air a one-hour newscast at 7 p.m. Monday through Friday in partnership with ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7. <\/a>Under a licensing agreement with a revenue-sharing component, ABC 7 will produce the newscast for Weigel, starting January 12.<\/p>\n

Billed as \u201cABC 7 Eyewitness News on WCIU, The U\u201d and anchored by Linda Yu and Hosea Sanders, the new show won\u2019t just be competing for entertainment viewers. It also will be up against \u201cChicago Tonight,\u201d the flagship nightly news program of WTTW-Channel 11.<\/a> Now in its 30th year on the public television station, \u201cChicago Tonight\u201d airs at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. (\u201cChicago Tonight: The Week in Review\u201d airs at 7 p.m. Fridays.)<\/p>\n

Nielsen figures for December show WTTW with a 1.2 rating (or 42,408 households) for \u201cChicago Tonight\u201d \u2014 20 percent higher than The U\u2019s 1.0 rating (or 35,340 households) for \u201cTyler Perry\u2019s House of Payne,\u201d which now airs from 7 to 8 p.m. Among viewers between 25 and 54, the numbers are much smaller, but The U has a slight edge at that hour.<\/p>\n

Through a spokeswoman for parent company Window to the World Communications, WTTW management declined to comment on the impending competition. But Phil Ponce, the gracious and genial veteran host of \u201cChicago Tonight,\u201d said he welcomed the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore news programming is always good,\u201d Ponce said.\u00a0\u201cIt sets the foundation for the analysis we do on \u2018Chicago Tonight.\u2019 We wish the new program well and plan to keep giving viewers the best possible news analysis they can find on no other station, as well as our unique coverage of Chicago arts and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How big is the audience for local news at 7 p.m. in Chicago? We\u2019re about to find out. It\u2019s been more than 25 years since a commercial station here courted news viewers on the cusp of prime time. In 1987, Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 inaugurated its news operation with a newscast at 7 p.m. (promoted as... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6029"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6034,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions\/6034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}