WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

We all needed another news channel -rolleyes-

I think they stopped airing Cubs games on national TV years ago unless they only aired in Chicago.



https://www.newsnationnow.com/network/

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Simple reason why they rebranded. Nobody watched it. They tried original shows and nobody watched them. They tried buying shows from Canada and Europe to save money and still nobody watched them.

The abundance of cable and streaming options was bound to kill a small network like this.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

They actually try to report the news, unlike the other Cable News Networks who are on 24/7 editorial watch that plays to a niche audience. ;) The failure of this model for NewsNation shows that consumers want partisan politics in their news, so I have to laugh when I constantly hear the complaints about how the media sucks these days. NewsNation is actually a breath of fresh air as that is the only cable news I will watch anymore (I wish they had coverage before 6PM as I like to watch the news during dinner and than settle in enjoying sports at night). I honestly never understood people who watch hours and hours of cable news hearing the same talking points over and over. CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, OAN, and NewsMax are an utter joke today, so I respect NewsNation for trying to be somewhat old school. Sadly, it won't succeed because this country gets actually what they want. They hate politicians, yet they keep electing the same ones to congress every year. They hate Cable News yet they all tune into the particular partisan network that agrees with their views.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

That's what they said but the reality is that they have added two shows already to with the Donlon Report and Banfield. Once you get specific people doing interviews and bringing talking heads, you are going to get some bias. At the end of the day, is all about ratings and if they start tanking because they are impartial, NewsNation will re-format and take a side.

I'm sad to see WGN go but in reality, I haven't watched the channel in years. I grew up watching WGN superstation watching Bozo in the mornings but once they took out Bulls Basketball in 2008 and then the Cubs and White Sox in 2014, I simply stopped watching. At one point, they were doing original series but they were just ok. For the most part, of the last 2 decades, WGN had basically relied on re-runs of sitcoms and shows like Jag, In the Heat of the Night and Matlock. This is truly the end of an era

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Exact same time I used to watch WGN, back during the Bozo days, along with the Bulls and daytime Cubs games. Funny thing is that on this new branded news channel, the head meteorologist, Albert Ramon is from Austin. I used to chat with him a lot on Twitter.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

They may give into the darkside and transition to all editorial shows, but what demo is left to conquer? The left watch CNN and MSNBC and the right watch FoxNews, OAN and Newsmax. The only demo left are people who don't have a dog in the political fight and just want a normal newscast. As for Donlon and Banfield, you can still have shows with a host (who leans to the left or right) but still play to both sides. I used to watch Larry King for years on CNN as he always leaned to the left, but he always had a wide range of political guests on his show and wasn't nearly as biased as Cuomo or Lemon (Remember Larry King moderated the Perot/Gore NAFTA debate in 1993). Heck, I think Wolf Blitzer's show on CNN is much more fair than a Cuomo or Lemon. I would say that playing the 'balanced' model may affect you getting any politicians on in the long run as they would rather have their safe space shows like Hannity, Maddow or Cuomo where they know the host is on their side. It's a real tricky era we're in and I hope NewsNation succeeds. Sadly, I don't think it will.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Is it news 24/7 now? I only know this station for it playing Law & Order and Blue Bloods reruns on weekend afternoons.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

I watched several of the original shows. The Outsiders and Underground were both terrific series, which were canceled when they shouldn't have been. In the age of DVRs, I'm continually baffled by why which network a show is on or what time it airs matters so much. Just DVR the good ones. If it's just a matter of the network itself not reaching enough people, then nothing the network airs will ever succeed.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Outsiders, Underground, Salem, Pure. Thought they were all rather enjoyable. Would like to see a third season of Pure but it was a Canadian import so who knows.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Their other original shows Manhattan and Salem were really good too,unforunately unless you can create a Walking Dead type hit to build a network around basic cable networks in America the last 3-4 years have gone into cost cutting mode and abandoned scripted series in favor of news,reruns or cheap reality tv filler.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Just sad all around.

What was the reason they stopped showing Cubs and Bulls games? Was the guy or group that removed all the music videos at MTV also in charge of WGN?

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Salem was a fantastic horror show, probably my favorite of the last decade. It's when they lost all sports' rights that they started becoming irrelevant. Everyone across the country knew WGN as the cable channel to get occasional White Sox/Cubs games. When they weren't allowed to broadcast those games nationally anymore and couldn't pony up more money for national rights, I knew the channel would eventually die.

There was a concerted move by baseball in the early 2010s that caused national cable channels like TBS and WGN to stop carrying local games nationally when their existing contract expired. TBS decided to remain in the game by paying out huge money for a playoff package and carrying a few regular season games, now showing all teams instead of just the Braves. WGN went the other way and got out of all baseball once their contract ended with the Sox/Cubs.

Like everything, it all came down to money and expiring television contracts.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

I saw Jag, Blue Bloods and Last Man Standing reruns still on WGN in the morning and afternoon

Maybe they will be gone if they add more news programming in the future.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

I believe MLB had a lot to do with both WGN and TBS dropping the constant Cubs and Braves games. The league maintained the national rights to games. Also, some time ago, WGN spun off WGN America, which is what airs on our cable. WGN TV, I believe, still airs in the Chicago area, and they may or may not carry Cubs and other sports events locally. Same for TBS and WTBS in Atlanta.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Cubs games are now exclusive to the Marquee network that was launched last year. Prior to that after the Cubs and Bulls left WGN, the rights went to a local RSN, that later became NBC Sports Chicago.

Same with the Braves after TBS stopped televising Braves games nationally they went to FOX Sports South.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Used to watch WGN all the time in the summer because of all of the day games the Cubs would play. Remember watching all of those Bulls parades as well after winning their championships. Was awesome that there was a national cable channel that aired so many games that Michael Jordan played in.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

No, just a few hours of news at night. Daytime is still full of TV reruns.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

WTBS died in 2007. For 30+ years before that, WTBS (the UHF station in Atlanta) and TBS (the cable network) aired almost identical programming. But FCC rules required WTBS (as a broadcast station) to air things like news and children's programming; many times this stuff was only broadcast on WTBS, not TBS. In the 70s, Ted Turner didn't care for the FCC mandate, which was why WTBS' legally-mandated news came on a 3AM and was (cheekily) hosted by Bill Tush on a less than shoestring budget (see clips from a later version, rebranded the "Early Morning Update":


Anyway, WTBS was sold to Meredith Local Media of Des Moines, Iowa in 2007. Its call sign is now WPCH-TV, branded as Peachtree TV.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

The NBA fought WGN for years about the Bulls game broadcast on the superstation. They felt that showing those games in the 90's took away from the deals with Turner Sports, NBC and ESPN and the NBA League Pass. They went to court many times over in the early 90's about this and for a while, the Superstation was able to broadcast around 30 games per season, which was great cause it was during the Jordan era. The other games were mostly shown on NBC, ESPN, TBS or TNT. As the years went by, the NBA restricted the superstation to run less game per season and by the final years, it was about 15-20 games per season.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...155-story.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...182-story.html

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Once WGN lost its Super Station sports status then people stopped watching.

What did they think would happen?

I think the Cubs have their own exclusive channel(which for some reason isn't available nationally on Directv).

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...f223c48e00.jpg
In addition to early '80s cable with WGN and TBS I watched WGN noon news in college.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

In the early 80s I watched Twilight Zone or Honeymooners almost every night at 10pm. Sea Hunt would air at 5am and I always watched it getting ready for work/eating breakfast. Sundays at 10:30pm they showed old WB movies from 30s and 40s. Saw most of them for the first time.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Local WGN's morning news is still #1 in the area's ratings. It's great.

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Jennifer Lyons, the eminent Chicago TV news executive who segued from WGN-Channel 9 last year to launch a primetime cable news operation for parent company Nexstar Media Group, has resigned as vice president of NewsNation.

Her departure, announced to staff Tuesday by Perry Sook, chairman and CEO of Nexstar Media Group, closely follows the resignations of news director Sandy Pudar and managing editor Richard Maginn. It marks a wholesale exodus of top news management at a time of plummeting morale and nearly invisible ratings for NewsNation.

All three resignations were believed to be tied to conflicts between the network’s promise of impartiality and what many staffers see as “a venue for right-wing views,” as the New York Times reported Sunday.

Continue here:
https://www.robertfeder.com/2021/03/...on/#more-29001

Re: WGN America is gone and now rebranded as NewsNation
 

Watch it every morning. By far the best news show on TV.