Comments on: “Family Feud” Moves to Debmar-Mercury

By: Mark "The Hobo" Watson

Mark "The Hobo" Watson — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:13:01 +0000

Tribune Entertainment has announced it is no longer distributing Family Feud because of their
decision to drop FF in mid-September in favor of Lionsgate unit Debmar-Mercury. I am happy to
say that Tribune Entertainment has put itself up for sale along with th rest of the Chicago-based
company’s Tribune Broadcasting unit, which also includes Superstation WGN and Tribune Studios. Thinking about selling Tribune Broadcasting may be in the cards for Tribune these days
if the price is right.
http://www.debmarmercury.com

By: Mark "The Hobo" Watson

Mark "The Hobo" Watson — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:16:05 +0000

Tribune Entertainment will no longer be in the first-run syndication business following more than
25 years in business. Many of Tribune’s top 10 series of the past quarter century – Adventure Inc.,
The Dennis Miller Show, The Joan Rivers Show, Cutters, Joan Rivers’ Gossip! Gossip! Gossip!,
Bzzz!, Beyond with James Van Praugh, Card Sharks, To Tell the Truth, Petkeeping with Marc
Marrone and many more – no longer fit the Illinois-based newspaper publisher and broadcaster’s
imminent “for-sale” strategy if potential buyers want to add Tribune Entertainment to their port-
folios. Tribune Entertainment has been distributing quality first-run programming to broadcast
stations throughout North America for 25 years and was the national advertiser agent for non-
Tribune programs such MGM’s LAPD and NBC Universal Television Studio reality dating shows
Blind Date and The 5th Wheel. http://www.iwantmedia.com

By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:10:15 +0000

Jack, I’m from the Philly area too, and WFMZ (channel 69) airs a double run of the Feud weeknights at 9 (except Mondays) and 9:30 PM. Do you get that channel?

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 01:25:55 +0000

I get Feud here every Saturday from 6-7pm on my local Tribune station (WPHL). It used to be on my FOX station (WTXF) weekdays at 12-1PM. I guess the scheduling here has been basically bad for the past 2 years.

By: Mike Pries

Mike Pries — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:13:38 +0000

It kills me that here in Chicago, the station carrying Family Feud decides to carry a double-run of it at 10am, right up against The Price is Right. The rest of their daytime schedule is nothing but double runs of court shows, including one with a judge who calls himself “Extreme Akeem” and, for the love of all things holy, Kato Kaelin. You think someone with half a brain at that station would put the Feud at 9am and Kato & crew at 10, but alas, no. Decisions like this will lead to the downfall of Feud far more than the actual quality of the show.

By: Chico

Chico — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:00:13 +0000

Correct: Family Feud was distributed by Tribune, not Fremantle. Fremantle merely produced it and inked the deal for Tribune to distribute.

The Feud’s been up this week from last week, but on average, the show is still down over last year by a pretty significant chunk, 11 percent.

By: Jack Bauer 112

Jack Bauer 112 — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 02:28:50 +0000

I think this is a move that will benefit the Feud since the show is in a struggle to look for slot sin markets where they don’t carry the Feud in most markets pluswith John O’Hurleys new fit for the show, this show could be a potential for an emmy nomination. However I think that while most of the show and the things have changed over the years, the gameplay stays the same, just like Jeopardy! even though their now in HD the gameplay hasn’t changed. So at least theis new change will secure the rights to have the Feud on for more than 3-5 years, even surpassing the Dawson era run.

By: TP

TP — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 01:28:27 +0000

My station airs FF at 9-10pm weekdays.

By: OhioWxMan

OhioWxMan — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:49:03 +0000

It would be nice to see FF move anywhere from 6:30-8:00pm slot on my local ABC station where currently it is from 4:00-5:00 in the afternoon… I’d much rather watch FF than 1.5 hours of Judge Judy after the ABC World News Tonight or whatever garbo is on at that time.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:01:35 +0000

Has Tribune ever really made waves in syndication? I know they did “Geraldo” in the late-80s up to about the mid-90s, and “Tales From the Darkside”. However, other than that, what significant shows have they really had?

By: James

James — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:26:18 +0000

It is Tribune.

Note that Tribune is having a lot of internal problems, and there are growing calls for Tribune to sell off most, if not all, of its media holdings (its newspapers are up for grabs, it has sold some of its TV stations, and its venerable WGN Superstation may be up for grabs).

Expect to see other shows jump off the Tribune bandwagon, and Tribune getting out of the syndie business altogether.

By: myke25

myke25 — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:41:30 +0000

Confused…First, I believe it’s “Tribune”, not Tribute. And I thought Fremantle was the production company/owner…not the distributor.