Originally posted Wednesday, October 2, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Atlanta’s WSB-TV is moving “The Kelly Clarkson Show” to the more sane hour of 10 a.m. starting Thursday, October 3 after spending nearly a month at the 2:05 a.m. time slot.
This was the only major market where Clarkson was not airing during a decent daytime slot.
The 10 a.m. spot had been taken up by a syndicated show Right This Minute,” which focuses on viral videos. That particular show is partly owned by Cox Media Group, which also has an ownership stake in WSB-TV.
But "Right This Minute" at 10 a.m. does far worse than "Live with Kelly and Ryan" at 9 a.m. or "The View" at 11 a.m. in the ratings.
Nationally, Clarkson's show in its first week had the strongest debut for a new syndicated show in seven years with 1.6 same-day rating and ranked fourth out of 14 syndicated daytime talk shows both weeks one and two.
It’s clear WSB-TV is hoping Clarkson will be a better bridge between “Live with Kelly and Ryan” and “The View.”
“Right This Minute” will move to 2:05 a.m.
"We are excited to move the Kelly Clarkson Show to 10 a.m.," said Ray Carter, general manager, in a statement. "The show is doing well across the country and will be great addition to our morning line-up. We heard from numerous viewers and Kelly Clarkson fans about their desire to watch the show and we are thrilled to move the show to a great new time slot."
NBCUniversal, which owns "The Kelly Clarkson Show," replaced Steve Harvey's show on NBC-owned TV stations this season, effectively forcing Harvey to cancel his show. In Atlanta, NBC does not own the affiliate WXIA-TV. TEGNA, whic does own the station, didn't end up picking up Clarkson.
Instead, the ABC affiliate WSB did and while the network daytime schedule did have an opening at 3 p.m., it chose to place Tamron Hall's new show there instead. Hall replaced "Dr. Oz," which moved to CBS46 (WGCL-TV).
I emailed the publicists at NBCUniversal representing “The Kelly Clarkson Show” for comment as well but it’s still early on the West Coast. I will update this with their comments as well if I get any.
Clarkson's show opens every day with the former "American Idol" winner singing a cover song picked by an audience member. She dubs it "Kellyoke" and she has covered everyone from Lizzo ("Juice") to Sheryl Crow ("If It Makes You Happy") to fellow "Idol" winner Carrie Underwood ( "Before He Cheats").
The gabby, effusively chipper singer also does a mix of inspirational bits and celebrity interviews. She interacts with her audience a lot.
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