Dr. Mehmet Oz recently announced he is running for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, necessitating the end of his talk show for now.
The final “Dr. Oz Show” will air on Jan. 14 in syndication. In Atlanta, the show currently airs at 3 p.m. on CBS46 (WGCL-TV).
Starting Jan. 17, CBS46 plans to add a 3 p.m. local newscast followed at 3:30 p.m. with “Inside Edition,” a syndicated news magazine show hosted by Dalton native Deborah Norville since 1995. “Inside Edition” already airs on sister station Peachtree TV (WPCH-TV) at 10 p.m. weekdays.
This will be the first time a local broadcast news station in Atlanta has offered a 3 p.m. newscast.
CBS46 chose not take the replacement show offered by the syndicator called “The Good Dish,” a food-themed talk show based on Oz’s cooking segment hosted by his daughter Daphne Oz, Gail Simmons and Atlanta chef Jamika Pessoa.
Over the years, local news stations have been piling on more and more local news because it makes financial sense. Local news allows the broadcast station to pocket all the ad revenue. At the same time, the additional cost for more local news is relatively modest. When a station uses a syndicated show, it has to split the ad revenue and often pay a fee to air that show.
Many stations nationwide began adding 4 p.m. newscasts after Oprah Winfrey ended her local talk show in 2011. Around the same time, many local news stations began starting newscasts as early as 4:30 a.m. to capture early commuters.
Both Tegna with 11Alive (WXIA-TV) and MyTV (WATL-TV) and Gray Television with CBS46 and Peachtree TV have second stations to place more local news during prime time.
Fox 5 (WAGA-TV) has been the king of local news in terms of volume for years since the station has fewer obligations than its peers at WSB-TV, 11Alive and CBS46. Fox 5 now airs local news continuously from 4:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. weekdays, a six-and-a-half hour stretch. It also carries two hours of local news in the evening from 10 p.m. to midnight. On any given 24-hour weekday, including a repeat overnight, more than 52% of Fox 5′s airtime is local news.
Dr. Oz, who was discovered by Winfrey, received his own syndicated show in the fall of 2009. In Atlanta, the show debuted on Fox 5 but moved to WSB-TV in 2014. When WSB-TV picked up “The Tamron Hall Show” in 2019, it dropped “Dr. Oz,” which then moved to CBS46.
While he has won his share of Emmy Awards, Dr. Oz has also been criticized over the years for supporting alternative and sometimes questionable medical treatments and diet plans.
He is running as a Republican and has been friendly with former President Donald Trump.
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