Renewals for Jerry, Maury

NBC Universal reups talkshows

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Povich

Springer

The NBC Universal syndie talkshows hosted by Maury Povich and Jerry Springer have engineered renewals on their biggest TV-station groups, Tribune and Sinclair, through the 2009-10 season.

Like all of their talker competish, the two series have seen their ratings fall off season to date, "The Maury Povich Show" by 18% in households and "The Jerry Springer Show" by 16%.

Despite these declines, however, "The stations make significant profits from local ads by trade schools and ambulance-chasing lawyers," said Garnett Losak, VP of programming for Petry Television, which represents hundreds of stations.

Barry Wallach, NBC U prexy of domestic TV distribution, agreed, saying these categories of advertising are "the holy grail of local TV, particularly with 18- to 49-year-olds."

Tribune and Sinclair rep almost half the country, paying cash license fees and giving NBC U 3½ minutes in "Maury" and 2½ in "Jerry" to sell to national advertisers. The Tribune stations include WPIX New York, KTLA Los Angeles and WGN Chicago. Sinclair's buyers include WPGH Pittsburgh, KDNL St. Louis and WTTE Columbus.

The exec producer of "Maury" is Paul Faulhaber. Richard Dominick does the honors for "Jerry."