WITI (TV) - Programming

Programming

WITI under their former iteration as a Fox O&O almost exclusively aired syndicated programming from Twentieth Television and was used as a test station for many of those series. However with the 2010 season, this has been abandoned and Twentieth programming makes up only a small portion of the station's syndicated schedule, which includes The Wendy Williams Show, The Steve Harvey Show and The Ricki Lake Show, along with Divorce Court and Judge Alex. After 3 p.m. WITI double-runs Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy, with TMZ on TV leading into primetime after the 6 p.m. newscast, while late night consists of a double-run of station stalwart Seinfeld split by Extra, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dish Nation, My Name is Earl, King of the Hill and COPS. Weekends consist of reruns of Private Practice, House, the new series Bloopers!, and syndicated film packages, with Edgemont and Entertainment Studios programming meant for children used to receive E/I credit. The station carries all syndicated series in high definition.

WITI had also aired episodes of M*A*S*H since the 1977 CBS/ABC affiliation switch, first within its CBS series run and then on into syndication. WISN-TV channel 12 originally aired syndicated M*A*S*H reruns at 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and then later at 11 p.m. along with other varied time periods when M*A*S*H originally sold in syndication. WITI gained syndication rights to the show in the 1990s after a long and successful run on WISN. At the time when WITI was an ABC affiliate, in the early 1970s it pre-empted The Dick Cavett Show in favor of old movies, it was shown instead on WVTV-TV when it was an independent station at the time, also they pre-empted All My Children in favor of the noon news. The show was taken off the schedule in September 2007 to make way for the move of the noon news to 11 a.m. and a replay of TMZ on TV, but was returned in February 2008. The station ended carrying the series in September 2009, likely due to Local TV's ownership.

As was the case with many of the stations acquired from New World, WITI has never aired Fox's children's block in either the Fox Kids or 4Kids TV iterations. The block stayed with WCGV for ten years after WITI took the Fox affiliation and in September 2004 moved to independent station WMLW-CA channel 41, where it ended in December 2008. Subsequently WITI has refused to carry the current Saturday morning Weekend Marketplace infomercial block, along with both WCGV and WMLW, in deference to the longtime local home contractor/subdivision programming on Saturday mornings which has aired on the station since the late 1980s, and it is unseen in the Milwaukee market.

On September 7, 2010 WITI debuted a new morning talk show program called Real Milwaukee. The show is hosted by WITI anchors Katrina Cravy and Nicole Koglin, former WMCS radio host Cassandra McShepard, and meteorologist Rob Haswell and also includes a “roving reporter," Tony Clark in the field, showcasing interesting people and places in Milwaukee. The talk show, which airs after Fox 6 WakeUp News at 9 a.m., is produced by the FOX 6 News Department and could be defined as a local version of the ABC program The View. The program takes on current events and issues from the community and in October 2010, two shows included Tom Barrett (Wisconsin candidate for Governor-D) and Rebecca Kleefisch (Wisconsin candidate for Lt. Governor-R) as guests for both hours. The program has also dedicated an entire hour to the issue of breast cancer awareness. The station has made it clear that it will not feature paid demonstration segments by local businesses like WTMJ's weekday morning talk/lifestyle program The Morning Blend does. From the first ratings period after the start of Real Milwaukee, the program has generated significantly stronger ratings than The Morning Blend.