WFLD expands Good Day Chicago (updated)

KRIV in Houston also expands its news by adding 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts

As expected, Fox-owned WFLD-TV is expanding Good Day Chicago to 10 a.m. beginning on July 7, with the news show now five hours long. The extended hour will feature breaking news and weather, plus discussion of hot topics with local commentators and other segments. The newscast takes on talk-show powerhouse The Oprah Winfrey Show at 9 a.m.

The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet - now airing at 9 a.m. on WFLD - is expected to shift to the 10 a.m. time slot.

During the recently concluded May sweeps, Good Day Chicago from 5 to 9 a.m. only averaged an 1.5 Nielsen household rating, compared to a 3.8 household rating for market leader WGN-TV.

Meanwhile, WFLD's sister station in Houston (Fox-owned KRIV) is also expanding its newscasts by adding newscasts at 5 and 5:30 p.m. KRIV is going head-to-head with the three major network stations in town: CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, NBC affiliate KPRC-TV, and ABC-owned KTRK-TV.

KRIV has a good chance to beat longtime ratings laggard KPRC in this time slot, since the Post-Newsweek-owned station trails other competitors badly in Houston. At one time, KPRC's 5 p.m. newscast finished behind The Simpsons on KRIV.

KHOU leads at 5 p.m. in households, with Oprah as its lead-in.

Thought: Good Day Chicago seems to be the lowest-rated morning newscast of any Fox O&O or affiliate station in a Top 50 market in the country (Fox's WNYW in New York, KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV in Houston and others fare much better in the ratings in their respective markets.) Expanding the newscast to 10 a.m. isn't an answer for the program's ratings woes. Robert Feder's non-endorsement of this program pretty much cement this fact.

Ironically, co-host Jan Jeffcoat used to work for KRIV in Houston.

Updated 5:20 p.m. on 2008-06-05 (added B&C link -- man, if I have to update this post again...)