"Rachael Ray" moves to WGN-TV

Rachael Ray is on the move.

After three underperforming seasons at CBS-owned WBBM-TV, Rachael Ray's talk show is shifting to Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN-TV this fall.

Rachael Ray has not fared well in its 2 p.m. time slot, with tougher competition coming from Chicago native Bonnie Hunt, whose talk show airs opposite it and has beat Rachael in the ratings.

WGN picks up the show this fall to air at 10 a.m. replacing a Maury rerun, which is likely to shift to 2 to replace Steve Wilkos, which is moving to WCIU-TV in September (and production from Chicago's NBC Tower to Stamford, CT.)

The moves comes as CBS Television Distribution renewed the show through 2012 in 60 percent of the country, including ABC-owned stations in New York (WABC-TV) and Philadelphia (WPVI), who air the program at 10 a.m. after Regis & Kelly and wins the time period in households handily.

WGN also airs Regis & Kelly (at 9 a.m.) and is hoping for a silmiar result.

WBBM meanwhile, plans to replace Rachael with two more episodes of Judge Judy (in addition to the ones airing at 4 p.m. Haven't we suffered enough?)

Fact: Rachael Ray's move from WBBM to WGN and the renewal by several ABC-owned stations just proves vertical integration doesn't always work.

In June 1994 for example, Twentieth Television's A Current Affair shifted from Fox-owned WFLD-TV at 11 p.m. where it was floundering, to a better early-fringe 3 p.m. slot at WBBM (fifteen months later it would shift to NBC-owned WMAQ-TV for its final season. Affair did return to WFLD for a brief revival in 2005.)

WFLD and Twentieth are both by News Corp.