The Grab Bag: Feder's new home; syndie talk update; The Hoff gets the heave-ho

Hoffin' around in TV Hell. 



Notes and notables from the past week:

- One of Chicago's best media columnists has a new home: Robert Feder has joined Time Out Chicago as the magazine’s media blogger. Beginning next month, Feder will have a blog (just like the one he had at WBEZ under the Vocalo name) on the Time Out website. The longtime Sun-Times columnist was praised recently for his work on Vocalo uncovering the shenanigans involving Randy Michaels and the Tribune Co. in the past year.

- Anderson Cooper's new talk show continues to rack up clearances for his new fall 2011 daytime talk show, titled Anderson. Warner Bros. has now sold the show in 40 markets with Coop replacing The Oprah Winfrey Show at 4 p.m. in Washington D.C. at Allbrittion's WJLA (ABC) and Midwest Television's KFMB (CBS) in San Diego. Previously, WFLD here in Chicago cleared the series for a likely afternoon time slot.

- Also on the syndicated talk show beat, Sony's The Nate Berkus Show received a huge boost with upgrades from NBC affiliates in Detroit and Houston, with repeats of The Real Housewives the odd man - or in this case, the odd gal out  beginning Jan. 3. In the Motor City, Berkus is being upgraded to 2 p.m. on WDIV from its 3 a.m. time slot. In Houston, Berkus is shifting to the same time slot on KPRC, upgraded from a 8am time slot on its This TV digital subchannel. (the info provided in the link said 12 noon, but Housewives airs at 2 in Houston, and this is likely where Berkus will end up.)  Both WDIV and KPRC are owned by Post-Newsweek. The downgrades could likely spell the end of Housewives' as a syndicated strip as the program - a hit on Bravo in both first-run and reruns - is averaging only a 0.5 household rating so far this season.


- And we have what could be the shortest-lived program in cable television history. A&E canceled The Hasslehoffs after just two back-to-back half-hour episodes. The reality series featured David Hasslehoff's two daughters trying to pursue careers in entertainment (perhaps pushing brooms at NBC Universal's headquarters?)  The series' premiere episodes on Dec. 5 averaged only 718K and 505K viewers, respectively. And you all know what this means, don't you? That's right... a trip here.