Warner Bros.' Anderson will be back for season two.
The Fox Television Stations have picked up the show in New York, Minneapolis and Tampa and are renewing it in Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, according to Ken Werner, president, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, and Rick Meril, executive VP of WBDTD.
Other station groups renewing the show include LIN, Meredith, Gannett and Midwest.
The key deal is in New York, where Fox is taking the show from Tribune. New York is the country's biggest market, and often the toughest to clear. Tribune's WPIX New York airs Anderson at 4 p.m., but it's been struggling in that time slot. The core of WPIX's daytime line-up is composed of Tribune's conflict talkers: NBCU's Maury, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos, and Tribune's own Bill Cunningham, and the tone of Anderson wasn't fitting into that flow.
"This is a terrific testament to these strong stations who, like us, see Anderson as the next early-fringe syndication franchise," said Werner in a statement. "Since its launch, the series has continued to grow and find its voice in a very competitive and fragmented landscape. We have great faith in Anderson and with strong station partners, we believe we are well on the way to creating a valuable news lead-in."
"The show is off to a good start and has the opportunity to grow organically into something unique," said Hilary Estey McLoughlin, president of Telepictures Productions, which produces the show. "Anderson brings a distinctive point of view, a real sense of empathy and the journalistic skills to tackle and elevate the diverse range of topics that the daytime audience is interested in. As our awareness grows and the audience finds the show, the bond will only grow stronger with him over time."
Tribune, meanwhile, is expected to pick up Twentieth's Ricki Lake in New York and other markets, according to several sources, although that deal is not yet complete. Should Tribune acquire Ricki Lake in New York, that show will join Disney-ABC's Katie Couric and NBCU's Steve Harvey as firm gos for fall 2012.
That leaves CBS Television Distribution's Jeff Probst and Warner Bros.' Bethenny Frankel without homes, although both distributors remain in the market with them. NBCUniversal also is still in the market with Trisha Goddard, which has been cleared on the Sinclair stations.
Probst also has been cleared in some markets, including CBS-owned KCCO Minneapolis, which currently airs Anderson. Probst could find a major-market home on the NBC-owned stations, according to several sources.
