Fox, Debmar-Mercury renew 'Wendy Williams' through 2014

Debmar-Mercury and the Fox Television Stations have renewed The Wendy Williams Show through 2014 on the Fox-owned stations, according to Frank Cicha, Fox's senior vice president of programming and Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, co-presidents of Debmar-Mercury.

"Wendy is delivering a great show every day that stands out from the pack and continues to grow creatively," said Marcus and Bernstein in a statement. "This season's episodes are fresh, funny and star-studded, and her must-see ‘Hot Topics' segments are simply compelling. With viewers, audiences and affiliate stations embracing her show more than ever, we believe that the franchise is still poised for additional growth."

The Wendy Williams Show performs well for the Fox stations across the board. On WNYW New York, the show is the station's top performer among women 25-54 for the entire day, except primetime.

While Wendy Williams is a success for Fox, it is ratings-challenged in many other markets. Nationally, it averaged a 1.0 among households in the week ended Oct. 9, making it the lowest-rated talk show by that measure.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.