Tony Danza Clears 45% of Country

Buena Vista has cleared The Tony Danza Show in 45% of the country, including ABC owned stations in the three of the top five markets.

Buena Vista announced last week that Wayne Brady would be departing the air after this season.

It then cleared Tony Danza in almost half the country and on stations from 11 groups, including the ABC owned stations, Gannett Broadcasting, Belo Broadcasting, Cox Broadcasting, McGraw-Hill, Journal Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcasting, the Media General Broadcast Group, Emmis Communication, Quincy Broadcasting Co. and Post-Newsweek.

On at least the three ABC owned stations in Buena Vista's initial group—WABC-TV New York, WPVI-TV Philadelphia and KGO-TV San Francisco—Tony Danza will take Wayne Brady's time slot, following Buena Vista's Live with Regis and Kelly at 10 a.m.

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.