CBS Chicago swapping ‘Drew Barrymore’ and ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ at end of August

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

CBS 2 in Chicago is swapping “Let’s Make a Deal” and “The Drew Barrymore Show” starting Aug. 30, 2021.

Starting on that date, “Deal” will air at 2 p.m. local time and “Drew” at 9 a.m.

The change will “break” the channel’s late morning block of game shows, which currently has “Deal” and “The Price is Right” airing back to back before local news at 11 a.m.

Chicago’s new home for “Deal” will sandwich it between network offering “The Talk” and the syndicated “Dr. Phil.”

“Deal,” which is based on a 1963 game show that has had several revivals over the years, is produced by Freemantle Media for CBS, just like “Price” and “Dr. Phil” are.

The latter two shows typically air on CBS owned stations in major markets but air on other affiliates in some markets.

The change will result in “Drew” airing in the morning like it does at other CBS owned stations. In New York and Los Angeles, for example, “Drew,” “Deal” and “Price” take up the morning hours between when “CBS This Morning” goes off the air and local news starts. At least one CBS owned station, KCNC in Denver, also airs “Drew” in the afternoon.

Because Chicago is in the central time zone, where most local stations air midday news at 11 a.m. instead of noon like in much of the rest of the country, WBBM essentially loses an hour on its schedule before its local newscast.

“The Drew Barrymore Show” is a joint production of two production companies and distributed in syndication by CBS Media Ventures. It also airs on the market’s CW affiliate, WCIU, at 9 p.m. each day, typically airing the same episode that aired earlier on WBBM.