WLS picks up ‘Tamron Hall’ to replace ‘Windy City Live’

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Following the end of WLS’s “Windy City Live” Sept. 3, 2021, the Chicago station will pick up the syndicated talker “Tamron Hall” in its place.

“Tamron” is distributed by Disney-ABC and recently moved under the purview of ABC News. Despite being cleared by other ABC owned stations, WLS did not carry the show when it debuted in 2019, opting instead to stick with “WCL.”

Instead, it’s been airing at 10 a.m. on the market’s CW affiliate WCIU and again at 8 p.m. on The U.

WLS is known for eschewing the typical ABC owned station schedule since the days of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that aired at 9 a.m. on the station, which originally produced the series.

Because of that, it didn’t carry “Live,” produced by Disney, like other ABC owned stations, until 2014.

In many ways, the end of “WCL” and move of “Tamron Hall” means the station will fall in line with most other ABC owned station schedules during the day, especially those in the central time zone.

WLS is planning to keep airing a weekly, 30 minute local program using the “WCL” brand at 11:30 a.m., shaving a half hour off its normally hourlong midday newscast. This is similar to what NBC owned WMAQ does with “Chicago Today.”

Over on WBBM, the CBS owned station, viewers can expect a daytime lineup change when “Let’s Make a Deal” swaps places with “The Drew Barrymore Show.”