Minneapolis - St. Paul daytime TV schedules

Minneapolis - St. Paul daytime TV schedules

WUCW Channel 23
8:30 AM Inside Edition
9:00 AM The Jeremy Kyle Show (NEW SERIES)
10:00 AM Jerry Springer
11:00 AM Maury
 12:00 PM Judge Mathis
1:00 PM We the People With Gloria Allred
1:30 PM We the People With Gloria Allred
2:00 PM The People's Court
3:00 PM Dr. Drew's Lifechangers
3:30 PM Dr. Drew's Lifechangers
4:00 PM The Steve Wilkos Show
5:00 PM Maury
6:00 PM Family Feud
6:30 PM Family Feud

WUCW channel 23 adds only one new series to its daytime line-up -- The Jeremy Kyle Show -- while tabloid "news" magazine show "Inside Edition" gets thrown to the dogs with an 8:30 AM timeslot in a vote of no confidence.

KARE Channel 11
 7:00 AM Today
11:00 AM KARE 11 Today
12:00 PM Days of our Lives
1:00 PM Rachael Ray
2:00 PM The Doctors
3:00 PM The Dr. Oz Show
4:00 PM KARE 11 News at 4pm
4:30 PM Jeopardy!
5:00 PM KARE 11 News at 5
5:30 PM NBC Nightly News
6:00 PM KARE 11 News at 6
6:30 PM Entertainment Tonight

KARE 11 sees absolutely no changes to its daytime lineup as the Minneapolis TV station begins its daytime lineup with five solid hours of talk / news.

WFTC Channel 29
 8:00 AM Law & Order: Criminal Intent
9:00 AM America's Court With Judge Ross
9:30 AM America's Court With Judge Ross
10:00 AM Judge Judy
10:30 AM Judge Judy
11:00 AM Judge Joe Brown
11:30 AM Judge Joe Brown
12:00 PM Divorce Court
12:30 PM Divorce Court
1:00 PM Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2:00 PM The Wendy Williams Show
3:00 PM The Ricki Lake Show (NEW SERIES)
4:00 PM Everybody Loves Raymond
4:30 PM Everybody Loves Raymond
5:00 PM The Simpsons
5:30 PM Family Guy
6:00 PM Two and a Half Men
6:30 PM The Big Bang Theory

WFTC (My 29) channel 29 adds only "The Ricki Lake Show" to its daytime schedule which is otherwise littered with court shows, a couple of Law & Order: Criminial Intent repeats and a mish-mash of sitcom / animated comedy repeats. I've now gone about five years since even stopping my TV's remote on WFTC.

KMSP Channel 9
 7:00 AM FOX 9 Morning News at 7AM
8:00 AM FOX 9 Morning News at 8AM
9:00 AM FOX 9 News: Morning Buzz
10:00 AM Anderson Live
11:00 AM The Wendy Williams Show
12:00 PM The Ricki Lake Show
1:00 PM TMZ
1:30 PM Dish Nation
2:00 PM Anderson Live
3:00 PM Judge Alex
3:30 PM Judge Alex
4:00 PM Judge Judy
4:30 PM Judge Judy
5:00 PM FOX at 5
5:30 PM FOX at 5:30
6:00 PM FOX at 6
6:30 PM TMZ

KMSP (FOX 9) channel 9 has a court show-heavy schedule much like its sister station WFTC. They also air both The Wendy Williams Show and The Ricki Lake Show which can be seen at different times on WFTC channel 29. They do, though, add the revamped Ander Cooper talker "Anderson Live".

KSTC channel 45
 7:00 AM 45 News Morning
8:00 AM 45 News Morning
9:00 AM America's Funniest Home Videos
10:00 AM Roseanne
10:30 AM Roseanne
11:00 AM Coach
11:30 AM Coach
12:00 PM Steve Harvey
1:00 PM To Be Announced
1:30 PM Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
2:00 PM The Andy Griffith Show
2:30 PM The Andy Griffith Show
3:00 PM That '70s Show
3:30 PM That '70s Show
4:00 PM Frasier
4:30 PM Frasier
5:00 PM Rules of Engagement
5:30 PM Rules of Engagement
6:00 PM The King of Queens
6:30 PM The King of Queens

Unless you're in love with sitcoms fom 15-20 years ago, KSTC channel 45's daytime television schedule isn't for you. With the only new programming being KSTC's rehashing of Minneapolis / St. Paul news for two hours to begin the daytime schedule and Steve Harvey's talk show, KSTC seems targeted to a few generations older than myself.

KSTP channel 5
 7:00 AM Good Morning America
9:00 AM Live! With Kelly
10:00 AM The View
11:00 AM 5 Eyewitness News Midday
12:00 PM The Chew
1:00 PM General Hospital
2:00 PM Katie
3:00 PM Twin Cities Live
4:00 PM Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
4:30 PM 5 Eyewitness News at 4:30
5:00 PM 5 Eyewitness News Live at 5
5:30 PM ABC World News With Diane Sawyer
6:00 PM 5 Eyewitness News at 6
6:30 PM 5 Eyewitness News at 6:30

By the time September 10th happens, it will be official that Live! with Kelly (Ripa) will be paired with Michael Strahan and his huge gap between his front teeth. The only big addition to KSTP channel 5's daytime television schedule is Katie Couric's new daytime talk show which bumps ABC's last daytime soap, General Hospital, an hour earlier.

WCCO channel 4
 7:00 AM CBS This Morning
9:00 AM The Jeff Probst Show
10:00 AM The Price Is Right
11:00 AM The Young and the Restless
12:00 PM WCCO 4 News at Noon
12:30 PM The Bold and the Beautiful
1:00 PM The Talk
2:00 PM Let's Make a Deal
3:00 PM Dr. Phil
4:00 PM The Ellen DeGeneres Show
5:00 PM WCCO 4 News at Five
5:30 PM CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley
6:00 PM WCCO 4 News at Six
6:30 PM Wheel of Fortune

CBS affiliate WCCO makes only one change to its daytime television schedule. With Anderson Cooper's talk show out, The Jeff Probst Show takes over the 9:00 AM slot on the Minneapolis station.

Weather terrorists make little kids puke

Last night there was a story on the WCCO 10 PM news about a little girl who was so scared of severe weather - even a passing dark cloud during an otherwise sunny day - who would get so worked up that she would vomit. Her fear of weather is so intense that she spends all day every day indoors. It was a rather sad story but I also felt angry while watching it.

I'm not a child psychologist but that level of fear has to come from somewhere. While the parents seemed rather normal, I am always ready to pin the blame on the parents. I'm guessing that one of the parents is a panicky Pete and plops down on the couch (or paces nervously while whiel taking breaks to peer out the window at the clouds in the distance) during severe weather coverage and gets borderline obsessed during the wall-to-wall weather coverage of channels 4, 5, 9 and 11 when the bad weather rolls through the Twin Cities.

I'm not perfect either but we've gone as far as taking our daughter out on the front porch and letting her watch the weather. She shows no reaction whatsoever to house-shaking thunder and the only time she has ever showed a reaction is when the cat jumped in to her crib during a severe storm and woke her up. She muttered the word "cat" to tell us what happened and was back to sleep in a few minutes.

Back to the WCCO story, though. The worst part, and the moment that should have made the main fear culprit instantly obvious to a few hundred thousand WCCO news viewers, was silver fox Don Shelby throwing things to meteorologist Chris Shaffer. He actually said something to the effect of "there's probably going to be more big boomers tomorrow, another severe weather day..." with Shaffer then beginning to whip up the weather fear.

I get it, the severe storms around her have sucked this summer. It's been worse than many previous years but the only thing that seems to get more news coverage is an oil slick covering the Gulf of Mexico or the election of our first black president. For whatever reason, weather equals TV ratings but with obsessive parents who should show their kids early on that even severe weather isn't anything to puke over, the media needs to sometimes take a step back and ask themselves whether or not the weather they are covering is truly as ominous and scary as they make it out to be. It's really a case of them trying too hard all too often.

Where's "White Entertainment Television"?

Jason DeRusha, Good Question guy for Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO, had some choice words for what I would refer to as internet trolls asking him why, when February is Black History Month, there is no White History Month. (via)

It’s not like during February, schools across the land stop teaching the history
that involved white people. Is there really anything wrong with taking a
part of our nation’s history that’s been largely ignored (that of black
Americans) and taking note of it? Why does it bother people so much?
If you don’t care for it, ignore it. It’s not a Good Question. Try harder.

Sometimes DeRusha ventures in to the "wacky" side of the Good Questions he gets and other times he takes the serious route. This, though, is one of a very few - if not the first times - I have seen him rather publicly decry the stupidity of some obviously racist and ignorant internet users who cower behind their keyboards submitting ridiculously lowbrow ideas and comments to a genuine journalist.

DeRusha isn't alone in dealing with comments of that nature. I have one friend in particular whom I'm fairly certain is serious when he asks why when there's a cable channel named BET (Black Entertainment Television) there isn't a cable channel geared exclusively towards "whites". It scares the crap out of me that I have a friend who (apparently) thinks at such a simple level. I've answered his question numerous times by telling him to use his remote control and flip through the channels. Basically EVERY DAMN CHANNEL could be billed as television for whites.

I kepe hoping that he uses this comment to inflame me and get a reaction (I'm good at reacting) but the rest of what he says isn't exactly the sharpest of comments either so I tend to take it at face value. I guess I'll have to take things to the next level. Maybe I'll suggest that he try our Spike TV because the dreck they air screams TV for dumb white guys.

Ah, hell, why can't people just zip it when they have the urge to utter something incredibly stupid? Of course without them, who would A.) work at Walmart and B.) I blog about?

For a more refined approach at blogging, check out the amazing photos from all across Minnesota at MinnPics!

Jay Leno to start sucking in primetime tonight

I should probably be writing this for my television blog but here I have no filter (and a far larger audience). That's the beauty of talking about tonight's debut of "The Jay Leno Show" tonight at 9 PM (central) on NBC. The biggest problem with Jay Leno is that his act on TV is bland. I'm surprised that his show at 10:35 PM drew enough audience to stay at number one for fifteen-plus years because I was unaware that senior citizens stayed up so late.

Leno's act is safe. There is no edge. Moving him to 9 PM (and gutting five hours of what could be original, scripted programming) could very well be the death of network television as we know it. Sadly, it all boils down to saving money. NBC has made countless mistakes in the programming area in teh past decade. They lost any grip they had on sports programming, never recovered from the ending of "Seinfeld" and failed to properly prepare when they knew that "Friends" and "E.R." couldn't last forever. They showed that their greatest weakness was being unable to change. They are stiff in their workings. NBC spent the past decade digging their own grave.

It even shows locally with NBC affiliate KARE-TV (Channel 11) sliding to number two in the 10 PM news ratings behind CBS affiliate WCCO-TV (channel 4). On the local front KARE seemed to follow suit by losing flashy anchorman Paul Magers to the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles (where he propelled the CBS affiliate there from fourth to first in local news ratings). That move was largely about money, too. Hell, they even lost their Paul Magers replacement, Frank Vascellero, to WCCO where some are saying that he's the eventual face of WCCO's news team.

But back to Jay Leno. While he is a sincere guy who truly cares about his staff, his act seems like it's been largely mailed in for the past few years. It almost seems like he saves his best stuff for his stand-up act as he tours the casino circuit while his former competitor, David Letterman, struck gold this summer by lurching ahead to number one in late night and continuing to be quirky with his monologue and behavior and actually asking guests questions rather than letting guests simply run thier lines and pimp their shit.

In the long run, if Leno succeeds it could be the end of scripted programming at 9 PM. It could be good in shaking up the rigid scheduling the networks have and free local affiliates to shift shows to where they work best with their local audiences. But it could be bad because a talk show is cheap. A talk show is a cop out in primetime and after Leno's show starts slipping in the ratings, expect the show to trim staff to keep costs down and with that quality and entertainment value will slide and the show's eventual downward spiral will begin and while I never hope for someone to fail, this sort of failure would be best for America's entertainment future.

So I've been away for well over a week but MinnPics will return in all its glory with all things Minnesota in photography! Check it out!

Odd Minnesota State phenomenon #1

I'm veering away from my recent in-depth coverage of nipples and camel toe at the 2008 summer olympics in Beijing, China because I can only take some things so far. If you're disappointed, too damn bad. If you're happy, please let me know because I can get right back to beating that horse a bit more.

Today, though, I have something important to say about the Minnesota State Fair. First off, I am not going this year. Instead, I am pissing away my hard-earned money at the Renaissance Festival and I'll let you know when I plan on attending so everyone in the Twin Cities can stalk me and wonder to themselves whether or not I dress up in renaissance costume (I don't).

Alright, the Minnesota State Fair. I have two complaints about it tonight. The first, which I covered last year, is about those damned fried candy bars. Candy bars should not be soft enough to be gummed to death. They should exist in a state of solid, chocolatey goodness. If I wanted a candy bar that I could suck through a straw, I'd leave a Snickers bar on my dash while I worked a full day. Instead, spend your money on something that sounds truly disgusting, a fried carmelized 1/3 lb. strip of bacon on a stick.

Now for the second, far more important fair gripe. People that will wait to watch a newscast. Now I'm not talking about WCCO which does their entire newscast live from their outdoor studio at the fair but instead I am singling out FOX 9. Tonight, I happened to catch (on TV) their presence at the fair. It consisted only of pompous ass, meteorologist Ian Leonard and bleachers full of obnoxious, screaming kids in desperate need of both parents and a swift beating. Of course, later he showed the adults who stuck around on metal bleachers to see a three-minute weather segment.

I am not sure which group was more ridiculous but I'm not claiming to be any better. I always sit through the better part of Dan Cole the Common Man's KFAN radio show when I go to the fair. He's at least somewhat funny, has some audience participation and it's a decent place to eat lunch. Oh yeah, and it lasts longer than three minutes.

Are people so enamored by the chance to be on TV that they'll fritter away precious fair time hoping that the camera (for all 65 seconds it's on) pans across their mug as they sit all doe eyed staring at some smug jackass meteorologist that doesn't even relate well to actual humans? I can be alone, either, in soaking up some media personalities at the fair, who's your pick?

Be sure to check out MinnPics, it obviously contains photos from around Minnesota and just may be a treasure trove of State Fair photos.

Cuba, China and news website comments

I'm not big on reading what columnists have to say in the Star-Tribune. Mainly because their biases are painfully obvious and the content is of little interest to me. Today, though, I clicked on a headline in my news reader which led me to some great writing (if you can avoid the worthless comments section).

I'm sure you've heard that China is drilling for oil off the shore of Cuba. What I'm also sure of is that many haven't heard that it's complete, total, election-year bullshit. Unfortunately, the actual decent writing of Nick Coleman is overshadowed by the knuckle dragging cave dwellers who took a well-worded and informative column and turned it into what nearly every comments section on StarTribune.com turn into -- a partisan shit-slinging free for all where only a handful of comments have any value.

And I'm not alone in seeing this. WCCO's Jason DeRusha blogged about the value (or lack of) comments on news websites and plenty of others agree. He does, too, bring up the valid point of why companies open up comments. It's all about the page views. More comments = more time spent on the website and that means more page views and with CPM advertising, you have more inventory to sell. And I thank you for that because it pays my bills (to a certain extent).

I agree with the comments that civility and moderation would be great but that fine line could open up an entirely new can of worms and, in the end, alienate those loonies who drive up your page views. The commenting situation on the big sites will eventually work itself out but for now maybe y'all should just comment here instead.

Hey, there's plenty of opinions at MinnPics but they're all about photos from Minnesota's best photographers and if Erica digs it, it has to be good.

It's hip to be square

I'll start by apologizing for actually writing that title. I feel dirty. And lame. But mostly lame. Secondly, Costco (the alternate universe's version of Sam's Club for those unfamiliar with it) rolled out (not really) one gallon milk containers in a square format.

I guess before I go in to how uber creepy it is to drink liquids out of a square container, I'll applaud them for doing what has been done with half gallon cartons (made out of waxed cardboard, remember?) for as long as I've graced this earth with my presence. It makes sense, hell, now I'll be able to cram about six gallons of milk on to one of those funky split shelves in my stainless steel Amana ice box as opposed to four and change before this "innovation". (But where is the spout? I smell a "Good Question", DeRusha.)

But now for what it creeps me out. Square shapes creep the shit out of me. Humans aren't square. Cows aren't square. Why should humans ingest something from a cow which is conveyed in what is essentially a square container? It just isn't natural. It's sort of like square watermelons.

More (Del) Taco choices on the way

Before today, I've heard of some (what I assumed to be) California-only restaurant named Del Taco. I hear it advertised on the L.A. radio station I stream from time to time but it didn't concern me because it's half the country away. Then I caught a snippet of the WCCO news ticker (nothing on their web site yet) a couple minutes ago and was informed that Del Taco is making an announcement today in the Twin Cities that they are building 32 metro-area restaurants.

I am posing an open question to those familiar with the chain. What is the food like? According to Wikipedia, they offer burgers and fries in addition to the Mexican fare. Is the restaurant more like Taco Bell or Chipotle or somewhere in between? Fill me in so us Minnesotans can drool in anticipation. Here's hoping that the southwest metro nabs at least one outlet...

Weather doesn't equal fear

Just because local TV outlets are down one so-called weather terrorist with the firing of WCCO's Paul Douglas last week it doesn't mean that fear of the weather isn't alive and well in the Twin Cities. Yes, leave it to the local ink-stained wretches at the Star-Tribune to induce weather-related fear in the meek with a prominent (at least on the web) story about how a tornado could very well barrel through downtown Minneapolis. They even went as far as to include an ominous looking photo. It almost made me wet myself. Thank God I'm sporting Depends today.
Of course their reasoning is that a tornado struck downtown Atlanta, Georgia recently killing one and injuring dozens but these damn weather terrorists are getting to be a bit much. It seems that they've cozied up to our new found culture of fear in our post-9/11 world. Maybe the real terrorists, if George Bush stops looking behind the Oval Office curtains (for those mythical WMDs), are on our TV screens m midway through our 10 PM newscasts.

Maybe I'm fed up because I actually was intrigued by a History channel show called "Mega Disasters" which featured the impending doom of a modern day dustbowl in the western states. Maybe I'm fed up because even the smallest weather events are hyped beyond all believability. The fear mongers at FOX 9 are the worst of the bunch. Or maybe I'm fed up because the weather just happens. Whether we're prepared or not, it's coming and it's always changing. Yesterday was sunny at 65 degrees and there could be snow flakes for my Monday morning commute. It happens. It changes. Be prepared, don't be afraid. And if you are afraid, I have some extra Depends.

Paul Douglas, you are no friend of mine

It seemed to me, for the longest time, that dear WCCO meteorologist Paul Douglas (is that a toupee maybe?) was a man of great intelligence. He was surely (and still is) a man with a great deal of computing might within his control. Hell, the guy sees weather days before it happens. Maybe he's some sort of sorcerer but that pontification is for another day.

You see, many evenings I feel the need for not just one but two sources of news in the 10 PM hour. Well, not two sources at the same time but two varied sources. When I feel the hard-hitting news of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show is too much to handle I'll often times flip waaaay down the dial to 'CCO. But back to Douglas.

It seems that, due to his witty on-air banter with Don and Amelia, Paul Douglas is an easy-going fella. A fella that I could sit with and debate the merits of cirrus and cumulus clouds with over a couple slices of Key Lime pie. A fella that, with the company of the venerable Don Shelby, would make for quite the heated exchange centered around neck ties with the two newsmen taking the stance that the tie makes the man while I argue that the tie is devised by the man to hold the white man down.

Whatever the scenario would/could be, I feel that any chance we had of a lasting friendship is gone. It seems that your most recent weather inaccuracy has caused a rift in our potential B.F.F. relationship. Not to mention your forecast for the Wednesday night snowfall. I'll believe that if I have to shovel it.

You said there would be snow Monday. You said it would last into and throughout the evening. I saw no snow. I don't look fondly upon people who give false information. Others tend to call those people liars but I call them meteorologists. It seems to be a trend as of late. Your accuracy percentage is lower than the batting average of Alex Rodriguez. Maybe it's time to ship the old weather supercomputers off to a better place and fill the seven minute-long weather forecast slot with an encore of the Good Question.

I even have an idea for a Good Question to fill your former segment: Why can't Paul Douglas forecast the winter weather with even the slightest hint of accuracy?

Fried food isn't all there is at the Minnesota State Fair

I had a three day weekend, how's about you?

No, I am not bragging. I am just saying that in an effort of full disclosure.

Today (Monday) was day three of my three day weekend and we spent it at the Minnesota State Fair. Even though it was cloudy and did sprinkle for a few minutes, it was a decent day. No encounters with traffic snarls or parking hassles.

Our fair experience could have been better planned. Such as having a camera. I had planned on borrowing a small pocket-size point and shoot digital camera rather than lug around my larger "work" model which I actually use for, well, work. It didn't dawn on me to unload the camera from my incredibly heavy camera bag and pack it in my backpack. That little revelation came after I saw a few people who had transported their good in just that manner.

I also decided to leave the house wearing sandals. I also talked the wife into sporting sandals. After nine hours spent, for the most part, walking it dawned on us, as our feet felt certain to explode into blister-covered appendages at any moment, that shoes with actual arch support and more padding than something akin to a meat tampon would have been a good idea.

We spent about 40 minutes eating and relaxing as we watched Dan Cole of KFAN fame do his daily schtick on a stick which was the day's only run in with rain showers. The drops were rather large but spotty. I also skipped over buying anything in the way of merchandise outside of food.

Early in the day, the fine arts building (which convinced me that I need to enter some of my photography next year) and the Eco Experience were great spots to spend time as we digested our late breakfast from a place which I can only describe as having the slowest girl ever running the grill. Scrambling eggs is anything but rocket science.

This year's fair also brought my, wait for it, first purchase of fried foods on a stick. The 'Candy bar on a Stick' booth caught our attention and we bit. The battered and fried Snickers wasn't terrible but wasn't impressive. I guess I prefer my void of nutrition snacks in their solid state and, as you can imagine, when you fry an Snickers (even with it encased in batter) it becomes less solid.

From there, we wandered towards the WCCO TV area (no Jason DeRusha sightings) and caught a portion of a Q & A on wind power. I think that the audience had some excellent questions and that the two gentlemen from RES had some great answers that weren't so much about promoting their employer as they were about informing the public.

Towards the end of the day we ventured into the pits of merchandise hell as we explored the cavernous exhibition areas beneathe the seats of the grandstand. That is here were nearly spent $250 on a pot (no, go back a re-read it, I said on A pot).

I am sure that we probably missed stuff too but what? What should we have seen, what are some great attractions at other state and county fairs where you live?