http://www.suntimes.com/business/lazare/2148683,CST-NWS-lew09.articleUgly numbers for 'Monsters & Money'
It's early in the day. But there is an audience for the early news and talk shows that fill the 5-7 a.m. time slot on all of Chicago's major television outlets.
On Feb. 1, however, one local outlet, WBBM-Channel 2, introduced a dramatically different product into the early morning mix -- "Monsters & Money in the Morning," a show with four co-hosts -- Mike North, Dan Jiggetts, Mike Hegedus and Sun-Times columnist Terry Savage.
With "Monsters," WBBM executives hope to find out if the Chicago market will embrace a new early morning show where the focus is squarely on sports (North and Jiggetts) and business (Hegedus and Savage), rather than the typical mix of news reports, soft features, weather and traffic.
A little more than two months into the bold experiment, local early morning viewers in Chicago are not yet biting in the kind of numbers WBBM executives no doubt might have hoped. In the March Nielsen ratings book, "Monsters'' scored a minuscule 0.3 rating in the 5-6 a.m. time period, less than half the 0.7 rating the station got a year ago when it was airing a more traditional program. The "Monsters" rating stayed at 0.3 from 6-7 a.m., down even more from 0.9.
Overall in the March ratings book, WBBM's "Monsters" ranked last among all early morning shows.
Despite the slow start for "Monsters," WBBM news director Jeff Kiernan is optimistic it will find an audience.
"We are producing the show we intended to produce, and I have tremendous confidence in the talent on the show," Kiernan said.
In recent days, WBBM also has begun to promote "Monsters" more aggressively via TV spots that often reference guests scheduled to appear on the show. "The show has evolved, and now we feel we can invite audiences to sample it," Kiernan said.
Among various tweaks that have been made to "Monsters" during its first nine weeks, Kiernan said the show now aims to shift the discussion more toward sports or business each morning depending on what is newsiest.
Needless to say, executives at competing outlets are watching WBBM's "Monsters" experiment with interest. "They've carving out a niche," said Todd Woolman, the new executive producer of WFLD's "Good Day, Chicago." Unlike "Monsters & Money," "Good Day, Chicago" isn't aiming to reinvent the wheel, but Woolman expects to make adjustments.
"WGN Morning News" executive producer Sandy Pudar said she is sticking with the basics that have served the WGN show well.
WLS general manager Emily Barr said she is fully committed to the more traditional early morning format because she is convinced it's what Chicago viewers want at that hour.
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