With Anderson Cooper’s “Anderson” leaving Ch. 11 after its maiden season (it’s moving to Ch. 5 next fall), the station has begun rejiggering its afternoon lineup with a look toward next season.
First up is renewing “The Bill Cunningham Show” for a second season and moving the show, which currently airs at 1 p.m., to weekdays at 3 p.m. beginning this fall. The show will be distributed next season by The CW and Tribune (it’ll air at 3 p.m. on CW stations in other markets, as well). “The Bill Cunningham Show,” hosted by the nationally syndicated talk-radio host, has performed well for Ch. 11 since premiering last fall.
In January, in New York, “Cunningham” averaged a 0.7 in adults 18-49 — better than any other talk show in the market, across all timeslots. And, last Thursday, it snared a timeslot-winning 1.2 in adults 25-54 (it also finished first in that timeslot, in that demo, in LA and Dallas). Thus far this month (through Feb. 9), during sweeps, “Cunningham” is averaging a 1.4 household rating on Ch. 11.
The second part of Ch. 11’s post-“Anderson” makeover will be to slot Ricki Lake’s new talk show in at 4 p.m., where “Anderson” is currently airing. Lake’s show, like “Anderson,” will lead into Ch. 11’s 5 p.m. newscast.
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AMC’s “The Walking Dead” returned to really big numbers Sunday night, with its “midseason premiere” (OK, the second half of Season 2) roping in 8.1 million viewers at 9 p.m. (and pulling in an extra 2 million viewers in its 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. repeats). It also averaged 5.4 million adults 18-49 and 4.4 million adults 25-54 — both basic cable viewership records.
Those robust numbers, however, didn’t exactly give a lift to the premiere of Kevin Smith’s “Comic Book Men,” which corralled only 2 million viewers at 10 p.m.
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Last, but not least:
* Sharon Obourne and David Arquette were here yesterday at the Toy Fair to help unveil an assortment of Disney Junior toys inspired by “Jake and the Never Land Pirates.” Somewhere, Pam Golum smiles . . . “Route 66: The Complete Series,” will be released on a 24-DVD boxed set (all 116 episodes) on May 22. The CBS series (1960-64) starred Martin Milner, George Maharis and Glenn Corbett . . . Congrats to CBS’ Kelli Halyard and husband Craig on the arrival of Alexander Lawrence, who joins big brother Scotty.