CHANNEL SURFING
Rolling out new syndicated programs
WPVI will air "The Wayne Brady Show" in Rosie's old time slot.
By LAURA NACHMAN
Courier Times

Get ready another season of judges, talk shows, game shows, psychics, and sitcoms, as the local stations roll out their new syndicated programs within the next couple of weeks.

Ratings leader WPVI only has one major change during the day. Instead of putting Rosie O'Donnell's replacement, Caroline Rhea, on at 10 a.m., WPVI will air "The Wayne Brady Show" in Rosie's old time slot. "The Caroline Rhea Show" gets the unglamorous 12:35 a.m. timeslot. All the stalwarts including "Live with Regis and Kelly," "The View," "Oprah," "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" continue.

KYW is the place for games with "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" with Meredith Vieira at 4 p.m. (a tough question would be how to correctly spell her name), a new version of "Pyramid" with Donny Osmond at 4:30, "The Price is Right," with the reliable Bob Barker at 11 a.m. and "The Hollywood Squares" at 7:30 p.m. "The Weakest Link," which was a disaster for KYW from the start, was demoted to KYW's sister station WPSG. It's a make-or-break year for "The Hollywood Squares" sans Whoopi Goldberg and avec Ellen Degeneres at 7:30 p.m. Also, Oprah's pal, "Dr. Phil" and his new spin-off will air at 3 p.m. In a dramatic twist, soap opera "Guiding Light" moves to 10 a.m. "Crossing Over" returns for season two at 9 a.m. "Entertainment Tonight" is back for another year at 7 p.m.

It's a joy to report that "Sally" is not on the schedule!

It's "Judgment Day" every day on WTXF with "Judge Hatchett," "Judge Joe Brown," "Divorce Court," "Texas Justice," and "Judge Judy" on the schedule. "Dharma and Greg" makes its debut on WTXF this year. It will air at 6 p.m. The successful "Simpsons" and "Seinfeld" block continues from 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. "Frasier" moves to 11 p.m. The new talk show "The Rob Nelson Show" airs at 2 p.m. I don't know who he is either.

While WTXF is the "judge" station, WPHL is the talk station with "Jenny Jones," "Ricki Lake," "Maury Povich," and "Jerry Springer." It didn't take a psychic to figure out that with the success of "Crossing Over," we'd get something like "Beyond with James Van Praagh." The psychic played by Ted Danson in a TV movie last year will air at 2 p.m. "Will and Grace" makes its syndication debut this year. It will air on WPHL at 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. "Friends" will air at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

WPSG's big addition to the schedule is "That 70's Show," which will air at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. The popular "Everybody Loves Raymond" alternates at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Also, finally see what those KYW news radio announcers look like with "KYW Newsradio on UPN" from 5 a.m. - 8 a.m.

WCAU adds "The John Walsh Show" to its schedule at 11 a.m. It replaces "The Other Half" which marks a rare failure for Dick Clark. "Life Moments" takes over for "Ananda Lewis" at 2 p.m. "Montel Williams," "Extra" and "Access Hollywood" will be back.