On Jan. 23, “Chicago Tonight,” WTTW-Ch. 11’s flagship news and public affairs program will move from 7 to 10 p.m., the station has announced, and be cut from an hour to 30 minutes.
The show, which has aired at 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday, for 38 years, will no longer follow “PBS NewsHour,” which airs at 6 p.m.
(Its sister show, “Chicago Tonight: The Week in Review,” will continue on Fridays at 7 p.m.)
In a news release, the station promises its high-quality programming will continue “along with expanded investigative reporting, vivid human-interest storytelling and essential community-driven dialogue across the WTTW News brands.”
The release went on to tout WTTW News, “a nonprofit, public media newsroom serving the Chicago region with trusted, independent, ground-up community reporting and outlets for deeper engagement and discourse on regional issues of consequence and concern” and its new state-of-the-art studio.
The station hopes to bring more and new viewers at 10 p.m.
The decision is a major shift at a venerable Chicago institution. It is also risky move.
The show was born in historic times. WTTW covered the election of Harold Washington as the city’s first Black mayor. The station’s premier journalist and brain trust, John Callaway, interviewed Washington for “Chicago Tonight’s” 1984 premiere.
WTTW is family. I was once a “Chicago Tonight” correspondent and, for decades, have been a regular guest on WTTW’s shows. Callaway was a treasured mentor.
Viewers still come to “Chicago Tonight” for the real scoop behind the story.
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The main menu of most PBS stations is dominated by British mystery series, documentaries, and arts and cultural offerings. PBS wanted its Chicago affiliate, one of its biggest, to carry its entire slate of evening programming, beginning at 7 p.m., sources tell me.
Like any institution, the show has survived highs and lows. Now, it faces a transformative time for media. The digital explosion has transformed how we get our news.
The station is on the hunt for new viewers and thinks it will find them at 10 p.m.
“We know viewers in Chicago and the surrounding communities are looking for and are watching local television news at 10:00, and that there is an opportunity at that time to provide a high-quality news program that takes viewers deeper into the stories behind the headlines of the day,” said Jay Smith, WTTW news director and “Chicago Tonight” executive producer, in comments provided by the station.
You can’t blame WTTW for changing. Like every legacy news operation, its audience is aging. At 10 p.m., “Chicago Tonight” will no longer benefit from its lead-in, “PBS NewsHour,” which airs at 6 p.m. But the “NewsHour” audience is older.
Last October, a “Saturday Night Live” cold open featured a “NewsHour” parody. “Good evening, this is Judy Woodruff, and this is the ‘PBS NewsHour,’ ” the actress announced. “We’re what your grandma’s talking about when she says, ‘I saw this on the news.’ “
The move to 10 p.m. means “Chicago Tonight” may turn off the viewers who have been tuning in for decades. I queried family members, both older than 70 and WTTW subscribers, in an unofficial poll.
They were not happy. “I think this is a terrible idea!” said one. “I like the present time frame and a mixture of news and human-interest stories. I watch the BBC News and The Day on another channel at 10 p.m.; therefore, I will not watch ‘Chicago Tonight’ at 10 p.m.”
The co-anchors, Brandis Friedman and Paris Schutz, and the rest of the on-air staff are decades younger than Callaway was when he retired from the show in 1999.
At 10 p.m., the show’s talent can focus on Chicago’s horde of questions and challenges, instead of the weather, sports, shootings and fires that dominate other TV outlets.
Yet, 30 minutes is not an hour. Reducing the show’s footprint leaves less time for the long-form journalism, newsmaker interviews and investigative reporting the station promises and less time for coverage of arts and culture, civics issues and public policy.
WTTW will be running after the same shrinking audience the city’s five other major broadcast outlets are chasing. “Chicago Tonight” will face steep competition at a time when broadcast audiences are shrinking, and more and more viewers, including me, are consuming our news on our cellphones and laptops.
According to the Pew Research Center, that is becoming the primary news source for Americans.
“A large majority of U.S. adults (82%) say they often or sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 49% who say they do so often. This is similar to the 51% who said they often got news from digital devices in 2021, but lower than the 60% of those who said the same in 2020,” the Pew center research found.
“The portion that gets news from digital devices continues to outpace those who get news from television. The portion of Americans who often get news from television has also decreased, from 40% in 2020 to 31% in 2022. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently than to digital devices and television,” the Pew Center said.
“Chicago Tonight” excels at bringing live interviews with politicians, civic leaders, community activists, academics and other experts to decipher our complex and challenging city. Will those guests trek out to WTTW’s Northwest Side studios or even Zoom in at 10 o’clock at night?
If not, much of this “news” show will have to be recorded in advance.
Here’s hoping it works. More than ever, it must.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at [email protected].
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