Tribune Entertainment

**Tribune Entertainment** was a television production and syndication company owned and operated by Tribune Broadcasting. The company was started in the mid-1980s. Many programs offered from Tribune Entertainment have been broadcast on the company's television stations.

Throughout the company's existence, Tribune Entertainment mainly produced first-run syndicated programs (including *Geraldo*, *At the Movies* and *Earth: Final Conflict*), along with some specials (such as the *Hollywood Christmas Parade* and *Soul Train Music Awards*). On Jan. 3, 2010 Tribune announced the revival of the company.

## History

Tribune Entertainment was founded in 1980. The first programs that Tribune distributed for syndication were the agricultural news program *U.S. Farm Report*, which debuted in 1975; and *Independent Network News*, a syndicated news program designed for Independent stations that was produced by Tribune's New York City station WPIX and debuted in 1980.

In 1982, Tribune picked-up newspaper film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel under the show name of *At the Movies* before losing the hosts four year later to Buena Vista Television. In 1985, another long-running program that Tribune had distributed was the syndicated musical *Soul Train*, just 9 years after it moved to WGN-TV, from syndication, which debuted in 1971. In 1989, Tribune signed comedienne Joan Rivers to host the daytime syndicated talk program, *The Joan Rivers Show*, five years before doing *Can We Shop?*. On March 1, 1991, Tribune had its *Geraldo* show as the first US program in the USSR under the recent Glasnost policy.

In January 1994, Tribune Entertainment started a country music initiative across broadcast television, concert touring, direct marketing, home video distribution, pay-per-view and radio syndication. Under the initiative programming would start in the fall 1994 with a weekly syndicated country music television and companion radio program then home video releases and pay-per-view events in 1995, With Nashville Country Club Inc., Tribune announced as a part of this initiative to operate "Road" performance clubs and restaurants with the first to open in 1995. In July 1995, Tribune sold 22 episodes of "Road", their canceled country music show, to the Nashville Network for broadcast starting in January 1996.

In July 2003, the company purchased syndication rights to 34 DreamWorks feature films to use on Tribune stations starting in August 2006. The films would be also sold to other stations via barter or sale while supervising marketing for the films.

On December 18, 2007, Tribune Entertainment announced it would exit the program distribution business. In 2008, it sold its Tribune Studios for $125 million to Hudson Capital, LLC.

In 2010, Tribune announced that it would be considering a re-entry into the syndication market with two new talk shows: one a tabloid-style show hosted by Bubba the Love Sponge, and another, "Big Willie" (since renamed *The Bill Cunningham Show*). Both programs filmed pilot programs and Bill Cunningham's show aired during a week long test on Tribune stations.

## First Run Programming

### Current

* Bullseye
* Card Sharks
* Child's Play
* The Golden Ticket
* Press Your Luck
* Showoffs
* Tattletales
* Yahtzee