Just ahead of NATPE in Miami, the Fox Television Stations will air CBS Television Distribution’s Breakthrough With Dr. Steve Perry for two weeks on eight Fox-owned stations starting on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, said Angelica McDaniel, executive VP, syndicated program development, CTD, and Frank Cicha, senior VP, programming, Fox Television Stations.
The hour-long talk show will star Dr. Steve Perry, an educator and advocate best known for creating educational opportunities for children, who will offer advice and guidance to guests, helping them move from breakdown to breakthrough.
“We are excited to bring Dr. Perry’s unique voice and inspiring perspective to daytime,” McDaniel said in a statement. “He has been committed to improving the lives of American families for decades, and we are thrilled to be taking the work he does in his office every day and moving it to television so that millions more people can benefit from his wisdom and advice.”
“Everybody needs a breakthrough! I am humbled and excited to take people through theirs,” Perry said, also in a statement. “What makes TV matter is when it adds value to our lives. There’s nothing more valuable than learning how to arrive at a breakthrough, and I look forward to sharing that experience with viewers.”
The show will air on Fox’s WNYW New York at 2 p.m.; KTTV Los Angeles at 1 p.m.; KTXH Houston at 5 p.m.; WAGA Atlanta at 2 p.m.; KUTP Phoenix at 8 p.m.; WJBK Detroit at 2 p.m.; WOFL Orlando at 2 p.m.; and WJZY Charlotte, N.C., at 10 a.m.
“We think Breakthrough has potential,” added Cicha, also in a statement. “And being able to present it in January, when there isn’t much going on in syndication, makes it that much more compelling. Our goal is to deliver fresh programming year-round, so we’re glad to be working with CBS on this.”
Perry is a respected educator and public speaker who has been fighting to better the lives of disadvantaged children and families for 30 years. In 2005, he became founder and principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., with the goal of providing high-quality education with college-bound opportunities for children in poverty.
Named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top schools in the country, Capital Prep has sent 100% of its predominantly low-income, minority, first-generation high-school graduates to four-year colleges every year since its first class graduated in 2006. That success led him to start Capital Preparatory Schools, a nonprofit organization that opens and operates charter schools in New York and Connecticut. Three schools are currently open in Harlem, Conn. and the Bronx.
Raised in Middletown, Conn., Perry overcame a childhood living in poverty. He grew up to become a social worker and earned a master’s degree in social work and an Ed.D, which he was determined to use to inspire young people to see their own value and improve their own lives.
He was the focus of CNN's “Black in America” series, and now serves as an education contributor for CNN and MSNBC, a columnist for Essence Magazine, and host of TVOne’s docudrama Save My Son.
He also wrote best-selling book, Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids The Education They Deserve – Even If It Means Picking a Fight. He has been featured in multiple shows on the Oprah Winfrey Network and is an education advisor to Oprah Winfrey, Sean “P-Diddy” Combs and Bishop TD Jakes.
