The NBC Owned Television Stations have renewed Warner Bros.’ The Ellen DeGeneres Show through summer 2020, said Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, and Ken Werner, president of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in a joint statement on Monday.
The series — which is produced by Warner Bros.’ first-run production arm, Telepictures Productions — will continue to air on all ten of NBC’s owned stations. Ellen first premiered in 2003, and this extension will take the show to 17 years on the air. Since then, Ellen has become both a top talk show, as well as a strong presence on the Internet, with its own video site, Ellentube, and millions of followers on social media.
As part of the renewal, NBC is moving the show back an hour in four markets — WNBC New York, KNBC Los Angeles, WTVJ Miami and WVIT Hartford, Conn. — in order to add an hour of local news at 4 p.m. Those local newscasts will start in late May.
“Our stations have done a great job building their news teams, enterprising stories and delivering our viewers the local news, weather and information that is important to them,” said Staab in a statement. “Our new 4 p.m. newscasts will expand on our local news commitment and offer our viewers even more of what they’re looking for.”
Most of the other NBC owned stations already have newscasts at 4 p.m., including WCAU Philadelphia, KXAS Dallas-Fort Worth, WRC Washington, D.C., and KNSD San Diego. In those markets, Ellen already airs at 3 p.m. preceded by The Steve Harvey Show at 2 p.m. NBC and Endemol Shine are currently working to renew Harvey’s talent contract, which is in place through the end of the 2016-17 TV season, and then renew The Steve Harvey Show in multi-year deals. As expected, NBC also will end the run of Meredith Vieira at the end of this season after two years on the air.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show is produced by DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production and WAD Productions in association with Telepictures and is distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. DeGeneres, Mary Connelly, Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and Kevin Leman serve as executive producers.
