Warner Bros.' 'Ellen' Renewed Through 2016-17

NBC, Hearst, Gannett, Belo, Sinclair, and others all renew show through season 14

By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/11/2013 10:57:14 AM

Warner Bros.' The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been renewed in 96% of the country through the 2016-17 TV season, according to Ken Werner, president of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution and Valari Staab, president of the NBC Owned TV Stations. That will bring the show through 14 seasons on the air.

Ellen's launch group remains NBC's 10-owned TV stations, which include WNBC New York, KNBC Los Angeles, WMAQ Chicago, WCAU Philadelphia, KXAS Dallas-Ft. Worth, KNTV San Francisco, WRC Washington, D.C., WTVJ Miami, KNSD San Diego and WVIT Connecticut. NBC has had good results this season pairing Ellen with NBCU's own Steve Harvey, which is produced by Endemol USA. Harvey also in renewal talks with stations and expected to be picked up by stations through 2015-16.

"Ellen is 'the crown jewel' of the NBC Owned Television Stations' daytime lineup. In fact, Ellen is the top choice for women 25-54 in her time period in seven of our markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, this season," said Staab in a statement.

Beyond the NBC-owned stations, the series also has been sold to stations in the Hearst Television, Gannett, Belo, Sinclair Broadcast Group, LIN Television, Post-Newsweek Stations, CBS Television Stations, Raycom Media, Scripps Media, Allbritton Communications, Cox Broadcasting, Communications Corp of America, Grey Television, Journal Broadcast Group, Local TV, Media General, Meredith, Nexstar Broadcasting, Max Media, Mission Broadcasting groups and many others.

This season, Ellen ties CBS Television Distribution's Dr. Phil as the top-rated talk show among daytime's key daytime demographic of women aged 25-54, with both shows scoring a 1.7 season to date. Year-to-year, Ellen is up 13% in that demo. In the recently finished February sweeps, Ellen was in second behind Phil, with a 1.8 to Phil's1.9, but final national results for the sweep are not yet available.

DeGeneres executive produces the series with Mary Connelly, Ed Glavin and Andy Lassner. Originating from Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, The Ellen DeGeneres Show is produced by A Very Good Production and WAD Productions, Inc. in association with Telepictures, Warner Bros.' first-run production arm.