News with an L.A. twist

What started out as a local news show seven years ago is headed into national syndication.

Following a three-month test, Twentieth Television executives announced last week that they are going to distribute daily news-and-entertainment series Good Day Live to local stations across the nation next season. The one-hour program, an offshoot of KTTV-TV Los Angeles's quirky morning news program, Good Day LA, will be able to call on Fox News resources to cover breaking news, according to a Twentieth executive.

"It's a proven show, not just with the test run of Good Day Live but also with the successful years the show has already had as Good Day LA," says Paul Franklin, Twentieth TV executive vice president and general sales manager. "It is a well-oiled machine."

The machine is powered by three Hollywood-based anchors: Steve Edwards, a talk-show host or news anchor in Los Angeles for several decades; Jillian Barberie, who hosts a game show on FX, and Dorothy Lucey, an entertainment insider.

Twentieth launched Good Day Live on a half dozen Fox stations nationally in December and added another half dozen last month.

President Bob Cook says, "Increased interest from the marketplace and a strong need for something original indicated to us that the time was right to offer the show to stations and audiences across the country."

Twentieth launched court series Texas Justice similarly with the Fox stations last year and went national two months ago. The series finished the February sweeps period as the top-rated new daily series in syndication. Good Day Live will officially get going on a national basis in January, but many new stations will start airing it as soon as this summer.