WGN adds ‘Crime Watch Daily’ at 3 p.m.

Matt Doran

Matt Doran

Billed as the first crime show in daytime syndication, “Crime Watch Daily” will air weekday afternoons this fall on Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9.

The Los Angeles-based hourlong show, which will draw on resources and reporters from local newsrooms across the country, will air at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, starting September 14. On WGN it will replace the second of two daily airings of “Maury,” the vile paternity-test talk show hosted by Maury Povich, which will continue to air at 1 p.m.

Greg Easterly, president and general manager of WGN, said “Crime Watch Daily” will serve as a more compatible lead-in to the station’s 4 p.m. newscast. In fact, by one critical definition, it is a news program.

Crime Watch Daily

Crime Watch Daily

The Federal Communications Commission ruled August 11 that “Crime Watch Daily” qualifies as a bona fide newscast “because it reports news of some area of current events, in a manner similar to more traditional newscasts.”

The ruling is significant, according to Broadcasting & Cable, because it exempts stations from having to offer “equal time” to candidates running against judges, sheriffs, district attorneys or other officials who may be featured on the show. The same exemption has applied to “Entertainment Tonight” since an FCC ruling in 1988.

Hosted by Matt Doran, described as an “acclaimed Australian crime journalist and reporter,” “Crime Watch Daily” promises to “feature real-life investigations and deliver crime stories alive with mystery, intrigue and sheer human drama.” Its staples will be “unsolved murders, must-see mysteries, undercover investigations and shocking crimes caught on video.”

Said Doran: “There’ll be murders and mysteries and stings, busts and scams, con artists. . . . It really does feel to me as sort of a new genre in the crime-TV space, which I know is a big claim. It’s fast-paced and it’s edgy. It’s a sort of a twist on what people might remember from ‘America’s Most Wanted’ perhaps.”

A second run of “Crime Watch Daily” will air at 3 a.m. weekdays on WGN.