Just when WLS-Channel 7 finally has its morning and afternoon schedule straightened out, the top-rated ABC-owned station is bracing for more changes to its daytime lineup.
Next up is “The Fab” (an acronym for “Fun and Beautiful”), a Los Angeles-based syndicated lifestyle talk show. Host Tyra Banks, who’ll double as executive producer, will moderate a panel featuring YouTube star Leah Ashley, Yahoo! Fashion and Entertainment editor-in-chief Joe Zee, model Chrissy Teigen and interior designer Lauren Makk.
ABC 7 is one of eight ABC-owned stations that will air “The Fab” when it debuts in the fall of 2015. “Tyra and her panel of lifestyle experts share a chemistry that is energetic and extremely entertaining,” Rebecca Campbell, president of ABC Owned Station Group, said in a statement. It’s a return to daytime TV for Banks, who hosted her own talk show from 2005 to 2010.
The latest addition will mark the fourth time in four years that ABC 7 has rearranged its daytime schedule. That’s in contrast to the quarter-century of stability when “The Oprah Winfrey Show” at 9 a.m. led off the station’s bullet-proof block of morning and afternoon programming.
When will “The Fab” air here? ABC 7 executives are still figuring that out, but one thing is certain: “This show will not be replacing ‘Windy City Live,’ ” a station spokeswoman said emphatically Thursday. The locally produced talk show airs at 11 a.m. weekdays.
Rachael Ray, look out. Tyra Banks may be coming for you.