The future of "Soul Train"

[john...@yahoo.com]

For the last few months now, "Soul Train" has been airing classic
episodes from the '70s and '80s in lieu of the new episodes they've
been taping for this season. Why, you ask?

Here's why: in recent years, ratings for the show has dropped hard to
below 1.0 as stations who used to show Soul Train on Saturday
afternoons have buried it to middle-of-the-night time slots. Tribune
Entertainment -- Soul Train's syndicator since 1985 -- was very
unhappy at these bits of news, and plans were made to derail the Train
(i.e., canceling the show) after 35 years as television's longest-
running, first-run syndicated program. When Don Cornelius heard about
this, the only way he's been doing to save his franchise -- which
includes the annual Soul Train Music Awards, in which this year's is
coming up -- is to crack open the vaults and air the old episodes as
"The Best of Soul Train."

The new episodes for the 36th season have been taped since December
and were supposed to air starting in February, but the response (and
the ratings) for the classic shows have been tremendous and those new
shows will still have to wait a while.

What does the future hold for Soul Train? Well, Tribune has been in
financial peril lately, and a change in syndicators may be the best
way to keep the Train chugging for a bit longer. King World might be
interested, as the shows they've distributed (Wheel of Fortune,
Jeopardy, Oprah Winfrey) have been atop the syndication ratings for
over 20 years. Another is NBC Universal, because they'll be without a
first-run weekly (George Michael Sports Machine) after this month. If
the current run of Family Feud can switch from one distributor to
another (Tribune to Debmar-Mercury), so should Soul Train! Of course,
that could mean stations running the show once again in the Saturday
afternoon slots where they belong(ed).

I wouldn't be surprised if we'll be hearing "The
SOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUULLLLLLL TRAIN!!!!!!!" come their 37th season...that
is, if the show will be in HD.

Jonathan Allen

[hobb...@yahoo.com]

Hear, hear!!

I remember when Soul Train debuted all the way back in 1971. Back
then, the local CBS affiliate (which currently is an ABC affil) ran
Train on Saturday afternoons. They decided to black out the CBS
Children's Film Festival. American Bandstand? Back then, it too was
blacked out because the ABC affil at the time (which currently is a
NBC affil) preferred to run a syndicated horror movie package (Seymour
Presents, which few, it seems, remember), and Bandstand didn't return
to local airwaves until a few years later, after all the flip-flopping
of network affiliations. It would've been great to see Bandstand &
Train back-to-back, but it didn't happen.

Today, it is buried in late night on the CW affiliate here, around 2
AM on Sunday nights/Monday mornings. I had read that Dorian Gregory
(ex-Charmed) was to replace Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds) as the new
host. Will that still happen?

J. C. Gilbert

[donGoliano]

<hobb...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1173586873....@8g2000cwh.googlegroups.com...

Shemar Moore was replaced by Dorian Gregory in season 33. The next season,
when and if it starts, will be season 36.

[S1500]

john...@yahoo.com wrote:
> For the last few months now, "Soul Train" has been airing classic
> episodes from the '70s and '80s in lieu of the new episodes they've
> been taping for this season. Why, you ask?
>

> I wouldn't be surprised if we'll be hearing "The

> SOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUULLLLLLL TRAIN!!!!!!!" come their 37th season...that
> is, if the show will be in HD.

I think the big shocker here is that it is still on the air. That's like
finding out drive-in movie theaters still exist.

[fadeToblack]

On Mar 7, 8:35 pm, johnny...@yahoo.com wrote:
> For the last few months now, "SoulTrain" has been airing classic

> episodes from the '70s and '80s in lieu of the new episodes they've
> been taping for this season. Why, you ask?

Last week I cought the last 15 min and was shocked to see it. I
thought for sure it was a promo for some sort of new DVD set.
last night Run DMC was one of the 'new' groups! they should only
run the shows from the 80s. I have the ole vcr set to start rec at 1
to 2am sundays. This is fantastic TV I just hope they keep it going at
least untill I get a few 6hr vhs filled up, heh......