CDub Back on WGN in Chicago

[Mark Jeffries]

After an eight-year hiatus where it was on Fox-owned WPWR for three years and Weigel's WCIU for five years, the now-Nexstar-owned The CW will return to now-Nexstar-owned WGN in Chicago in September (WGN had been carrying CW live sports turned down by WCIU, including the LIV golf tour):

https://chicago.suntimes.com/movies-and-tv/2024/05/01/the-cw-chicago-wgn-wciu

"Chicago's Very Own" was a charter affil of the CDub coming out of the merger of UPN and The WB in 2006--it dropped the net in 2016 in order to keep up a heavy live sports schedule (Cubs/White Sox/Bulls/Black Hawks) in prime time the network did not allow.  Four years later, the three latter teams went to NBC Sports Chicago and the Cubs started Marquee with Sinclair.   Despite the recent problems regional cable sports channels have been having, both NBCSC and Marquee seem not to be in crisis mode--but one wonders if WCIU will go after the live sports contracts if the channels go under. For now, WCIU will move the "The U" branding back to the main channel from their .2 subchannel and low-powered station WMEU and revert to being an independent.