Archive for March, 2009

Goodbye Jerry Springer – we barely knew ya :-(

What’s good for Stamford is bad for Chicago

Just read this bad news (for Chicago tv production teams and actors, etc.) via ReelChicago.com.  Looks like The Jerry Springer Show and the Steve Wilkos Show will be packing up their bags and moving to Stamford, CT, the location of NBC’s new TV studio – as early as this summer.

It seems that nobody knew about this move in advance, not even Jerry Springer.  (and Springer is not happy about it, saying that he liked living in Chicago).  (aside: can this really be true, that nobody knew about this??)

More specifics directly from ReelChicago:

An overjoyed Gov. Jodi Rell of Connecticut said the shows would bring 150 to 200 jobs to the state and an initial infrastructure investment of more than $3 million.

The shows will move in July into a new production facility being built in Stamford, Connecticut. The state not only provides a 30% tax credit, but also gives a 20% tax credit on infrastructure costs after the first $1 million spent.

To put it another way, Illinois will lose 150 to 200 badly needed jobs.

There are other losses, too, such as show-generated revenues that trickle down 2.5 times into the general economy, through expenditures like limos hired to pick up guests, the hotels they stay in, the meals they eat and tourist dollars spent.

And the income that ceases for Pixel Brothers, after producing field shoots for the Springer show for 10 of its 19 years in Chicago.

ReelChicago continues with an explanation of the entire tax credit debacle that took place in the Illinois congress last March, which made way for Connecticut to *kidnap* these shows.  Read entire article here.