Dish Nation

Radio personalities

List of current radio shows

The radio teams include The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, from Atlanta, heard on 50+ radio stations, featuring standup comic and theatrical star Rickey Smiley who makes part time appearances, Headkrack, Porsha Williams (who replaced Ebony Steele), Gary with da Tea, Rock-T and later Da Brat who replaced him. The Heidi & Frank Show from KLOS in Los Angeles with Heidi Hamilton, Frank Kramer, Eric Smith and Sammy Marino, are also on the show, as well. Additionally, they were accompanied with Brooke Fox and Flagg (Brooke and Jubal in the Morning) from KQMV in Seattle, but were later dropped from the show in 2015. They also had nationally syndicated, The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show, from Dallas, join Dish Nation for season one in September 2012. The show starred J-Si Chavez, Kellie Rasberry, Jenna Owens, and Big Al Mack. They were dropped in December 2016.

During the 2011 Dish Nation summer test, recording artist DJ Felli Fel and Jessi Malay of Los Angeles' KPWR were a part of the radio roundtable. Blaine Fowler & Allyson Martinek In The Morning on 96.3 WDVD in Detroit were also part of the original line up as was New York’s Scott & Todd, starring Scott Shannon and Todd Pettengill on WPLJ; The DJ Laz Morning Show was added to the show's second season.

Conception

Dish Nation was conceived in 2008 by broadcast marketing veteran and former radio DJ and TV weatherman, Stu Weiss. Greg Meidel, who oversaw Entertainment Tonight in its heyday and launched The Insider while head of CBS Television Distribution, green lighted the limited market test of Dish Nation, opting to evolve to every genre he oversaw at CBS.

Summer test run

On July 25, 2011, Dish Nation premiered in a limited test run in seven markets. With the help of Madeleine Smithberg, co-creator of the The Daily Show, the show kicked off as a fast-paced entertainment roundtable covering pop culture and celebrity news through four radio teams. The test show ran in the home markets where the radio shows were based, (New York, Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles) as well as in Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Phoenix. Hosts for the test run included WPLJ's Scott Shannon and Todd Pettengill, WHTA's nationally syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show, featuring Ebony Steele, Gary With Da Tea, and HeadKrack, as well as WDVD's Fowler and Martinek. Recording artist DJ Felli Fel and Jessi Malay, with comedian Michael Bachmann, were the show's Los Angeles hosts. Dish Nation averaged a modest 0.9 rating/2 share for the six week test, but Fox saw promising growth. The show experienced an 11% increase in household ratings from the premiere week to the end of the six week test.

Dish Nation experienced other standout ratings successes, beating David Letterman in Atlanta and frequently coming in third in key demos and household ratings, though with the caveat that Atlanta's CBS affiliate is one of that network's weakest affiliate stations. The show's median age of viewers was 43.1, the lowest among all entertainment magazine shows, according to Twentieth (TMZ 43.7, Access Hollywood 52.3, Extra 54.2, The Insider 55.2, Entertainment Tonight 56.6, Inside Edition 58). However the show hasn't been always successful, the show has been canceled in the Houston and Austin markets.

Season One

Prior to the 2012 NATPE conference, 20th Century Fox announced Dish Nation would return for 52 week full series run to premiere September 10, 2012. After the rating success of its first 100 episodes, 20th Television announced on January 25, 2013 that Dish Nation was picked up for an unprecedented Season Two. Viewers "are constantly sharing with their friends that Dish Nation is the funniest show on television, resulting in new eyeballs watching the show and contributing to the continued upward trajectory of the ratings,” said Stephen Brown, EVP of programming and development at Twentieth Television.

On July 27, 2013, Kidd Kraddick died in the New Orleans area while raising money for his charity Kidd's Kids. Two days later on July 29, Dish Nation paid tribute to him with a special broadcast.

Season Two

Season 2 officially began on September 10, 2013 with the cast of The Rickey Smiley Morning Show from Atlanta, the remaining cast members of The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show (formerly named Kidd Kraddick in the Morning) from Dallas and The Heidi and Frank Show from Los Angeles. Many segments have changed and dropped throughout the season. In November 2013 Dish Nation was renewed for a 3rd season.

On May 12, 2014, Dish Nation introduced Josh Wolf and Trish Suhr as part of Dish HQ, along with Ebony Steele who moved to Los Angeles, which led to rotate the Dallas crew with the LA crew each week but only lasted until June 2014, as the show returned to its original format with Atlanta, Dallas and LA. As of June 2014, reality star Porsha Williams joined the show, teaming with The Rickey Smiley Morning Show for the summer.

Season Three

Season 3 began in September 8, 2014. In November 2014, the show began to rotate the Dallas and LA crew on a day-to-day basis (the Seattle crew comes in at various times/rotations). The Atlanta crew is the only group that appears all five days a week. On January 6, 2015 the show was renewed for two more years.

Season Four

Season Four premiered on September 7, 2015. In November 2015, rapper Da Brat was added as a main personality for the Atlanta Rickey Smiley, and appears as a part-time host usually once during the week. Dallas, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles continue to rotate the days with Atlanta but only two will remain on Dish Nation.

Joining Dish Nation as special correspondents as of March 2016 are Ben and Matt from KNIX in Phoenix, Arizona, and Miguel and Holly from Hot 101.5 from Tampa, Florida. Then, in April 2016, Tone Kapone from Chicago's WGCI became the latest member in the rotation initially for a short term, but later joined the show's team full-time.

The Dallas team, The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show, is out Skip Bayless is in from the show in December 2016.