KOMO-TV cancels Northwest Afternoon; show will leave the air in August

What do Madeleine Albright and Tonya Harding have in common? Seriously. Think hard now.

Answer: They've both been guests on KOMO-TV's "Northwest Afternoon," which the station announced will come to an end this summer after 24 years on the air.

The talk and variety show, which launched in 1984 and has been struggling of late against nationally syndicated shows hosted by Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil, will cease production on August 28. Originally hosted by Dick Foley and Dana Middleton, who left in the mid-1990s, its only original remaining personality is Cindi Rinehart, whose signature soap-opera roundup launches the show.

KOMO spokesman Jimm Brown says the station will absorb as many of the show's existing personalities as possible in other, existing programs. Along with Rineheart, the show now features KOMO personalities Natasha Curry, an anchor and reporter for the station's morning news, and Kent Phillips, who also co-hosts a radio show on KOMO sister station 101.5-FM.

Though Jim Clayton, KOMO's vice president and general manager, praised the show's staff for "a fantastic run," he pointed out that locally produced talk shows are running out of steam nationwide. "Northwest Afternoon," he said, was felled by new methods of measuring viewing audiences.

"It's a tough racket to be in the talk-show business these days," he said. "If there's ever any show that was killed by the Nielsen People Meter, this was the one."

A retrospective featuring some of the many guests who have appeared on the program — among them entertainers Dolly Parton and Robert Duvall, journalists Charles Gibson and the late Peter Jennings, and current presidential candidate Barack Obama — will air before the show signs off in late August.

"Northwest Afternoon" will be replaced in the fall by "The Doctors."