Chicago — "Bozo's Circus" is off the air. The Chicago television institution, and one of the longest-running locally produced children's shows in the country, was canceled by national superstation WGN-TV on Friday.
A 40th anniversary special will run this summer. The final telecast will be Aug. 26.
Bozo, Joey Dauria, welcomes a young fan to his show on Sept. 5, 1984. WGN in Chicago has ended Bozo's show.
"Every decision is a business decision," WGN Vice President and General Manager John Vitanovec said Friday, "but it sure doesn't make this one any easier."
He cited a dwindling audience and increased competition from cable as the reasons for discontinuing production of "The Bozo Super Sunday Show," the series' present once-a-week incarnation, down from its five-days-a-week schedule as "Bozo's Circus" seven years ago.
But in its glory years, Bozo as played for 23 years by the late Bob Bell and by Joey D'Auria from 1984 to today signified childhood for the millions of adults who grew up watching the show.
Kids grew up on mainstays ranging from the Grand Prize Game, where lobbing a ping-pong ball into Bucket No. 6 meant such prizes as a new bicycle or $100, to the Grand March at the end of the broadcast, which allowed them to file past the cameras and wave as the clown proudly led the procession with an extravagant baton.
Cities around the country got "Bozo" when WGN started its satellite feed in 1978. Today's kids, however, are growing up on "Rugrats" and "Doug" on cable, luring them away from such local shows as "Bozo Super Sunday," which for the 2000-01 season averaged a 1.4 rating, equaling 14,746 children ages 2 to 11.
"As the cable penetration has increased, it's allowed cable networks to live on picking off niche audiences," Vitanovec said.
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