WKYC finally became a factor in the Cleveland television news race in 2003, after it had picked up the then brand new "Dr. Phil" program and placed it in the 5:00 p.m. time slot. This move proved to be very successful since all of the other local major network affiliates were broadcasting news at 5:00 p.m. and this gave viewers an alternative; it also allowed WKYC to be able to get many viewers to change channels at the end of WEWS's 4:00 p.m. broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" so as to watch "Dr. Phil" (which was a spinoff of "Oprah") at 5:00 p.m. (the syndication contracts for both shows disallowed them from airing against each other). During the broadcast of "Dr. Phil", WKYC heavily promoted its 6:00 p.m. newscast, which began to experience sharp ratings increases, which then trickled down to the 7:00 p.m. newscast.