WGN-TV

===Lottery===
WGN-TV served as the originating station for the [[Illinois Lottery]] beginning at its July 1974 inception. Live drawings initially aired as a half-hour Thursday night broadcast (then hosted by Ray Rayner) held at its Bradley Place studios. Channel 9 shared the drawing rights with WSNS-TV from March to May 1975 and again from September 1975 until August 1977, when WGN gained exclusivity over the telecasts. With the introduction of the Daily Game (now Pick 3) in February 1980, drawings began airing on the station at 6:57&nbsp;p.m. nightly.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Gaming shows a winner in Ohio, Illinois |periodical=Broadcasting |page=48 |date=June 2, 1975}}</ref> After a three-year run on WFLD (which assumed drawing rights in January 1984), the Lottery migrated the drawing telecasts back to WGN-TV in January 1987. In August 1992, the Lottery awarded the telecast rights to its drawings and game show to CBS-owned WBBM—which beat out competing offers from WGN and WLS-TV, and saw the move as a way to help improve viewership for its third-place-ranked 10&nbsp;p.m. newscast—effective December 28. WBBM's bid was chosen for its offers to hold the drawings during its late newscast (which ultimately produced no beneficial ratings impact) and agreed to handle promotional responsibilities and production costs.<ref name="tribune-lotteryauto"/> Citing in part the station's statewide cable distribution (which, after the SyndEx rules were implemented, would occasionally subject the evening drawings to preemption associated with that of the delayed 9&nbsp;p.m. newscast when sports clearance restrictions applied to the WGN national feed), the Lottery moved its telecasts back to WGN on January 1, 1994; with this move, citing declining revenues under the WBBM contract partly under the later drawing timeslot, the live evening results were shifted to 9:22&nbsp;p.m. Midday drawings for Pick 3 and Pick 4 were added upon their introduction on December 20, 1994. (The 12:40&nbsp;p.m. drawings were shown during WGN's noon newscast on weekdays, while the Saturday drawing was usually not shown live nationally because of programming substitutions.)<ref>{{cite news |title=Lottery Considering Changing Channels |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-11-19-9311190074-story.html |author=Michael A. Lev |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=December 19, 1993 |access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Channel 9 Beats Out Channel 2 for Lottery Drawing |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-11-23-9311230040-story.html |author=Michael A. Lev |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=August 2, 1989 |access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref><ref name="illlottery-history"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Drawing Fact Sheet |url=http://www.illinoislottery.com/subsections/drawfact.htm/ |website=[[Illinois State Lottery]] |access-date=December 15, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124013052/http://illinoislottery.com/subsections/drawfact.htm |archive-date=November 24, 2010}}</ref>

In addition to the live drawing results, WGN also carried two lottery-produced weekly game shows. From September 16, 1989, to December 19, 1992, and from January 8 to July 2, 1994, the station aired ''[[$100,000 Fortune Hunt]]''. It was originally hosted by [[Jeff Coopwood]], with co-host Linda Kollmeyer, and subsequently with Mike Jackson as host. The program saw six contestants selected from a preliminary [[scratch-off]] entry ticket drawing choose panels from a numbered 36-panel game board containing various dollar amounts. The player with the highest prize amount after five rounds won $100,000 and their two chosen at-home partners won $500 each; the remaining on-air contestants kept their existing winnings, with their partners receiving $100. (Initially, each on-air contestant was given the option of keeping their winnings or trading them for other prizes.) <ref>{{cite news |title=Lottery, WGN-TV Team Up for Show |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-08-02-8901010451-story.html |author=Sumeeta Rai |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=August 2, 1989 |access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref><ref name="illlottery-history">{{cite web |title=Lottery History |url=https://www.illinoislottery.com/illinois-lottery/lottery-history |website=Illinois State Lottery |access-date=March 20, 2019 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321201006/https://www.illinoislottery.com/illinois-lottery/lottery-history |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Smile! It's lottery lady Linda Kollmeyer |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-lottery-lady-linda-kollmeyer-20150930-story.html |author=Kevin Pang |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=September 30, 2015 |access-date=October 1, 2015}}</ref> Its successor, ''Illinois Instant Riches'' (retitled ''Illinois' Luckiest'' in 1998), ran from July 9, 1994, to October 21, 2000, with [[Mark Goodman]] and Kollmeyer as co-hosts. Produced in conjunction with [[Mark Goodson|Mark Goodson Productions]] (later [[Jonathan Goodson Productions]]), it featured a similar drawing format as its predecessor, but had individual contestants chosen randomly by a wheel spun by Kollmeyer each round (which was hooked to lights above each contestant's seat) play various mini-games.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Goodson takes chance on state lotteries |author=David Tobenkin |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable |page=21 |date=August 8, 1994}}</ref>

In September 1996, the station began carrying The Big Game multi-state drawing (replaced by [[Mega Millions]] in May 2002) each Tuesday and Friday; [[Powerball]] drawings were eventually added upon Illinois joining that multi-state lottery in January 2010. WGN America ceased carrying the drawings nationally on December 12, 2014; the Lottery ceased televising its daily drawings outright and moved the results for the Pick 3, Pick 4, Lotto with Extra Shot and Lucky Day Lotto (formerly Little Lotto until 2011) games exclusively to its website on October 1, 2015, upon switching to a [[random number generator]] structure.<ref>{{cite news |title=WGN America dropping Illinois Lottery drawings |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-wgna-lottery-1215-biz-20141212-story.html |author=Robert Channick |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=December 12, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Last WGN-TV Live Lottery Marks End of an Era |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-wgn-lottery-met-20150930-story.html |author=Angie Leventis Lourgos |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=September 30, 2015 |access-date=October 1, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Illinois Lottery moves drawings from TV to online |url=https://wgntv.com/2015/09/25/illinois-lottery-moves-drawings-from-tv-to-online/ |website=WGN-TV |publisher=Tribune Broadcasting |date=September 25, 2015 |access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=No more numbered balls or live telecasts as Illinois Lottery drawings going digital |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/no-more-numbered-balls-or-live-telecasts-as-illinois-lottery-drawings-going-digital/ |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |date=September 29, 2015 |access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref>