Channel 20 Detroit Has New 10pm News Hosted By WXYZ 7 Staff. Merger puts two stations under the same roof.

Detroit area viewers now have a choice for local news at 10 p.m. 

7 Action News at 10 on TV20 Detroit premieres today at 10 p.m. The new 10 p.m. newscast will be anchored Monday-Friday by Glenda Lewis and Malcolm Maddox, with chief meteorologist Dave Rexroth’s 7 First Alert weather forecasts, and 7 sports director Tom Leyden’s up-to-the-minute sports reports.

Weekend editions will be anchored by 7 Action News veteran Dave LewAllen, with meteorologist Hally Vogel and sports anchor David Solano.

According to WXYZ , 7 Action News at 10 on TV20 will be fast-paced and include big interviews, investigative reports and an aggressive “Taking Action for You” attitude.

Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co., the parent company of WXYZ-TV, closed Monday on the purchase of MyNetwork TV affiliate WMYD Channel 20 in a $110 million cash deal that also includes the purchase of WKBW, Buffalo’s ABC affiliate, from New York City-based Granite Broadcasting Corp.

The deal, which has no debt financing and required Federal Communications Commission approval, brings Scripps’ ABC affiliate count to 11, which will reach almost 12 percent of American households, according to a news release.

Scripps now owns 21 stations throughout the country and has a total market share of nearly 14 percent, according to the release.

It creates the second duopoly in the Detroit television market. The other is WWJ-TV Ch. 62, a CBS station, and WKBD-TV Ch. 50, a CW Network affiliate, which are owned and operated by CBS Corp.

“These stations in Detroit and Buffalo will contribute strong cash flow to our core businesses, expand our reach in one of our best markets, and expand our TV footprint in partnership with ABC,” Rich Boehne, Scripps chairman, president and CEO, said in a news release.

Granite bought WMYD in 1997 for $175 million.

WMYD was formed in 2006 when FOX parent News Corp. created the MyNetworkTV network for stations orphaned by the merger of The WB Network and UPN, which resulted in the CBS- and Warner Bros.-owned The CW Network.

WMYD has a studio in Southfield. Its employees will move to the WXYZ headquarters as part of the deal. Some of the station’s content is produced in Fort Wayne.

Scripps has since 1986 owned WXYZ, the broadcaster’s largest television station, reaching nearly 2.7 million households in the Detroit market.

Scripps (NYSE: SSP) in 2012 reported $160 million in profit from its television stations on $903 million in company-wide revenue ($494 million of which was television).

The company’s financial disclosures didn’t break down by station.

The station first went on the air in September 1968 as independently owned WXON-TV Ch. 62, a UHF station. It was WDWB-TV from 1997-2006.