Looking for Some Oprah Magic: Steve Harvey Talks About His Return to Chicago

Before Steve Harvey landed his TV sit-com in 1996, he
started his radio career in the Windy City 

Harvey will move to Chicago from Atlanta to tape the daily show and will do his morning radio show at studios in the Illinois Center when he's in town, but the radio show and "Family Feud" will both remain based in Atlanta

CHICAGO SUN TIMES When Steve Harvey signed on to do a nationally syndicated daytime TV talk show, producers considered basing the program in Connecticut or New York. Harvey’s current hometown, Atlanta, was in the mix too.

“But Chicago was my favorite pick,” said Harvey, 55, who lived downtown in the mid-’90s during his stint as morning radio host on WGCI-FM (107.5).

“It’s such a great city,” said the stand-up comic, author and TV and radio personality. “The restaurants are great. The neighborhoods are great. The downtown is probably one of the best downtowns there is. If I’ve got to take my family somewhere, I’ll take them there.”

Harvey already has a real estate agent scoping out potential new homes in the city for him and his wife, Marjorie, and the youngest of their seven children, Lori, 15, and Wynton, 14.

Read more at the Chicago Sun Times

So why the move from Atlanta to Chicago? It's all about tax credits -- The Chicago Tribune reports: "Steve Harvey" (the name of the new daytime talk show) could produce $7.5 million in tax credits annually, based on company estimates that the new show will generate annual spending of around $25 million on production staff and vendors, including construction, local restaurants, caterers, hotels, car services, cleaning services and maintenance companies.