T Dog’s Six Pack: The Pyramid of Fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to The Six Pack Pyramid and here’s your host… Terence! All right, we have three contestants in the Winner’s Circle this week and let’s see who’s in the Loser’s Circle … Wow! Another waiting line? Why is it that there are always more eligible losers than winners in these six packs? Does the media business always suck this much? Well, at least in the Loser’s Circle, I don’t have to give away trips or stuff from 7-11… Unfortunately, I can only let three in – otherwise, it wouldn’t be a Six Pack…

Let’s see… Sorry, Paul Reiser, can’t let you in. Even though you certainly deserve to be here with the pathetic ratings performance of your new NBC show Thursday night, it’s not enough to let you in… Cubs, White Sox, and Red Sox – your pathetic performances aren’t good – er, I mean bad enough either: too early in the baseball season, though the White Sox closers are about as good as Fox’s Traffic Light and Breaking In. Speaking of those two sitcoms – they can’t get in either. So much for this talk of the sitcom coming back. But there’s always next week… and even then, we’ll still have a line waiting to get in the Loser’s Circle.

The Winner’s Circle

Chicago Bulls. Remember when the Bulls were once the joke of the league shortly after the Jordan era? Well, laugh no more. The team led by Chicago native and future MVP Derrick Rose finished with the best record in the NBA (62-20) and ratings for those regular-season games on Comcast SportsNet averaged a 4.5 rating, up 90 percent from last season – and those numbers are sure to soar when the NBA playoffs begin this weekend. For a complete playoff television schedule of their first-round series with the Indiana Pacers, click here.

Judge Judy.
Thanks to a change in the Nielsen ratings on how syndicated shows are tabulated, Judge Judy topped the charts, beating longtime champ Wheel of Fortune.

The New Hawaii Five-O.
Thanks to a rather expensive syndicated deal worth $2 million-per-episode deal with TNT for stripping in 2014, the freshman revival of the classic 1968-80 series unintentionally received a three-year renewal – thanks to a preemptive bid by a unidentified cable network. Remember the days when the buyer chose to bring a show to market and not the seller? Yeah, my cable bill thanks you.


The Loser’s Circle

Chicago Blackhawks. Remember the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup run last year, bringing great ratings to Versus, Comcast SportsNet, and NBC? Since the Hawks are now down 2-0 in their opening round playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks, the Blackhawks’ playoff show may be canceled after a four-episode run – even before Paul Reiser’s (see how I worked that reference in there?)

Soap Operas. With the cancellation this week of All My Children and One Life To Live, the daytime soap – created by Chicagoan Irna Phillips way back when for WGN Radio – is now officially fighting for its life with just four programs left in the genre. Can the daytime sudsers survive to see another generation? Will anyone still watch? Tune in tomorrow for the answer on As The Soap Opera Turns! (actually, this won’t be resolved tomorrow, so don’t bother tuning in.)

Good Day Chicago. Congrats to Good Day Chicago for achieving something anyone thought was possible – a landmark 0.0 rating in the 9-10 a.m. hour, below such fare as Believer’s Voice of Victory, Paula White Today, and infomercials featuring Genie Bras and food choppers. To anyone else, a hash mark would signal the kiss of death for a program. To Fox-owned WFLD-TV, it’s s cause to give Good Day Chicago a four-year renewal. Yes, management there is that dumb. They hired Carol Fowler as news director, didn’t they?

0