T Dog’s Media Notepad: “Crazy Talk” heads to Ch. 50

pencil-and-paper-animation-PPP_CGENE_LT3_Notepad_w_Pencil(Editor’s Note: As of today, the short cavalcade of items known as T Dog’s Grab Bag – which was once known as T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag – is being renamed T Dog’s Media Notepad as yours truly is gradually doing away with the cutesy names and striving for a more professional appearance. – T. H.)

– NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution announced Monday a firm go for new half-hour clip show Crazy Talk, which has been picked up by WPWR-TV for a Sept. 14 debut. Hosted by former Bad Girls Club and Girlfriend Intervention star Tanisha Thomas and Ben Aaron and shot in front of a studio audience, Crazy Talk explores the nutty side of conflict talk  and reality TV shows, of which I assure you, clips will not be in short supply.

The format is similar to E!’s Talk Soup.

The series is being taped in Stamford, Conn. home to guess what – three conflict talk shows. The producer for one of those shows (Maury’s Paul Faulhaber) is the executive producer of Crazy Talk.

In addition to WPWR, Crazy Talk has cleared Fox, Sinclair, Sunbeam, Tribune, Cox, and Raycom stations, among others clearing 99 percent of the country. Most stations plan to air two episodes a day, back-to-back.

– How does Chicago’s TV and radio stations stack up on social media? NetNewsCheck and Shareblee did a story on usage here in the nation’s third-largest market for the last six months, and just as it is in the TV ratings department, ABC-owned WLS-TV dominates with 26.7 million social impressions, 209 percent ahead of second-place K-Love, a Christian radio network airing locally over WJKL-FM (94.3), which has a huge Instagram presence. Despite toiling in the ratings basement, WFLD’s MyFoxChicago.com ranked third with 8.03 million impressions.

Other TV stations on the chart include WGNTV.com finishing fourth, with 4.31 million impressions and NBC-owned WMAQ ranking sixth with 3.82 million.

The Chicago Tribune has a sizable lead over rival Sun-Times, with 2.0 million impressions to 1.53 million.

Three other Chicago radio stations filled out the top ten – all of them (WOJO, WPPN, and WLEY-FM) Spanish-language stations. Despite finishing first in Nielsen’s PPM ratings, WVAZ-FM did not make the cut – in fact, not a single iHeart Media, CBS, Hubbard, or Cumulus station did so – and neither did the much talked-about (too much in yours truly’s opinion) WGN-AM.

– Remember Elizabeth Dozier, the principal of Fenger High School featured in last year’s docuflop Chicagoland? Dozier announced this week she was stepping down from her position, effective as of Friday. Dozier was prominently shown in the 2014 CNN miniseries, trying to hold her school together in a neighborhood full of social ills. During her tenure, the school’s graduation rate more than doubled and the dropout rate shrunk.

Dozier declined to disclose why she was leaving; Chicago Public Schools refused comment.

Of course, this isn’t a new problem for Fenger. The Chicago Tribune did a story about the school in 1981 and interviewed then-principal Leo Dillon, who like Dozier, tried to run the school under the toughest of circumstances, notably dealing with three murders from its student body and increasing gang and gun violence. Sadly, things haven’t changed much in Roseland since then; but at least credit Dozier for making things a little better for her students.

– Trifecta Entertainment’s celebrity-driven magazine show OK TV! has been renewed for a third season, despite rock-bottom ratings. The renewal comes after WABC-TV in New York picked up the show for its late-night schedule, and KCAL-TV in Los Angeles also agreed to renew the show. Season-to-date, OK TV is averaging a 0.2 Nielsen live-plus- same day rating, according to TVNewsCheck, placing it last among all syndicated magazine shows. The program is based on the entertainment tabloid magazine of the same name and also airs on the Reelz Channel.

In Chicago, OK TV! airs on The U Too at 11:30 a.m. each weekday.

Suffice to say, outside of Byron Allen’s programming, this has to be the lowest-rated program to ever get renewed.

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