Sunday Night Television: The Brown Bag Club

Sad sack Bears, lackluster ABC and Fox lineups dampen night Note: numbers are 18-49 preliminary unless otherwise noted.  And you thought Friday night television was bad. Sunday is fast becoming Tune-Out Night In America. And the lackluster Bears (and two of their oldest animated sitcoms who are like Steve Dahl and Jonathan Brandmeier – past-their-prime acts who won’t get off the […]

“MacGyver” tops Friday ratings

CBS remake scores decent sampling; Church of Tisch dominates the evening Note: These results are based on adults 18-49 preliminary ratings. On The Simpsons, Patty and Selma said they’re favorite TV show was MacGvyer, the 1985-92 ABC series featuring Richard Dean Anderson (it was even part of a plot of one 1992 episode where Selma marries Sideshow Bob.) So you […]

Tough night for network TV

Unless you’re CBS After three nights of momentum, network TV slid off the rails Thursday as two programs’ premieres underwhelmed. For the record, real-life events had an effect on TV schedules – police protests in Charlotte were covered on cable news networks and spurred pre-emptions on several Charlotte TV stations; and here in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a […]

“Designated Survivor” off to strong start

Kiefer Sutherland gets to do something he was never able to do on 24 – become President of The United States. And he didn’t even battle Dennis Haysbert for the job. The biggest debut of the night was the premiere of Designated Survivor, the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle where he plays the President Of The United States – getting the position […]

“This Is Us”, ‘Bull” rams through competition

New dramas get strong sampling; The Voice continues to dominate; S.H.I.E.L.D. skids off radar The first Tuesday of the new season bought more ratings riches for both CBS and ABC while ABC and Fox struggled to remain competitive. Obviously, the story of the night is the successful debuts of CBS’ Bull and NBC’s This is Us. The latter show benefited […]

Bears bomb on field and in ratings

  If you thought the Chicago White Sox had a bad season…you ain’t seen nothing yet Maybe we should send Chris Sale to cut up some Bears jerseys in the locker room. Monday night certainly wasn’t football night for Bears fans as the team put up the worst performance in at least two seasons as the team was blown out […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: T Dog Media at 10

Happy anniversary to T Dog Media! It’s a different media world today than it was when I started this. As we mark the ten-year anniversary of T Dog Media this weekend, I would like to take a look back – not at dopey posts from the early years such as these (really bad idea)…or getting involved in feuds (Wil Wheaton and […]

Cubs score one for the record books

Cubs destroy competition off the field, including the once-mighty NFL – setting a cable TV record in the process Despite loss, Cubs clinch NL Central Even with a loss last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs continue to roll with a dominant ratings performance on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. According to a press release, the Brewers-Cubs telecast Thursday night on […]

T Dog”s Media Notepad: Introducing MeTV Music

WCIU to air Bears game Monday night MeTV launches Internet stream Chi-Town Rising gets another run Tribune renews Fox affiliations in six markets As first reported by Robert Feder Monday, Weigel’s MeTV is launching a separate Internet stream of its terrestrial radio station at WRME-LP (87.7 FM). “MeTV Music brings back so many of the artists and songs that terrestrial radio has […]

Ratings roundup: “Harry” off to decent start

Cubs score; NFL slides a bit (Editor’s Note: The YouTube video in this post was deleted.) With the new season a week away, new programming is already popping up – and getting decent sampling. The launch of Harry Connick Jr.’s daytime talk show Monday met ratings expectations, drawing a 1.4 household rating/4 share in 56 metered markets, according to Nielsen. […]

Dish, Tribune reach retrans agreement

The long national nightmare is over – for Dish viewers who couldn’t get Tribune stations. On Saturday, Tribune and Dish finally came to an agreement on retransmission consent, three months after a dispute over the matter knocked 42 Tribune stations off the air in 33 markets. The stations off Dish include newly independent WGN-TV here in Chicago, and CW affiliates WPIX […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Tribune Tower sold to L.A. developer

Tribune Media announced Tuesday the historic building housing the company and the Chicago Tribune has been sold to Los Angeles-based developer CIM Inc, for $280 million. The developer is planning to add retail space to the building through a complete renovation. The sale likely forces out the Tribune, which it and parent company Tronc has a lease until 2018. Last year, Tribune split is […]