The 2016 T Dog Media Turkey Awards
(Editor’s Note: This is T Dog Media’s 3,000th post!)
Welcome to the 11th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards – celebrating the worst in media, sports, and life in general.
There were many nominees this year, but I don’t think you want to be here all day. Thus, yours truly whittled it down to nineteen recipients this year. Let’s get gobblin’!
Your President-elect Donald Trump. Really, a no-brainer. Just read my Twitter feed and you’ll know why.
Hillary Clinton. Remember when the Golden State Warriors had the best record in the NBA last season, were up 3-1 in the NBA Finals and lost to Cleveland in Game 7 of the NBA Finals? The 2016 Presidential election was pretty much like that.
The Media. How could you miss all those people in Middle America (you know, outside of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) in the polling process? Well, those guys has the last laugh as power now shifts to them.
The FCC. Under Tom Wheeler’s leadership, the agency simply became another branch of the Illinois legislature – bickering, playing partisan politics, and getting nothing done.
Chicago Bears. With the Cubs recently ending their 108-year World Series drought, the Bears are now the team with the longest time without a championship, 31 years. And as long as the McCaskeys are in charge, their drought will likely surpass the Cubs.
NFL. The ratings are down early in the season because… let’s see – Anthem protests? Domestic violence issues? The election? Blowouts? Players acting like jackasses? Roger Goodell? The Bears being featured in prime-time FOUR times? So many culprits, even Scooby-Doo and those meddling kids would have a hard time finding out.
Sage Steele. A tweet scolding an NFL player for kneeling during the anthem (who did so to protest the election of Donald Trump) generated a lot of negative reaction – and then responds by ripping the African-American community in a Facebook post for um… tearing down each other down? This Kenya Moore-wannabe belongs on Real Housewives of Atlanta, not ESPN.
Chicago White Sox. While the Cubs celebrated a World Series season, their South Side counterparts had a pitcher cut up jerseys, kicked a fourteen year-old out of their clubhouse during spring training, and renamed their ballpark after a subprime mortgage lender.
Son Of Zorn. Newly inducted into The T Dog Media Hall Of Shame, what happens when you mix live-action and animation? Unfunny jokes and awkward dialogue. (Read my review here.)
The Great Indoors. Joel McHale battles millennial workers at a camping store in this supposedly laugh-riot. Oh look, a millennial thinks Green Acres is a retirement home…yes, we’ve heard the jokes before.
Notorious. This ABC Thursday series was based on the lives of a criminal-defense attorney and a producer for a cable talk-show host. And you wonder why no one tuned in?
Vinyl. Another new T Dog Media Hall Of Shame member, this failed HBO drama about the music business in the 1970’s made it appear all record execs did during the era were pal around, do blow, and go into fits. Well, it’s true, but it wasn’t enough material to sustain itself for a weekly series.
Those cell phone carrier ads (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.). If you think this year’s political ads were bad, telecom’s advertising were even worse. Are Sprint, T-Mobile, and Metro PCS really this desperate for customers?
Friends Of The Parks. This “public interest” group (think along the lines of the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association) helped quash plans for a George Lucas museum on Chicago’s lakefront, eliminating 1,000 potential jobs to save of all things, a parking lot. I guess the kids need a place to smoke weed, huh?
SyFy’s Comic-Con Live. A nightly hour-long wrapup of the day’s festivities from Comic-Con in San Diego turned into some kind of awful late-night talk show featuring Will Arnett fawning over celebrities with endless Sharknado 4 promotion. If CBS is looking to replace Stephen Colbert, please don’t look here!
Disney/ABC execs. Nobody – and I mean nobody – could’ve done a better job announcing Michael Strahan’s departure from Live With Kelly for Good Morning America. I mean, you could’ve let Kelly Ripa in on the news too, right? Her name is on the show!
The Drive. WDRV’s decision to pair Pete McMurray with Dan McNeil in mornings turned out to be an Arch Deluxe-like disaster.
Rep. Joe Walsh and Salem Communications. For a man who has a history of using racial slurs on the air and on social media, he loves getting a pass from his employer. Maybe it’s the idiot packaging company who sponsors his show?
Michael Ferro and “Tronc”. Saved the “best” for last. So you pour a lot of money into research on how to rename Tribune Publishing to reflect the modern tech era we’re living in and the best you can do is take the name of a 1982 Walt Disney movie and slap a “c” at the end ? The horseshit video explaining how “tronc” works makes it look more ridiculous. Another great idea from the infertile mind of Michael W. Ferro.
For more turkeys, be sure to visit The T Dog Media TV Hall Of Shame.
Happy Thanksgiving!