Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials – 2017

Top 10 best list dominated by…household cleaners and laundry detergent?  (Editor’s Note: Some videos in this post are no longer available.) This has got to be the “cleanest list” ever. In the eleventh edition of T Dog Media’s annual Super Bowl Commercials roundup, there is a surprising bit of irony – four of the best commercials in the top ten belonged to either […]

Cleveland! Cavs’ title win also one for ESPN, ABC

Highest-rated NBA contest since 1998 In terms of Cleveland media, the last time the city won a championship, WJW-TV was still a CBS affiliate, and the KYW call letters – now used for CBS’ TV and radio stations in Philadelphia – were owned by Westinghouse and used for its TV and radio properties here. And so the Cleveland Cavaliers – […]

The Upfronts Post-Game Show

What we learned from television’s most rockin’ week Now that the parties have been held, the red carpet has been rolled up, and the song and dance routines have been performed, it’s time to get to serious business: sell suckers… er… I mean advertisers on the 42 new television shows scheduled to debut in the 2016-17 season. Yours truly’s thoughts on the […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Back in the saddle again

Hello, and welcome back to T Dog Media! Here are some notable news and notes from the last two weeks: Tom Doerr has resigned as news director of Fox-owned WFLD-TV here in Chicago after just three years and six years overall at the station. Doerr is heading back to Florida to deal with personal family issues. During his tenure, ratings […]

Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials – 2016

(Editor’s Note: Some videos below are no longer available.)  Super Bowl 50 came and went with the Denver Broncos’ Peyton Manning winning his second Super Bowl trophy while the mood in Mayberry is quite somber (we’ll have more when I write up the ratings post.) Of course with the Super Bowl comes Super Bowl commercials, with advertisers spending upwards of […]

Think Tank Express: Rauner’s Super PAC-MEN chomps up spots

Illinois broadcasters take the quick cash. But are they driving viewers away from live TV? If you thought 2015 would be free of political advertising – think again. Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner – you know, the one who headed GTCR – the investment firm who funded Randy Michaels’ Merlin Media, and Sam Zell – the one who destroyed the Chicago Tribune – […]

The Upfronts Post-Game Show

What we learned: – The sitcom is almost dead – Too much drama – Greg Berlanti is now the most powerful person on TV Now that the parties have been held, the red carpet has been rolled up, and the song and dance routines have been performed, it’s time to get to serious business: sell suckers… er… I mean advertisers on […]

Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials of 2015

Super Bowl XLIX featured a bizarro batch of ads: love, death, a film on how beer is made, and human running around in a big video game. $4.5 million well spent, I assume. Overall, many of the Super Bowl ads struck a serious, somber tone not seen since Super Bowl XXXVI – the first Super Bowl to take place after […]

Eddie and JoBo: On the outs

Here we go again: another Chicago radio partnership has ended in divorce. A deal that would have brought Eddie Volkman and Joe “Bohannon” Colburn to Cumulus-owned Classic Hits station WLS-FM in morning drive collapsed Saturday after Colburn turned down the deal and left Volkman fuming on Twitter. “Eddie & JoBo” were best known for their successful morning drive show at […]

Fox dumps “Animation Domination HD”

In news first reported Thursday evening by Broadcasting & Cable, Fox has decided to pull the plug on its Animation Domination High Def (ADHD) Saturday night block, with the last airing scheduled for June 28. Despite the cancellation, the Fox ADHD programming initiative will continue, creating programs for digital platforms and incubating shows for primetime. In fact, Fox is bringing […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Sports-talk war escalates with Finfer defection

* The first shot has been fired in the Chicago’s new sports-talk wars: Robert Feder reports that Tribune’s new Game has stolen Ben Finfer away from CBS’ The Score (WSCR), where he’ll serve as producer – but also as show host, being paired with David Kaplan at Noon and then joins Alex Quigley and Howard Griffith from 1-3 p.m. Finfer […]

Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials – 2014

Welcome to the eighth annual T Dog Media Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials review. The ads were featured in Super Bowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, televised by Fox for the seventh time in its history. This was a more subdued presentation this time around, with puppies, Army heroes, and classic TV reunions as opposed […]

NATPE: Day 2

The second day of NATPE: – It’s a Friends reunion… but only with the creators of the show. Friends co-creator Marta Kaufmann and David Crane reunited Tuesday for a NATPE panel, reflecting on their success and talked about the future of the network sitcom. The duo didn’t exactly wax praise on the current state of the genre, saying they wouldn’t […]

Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials – 2013

Welcome to the seventh annual wrap-up of the best and worst Super Bowl commercials (man, time flies!) The ads were featured in Super Bowl XLVII, a matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers televised over CBS. Here are the five best (and a few honorable mentions) and worst ads (you probably guessed by now who finished first) […]

Retro Friday: Good Grief! Charlie Brown’s selling bread AND insurance

Yes, yours truly is a huge Peanuts fan. And Snoopy and the gang are back on television as spokesmen for MetLife, a relationship that’s been strong for with for 27 years. But before then, did you know Charlie Brown and company appeared in ads for Ford, Dolly Madison, McDonalds, Cheerios, and Butternut bread? Yes, Snoopy’s getting paid, people! First, here […]