In the aftermath of George Floyd’s untimely death, the world is calling for reform – and the media business must follow the lead [Editor’s Note: This post was updated on July 1 and on December 1.] As one of the few African-Americans who writes a media blog, for years I’ve been pushing for more diversity in the media business, whether […]
Ratings up 14 percent despite downer of a game The NFL’s 100th season kicked off Thursday with the oldest, most storied rivalry in the league: The Green Bay Packers playing the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. But the results on the field were anything but grand as the Bears lost to the Packers 10-3 in a lackluster game panned on […]
ABC expands summer game show slate as game shows regain traction in popular culture Over the last few weeks, Jeopardy was dominating the headlines with James Holzhauer’s amazing winning streak earning over $2 million over his run, helping earn the show’s highest ratings in years. And though Jeopardy never really went away, the game show genre has had its ups […]
Viewers tune out Patriots-Rams; lowest ratings in over a decade Thanks to numerous punts and less-than-inspiring play, Super Bowl LIII turned into a Super Dud. In the lowest-scoring game in Super Bowl history – sixteen points in total, the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams settled for a 3-3 tie at halftime in a game featuring numerous punts and […]
Longtime Charles Schulz characters head to new streaming service in 2019 as viewers’ preferences shift Good grief, you’re heading to a streaming service, Chuck. Apple and DHX Media announced Friday an exclusive deal to bring Charles M. Schulz’s iconic characters to the tech company’s new streaming service, scheduled to launch in 2019 in new series and shorts. The Halifax, Nova […]
Nine new shows overall; three to debut this fall In advance of its upfront presentation on Monday, NBC unveiled its 2018-19 schedule and announced nine new series – three of them premiering this fall. Highlights include Dick Wolf’s trio of “Chicago” shows: Midnight Texas gets a promotion from a summer series to a fall pickup; and Brooklyn Nine-Nine is being […]
Also: syndicated tabloid TV wars begin; Family Matters house to be demolished; America’s Got Talent outdraws Emmys in ratings It looks like WYCC may not leaving the air after all – the small public-television station scheduled to cease broadcasting October 25, is talking to fellow PBS member WTTW about sharing channel space in a last-ditch effort according to the […]
Lackluster play continues trend of declining sports ratings locally With the Cubs’ shockingly poor play and the White Sox’s rebuild (there’s that word again), it isn’t any surprise the ratings for both Chicago baseball teams are down from last year as both teams resume play after the All-Star break. According to Crain’s Danny Ecker, the Cubs – who were 2016 […]
Also: The Wall off to a decent start; WCIU to showcase local comedians; Drew Barrymore talker on hold; Fox duopoly picks up another show. WGN-TV held its fourteenth annual Drive-Thru Toy Drive on Thursday to benefit needy families in Chicago and the Tribune-owned independent collected nearly 14,000 unwrapped toys at the event held at the station. Award-winning actress and singer […]
Tribune has found a new vice president and general manager for WGN-TV and his name is Paul Rennie, who comes from sister stations WTTV and WXIN in Indianapolis. Rennie succeeds Greg Easterly, who moved to New York to take the open WPIX GM position. Rennie also will oversee CLTV, Tribune’s local Chicago news channel. Rennie will have the task of […]
But poor casting decisions on both shows’ part hurts ratings Not much to talk about Wednesday’s ratings with CBS’ Survivor and Big Brother winning the night among broadcast networks in the adult 18-49 demo (though A&E’s Duck Dynasty won overall with a 4.3) – but there was a lot to talk about with these two shows besides the ratings. Survivor […]
Sleepy Hollow, Dads, and Brooklyn get ample sampling; Queen Latifah scores well in her premiere With the new fall season only a few days away, a few shows jumped the gun with premieres this week, while summer series wrap up their runs: – Despite going up against Monday Night Football and Dancing With The Stars, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow debuted nicely […]
Over the summer, Fox signed Britney Spears and Demi Lovato (who?) to be judges on The X Factor to boost the show’s disappointing ratings from season one. Well, it didn’t exactly get off to a good start now, didn’t it? Ratings for X Factor’s second season premiere drew a 3.4/10 in adults 18-49, with only 8.73 million viewers, according to […]
On Monday, the Chicago White Sox traded veterans Jim Thome to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jose Contreras to the Colorado Rockies, bringing back memories of the July 1997 White Flag Trade which sent Wilson Alvarez and two others to the San Francisco Giants. The move was sent as a signal the White Sox has given up on the season […]