Replace Circle in some markets, including Chicago’s WBBM-TV Sinclair’s digital subchannel Charge returns to the Chicago area, landing at CBS-owned WBBM-TV as part of a deal with the CBS News And Stations Group, who saw several stations also take sci-fi-based channel Comet. “We are thrilled to announce the expansion of our networks’ distribution and the strengthening of our impactful partnership […]
Also: NBC 5/Telemundo to award nonprofits; Sherri Shepard to succeed Wendy Williams; Introducing Ion Mystery Is WGN-AM staging a return to the top? The first PPM numbers released for 2022 shows the Nexstar-owned station placing fourth overall, up 49 percent from the last survey – marking their highest ranking since October 2008 at the dawn of the PPM era. Leading […]
CSI: Cyber proves overextending a franchise isn’t a good idea Wednesday night saw the underwhelming premiere of CSI: Cyber, and it goes to show you even in a so-called “Golden Age Of Drama”, how banal some of these programs still are. The “new” CBS drama featured “Academy Award Winner” Patricia Arquette as a FBI “agent” who heads a task […]
Over the last few years, the Friday before upfronts became quite crazy, with the announcement of pilot pickups – and a huge batch of cancellations. 2013 was no different: Friday afternoon and Friday evening with social media abuzz with the latest pickups and cancellations, as those “bubble shows” fate were finally decided. Well, the bubble burst for a whopping seventeen […]
Today’s Grab Bag features Merlin Media, Friday prime-time ratings, Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey hooking up, and a possible new name for The Insider which you have to see to believe: It looks like the end is near for Merlin Media: the company announced the sale of New York City alternative rock outlet WRXP-FM to CBS Corp., who plans to […]
What happens when you put a ton of first-run programming on and the only show even remotely interesting to watch is WTTW’s Chicago Tonight: The Week In Review and the hot chick hosting Check, Please? Welcome to Friday night television in 2012. In fact, if we were scoring this among winners and losers, the winners’ list would consist of a whole […]
CBS unveiled its 2012-13 primetime schedule Wednesday morning in advance of its upfront presentation later in the afternoon. The Tiffany network introduced four new shows – three drams and just one new comedy, along with two new midseason series. But the biggest news is the move of longtime Monday stalwart Two And A Half Men to Thursday night after The […]
CBS – America’s Most Watched Network – except in the key 18-49 demo – unveiled its 2011-12 schedule Wednesday in an upfront presentation to advertisers in New York. The Tiffany network picked up five series for fall: three dramas and two comedies – and made sold bold scheduling moves, including… wait for it – an original series on Saturday! The […]
The most aggressive moves front the upfront didn’t come from the three other major networks – it came from the front runner, CBS. CBS unveiled its 2010-11 lineup Wednesday in front of advertisers in New York City, and it came with some surprises: the biggest one of them all is the move of hot comedy The Big Bang Theory to […]
Here’s the recent list of winners and losers of the last week-in-a-half – plus an extra-long rant at the end… What worked for yours truly… Winners Conan O’Brien. His final “Tonight Show” drew 10.3 million viewers, with one of the classiest send-offs I’ve ever seen from a host. The result: new found respect from the public, including yours truly. Chicago […]
Remember two weeks ago when yours truly made up a “tweets” page for Ugly Betty as a response to her “blog”? Here’s the newest tweet from Ms. Suarez: – Mode closing. Sad. Readership fell off; ad pages dropped. Out of work like a lot of Americans. :-( Yes, even fictional Mode magazine isn’t immune from the problems plaguing the media […]
Chicago contributes to programs’ decent start The new 2008-09 season in syndication began on Monday with the debut of five new strips – and all got off to a decent – if not spectacular start: Program RTG SHR Lead-In TP 9/07 Bonnie Hunt 1.1 3 -21% 0% Deal or No Deal 1.3 3 -13% -7% The Doctors 1.6 4 -11% […]
Quick, when was the last true first-run syndicated hit? Though many syndicators would argue, it was six years ago with Dr. Phil averaging a 4.4 Nielsen rating in its freshman season. Before that, you would have to go all the way back to June 1996 for the last breakout hit – Warner Bros.’ The Rosie O’Donnell Show. And if you […]
CBS is introducing a total of six new series: four new comedies and two dramas, and is moving existing shows to new nights. To see the complete schedule, click here (all times Eastern; programs air one hour earlier in Chicago and the rest of the Central and Mountain time zones.) New comedy Worst Week is slotted after Two And a […]