New show however, will not be produced in Chicago as city loses second show in a week with the cancellation of HBO Max’s South Side In the “that was quick” department, Judge Greg Mathis has found a new home mere days after his Warner Bros. show was canceled as Byron Allen swooped in and snagged the free agent and announced […]
The media mogul takes task with McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski over comments made about parents of Chicago gun violence victims [Editor’s Note: This post was updated at 3:40 p.m.] The controversy over McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski’s comments over how the parents of two Chicago children killed in gun violence failed them crossed over into the media community Friday as a […]
New shows dot local schedules The new television season outside of prime-time begins Monday and you will see some new faces and new places. For one, Jay Leno is returning to daily TV seven years after he left The Tonight Show for a second time. Now, he’s taking his act to earlier time slots with his new You Bet Your […]
Also: The Score’s Danny Parkins raises money for a neighborhood grocery; ESPN 1000 comes to HD Radio; Lauren Lake signs on with Entertainment Studios for new show As the website was under construction for the last two weeks, here were some stories that made news, and as you can imagine, this first item was the biggest. With Alden Global Capital […]
The bulb dims on Mark Burnett’s and Roma Downey’s channel [Editor’s Note: This story was updated December 10.] The light is about to be turned off on Light TV as Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios is taking charge. On January 15, Light TV becomes TheGrio.TV, an new digital subchannel network targeted to African-Americans and is based on the website The Grio.com, […]
But one syndicator is making an actual investment Back last July, this blog detailed how tough it is to launch a weekly show as the weekend landscape outside of sports programming has become dominated by reruns, paid religion, infomercials, and fourth-rate programming. The tough marketplace led to the demise of WGN’s Man Of The People with WGN morning sports anchor […]
1st District Congressman not happy with nation’s largest cable company In a huge broadside against one of the country’s biggest cable operators, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) slammed Comcast for their role in a lawsuit involving one of the nation’s most successful African-American media entrepreneurs and may lead the company to be broken up. In a letter to Comcast CEO Brian […]
Also: Access Hollywood adds another show; Sinclair closes on Fox RSN purchase; McHenry radio station with historic calls ceases broadcasting At long last, NBC 5 (WMAQ) is joining the local lifestyle programming game. Beginning September 6, the NBC-owned station launches Chicago Today, a weekly half-hour show featuring entertainment news, newsmakers, places around town, the latest technologies, and restaurants among other […]
Man of the People latest to strike out as viewers head to streaming services on weekends (Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to reflect recent changes in programming schedules.) Funny thing as this person was watching the final Man Of The People Monday night via DVR as in the next-to-last segment, Bill Kurtis said “Tonight we look back at […]
Plus: Classic Hip-Hop loses ground as Soft AC makes a comeback; Tribune Media bidding heats up; another cable channel is in the works In a move widely anticipated, conservative talk show host and podcaster Ben Shapiro is joining WLS-AM’s weekday afternoon lineup. Beginning January 7, Shapiro has been slotted in the 2 to 5 p.m. slot replacing Steve Dahl, who […]
Also: Telemundo expands local and national news; Funny You Should Ask renewed through 2021; Fox interested in Sinclair stations You’d think an appearance on a national TV show would be a great thing for your local radio station, right? Well, in this case, it turned out to be a huge nightmare. Alpha Media’s WRXQ-FM in southwest suburban Coal City fired […]
Also: WGN-TV unveils new set and logo; Jon Kelley gets a new gig as host of a syndicated game show; Kathy Hart still MIA; “Wheel” celebrates Chicago In another huge blow to his nationally syndicated radio show, Crawford Broadcasting-owned Soul 106.3 (WSRB-FM) announced Tuesday it was grounding the “flyjock” the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show after eight years due to […]
Outside of Harry Connick Jr., there’s practically nothing on the market Looking for something new for the fall of 2016 in syndication? Good luck. That’s the consensus as the 2016 market has come to a crawl. Outside of NBCUniversal, who is marketing Harry Connick Jr.’s show this fall and Entertainment Studios pushing a new one-hour panel talk show, syndicators are […]
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 […]
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 […]