Also: Roku Channel to air Sunday MLB baseball While back to normalcy is the word at Upfronts week after years of interruptions (from labor unrest and Covid), unfortunately so are the stupid and awful presentations to advertisers with Jimmy Fallon headlining NBC’s and Fox featuring Rob Lowe and new Fox Sports football analyst Tom Brady. One tradition that didn’t return […]
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 […]
Chicago’s WCPX becomes a Scripps-owned station – but remains an Ion affiliate In a blockbuster move, Cincinnati-based Scripps Thursday announced the purchase of Ion, a network with more than 125 affiliates, including 62-owned stations. The deal includes Ion-owned Chicago’s WCPX – the former Christian station known as WCFC-TV from 1976 to 1998 when the ministry sold the station to Bud […]
New talk shows do battle this fall; former talk show host now TV’s newest judge (Editor’s Note: This post has been updated. Look in the comments section for more info regarding syndicated programming.) Even though the new broadcast prime-time network TV season doesn’t begin until September 23, syndication’s new season gets underway Monday with staggered rollouts over the next two […]
Kavanaugh-Ford hearings draw 20 million viewers in daytime; cable news networks benefit The big ratings story yesterday didn’t take place in primetime. Live coverage of The Kavanaugh hearings at the Senate Judiciary Committee drew an average of 20.4 million viewers across six networks Thursday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. according to Nielsen. The cable news networks drew the biggest […]
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: Bears renew local deal with Fox; My Network TV also renews; “MeToo’s” odd connection to Chicago TV Despite defending their World Series title from last year, ratings for prime-time Cubs games declined last year, according to a report in Forbes. The Cubs earned a 4.4 Nielsen household rating, down 9 percent from last year. Forbes did not specify […]
Empire tops in national ratings (Editor’s Note: Excluding the Cubs number, these are final adults 18-49 ratings.) While yours truly should talk about Wednesday night’s prime-time ratings race, you can’t ignore the fact the Chicago Cubs’ return to the postseason is going to have an impact on the broadcast networks. TBS is happy given they have rights to the NLDS […]
Must-See TV is back – and so is Will and Grace In the “innovative” world of television, there must be something about resurrecting a brand dominant in the 1980’s and 1990s. Thus, the return of “Must-See TV”. NBC released its fall schedule Sunday in advance of its upfront presentation, scheduled to take place Monday in New York, and the biggest news: […]
Believe it or not, many series STILL on the bubble With the upfronts less than 48 hours away, the networks are finalizing their decisions on “bubble” shows. In a bit of a surprise, NBC announced Saturday the reversal on a decision they made earlier in the week regarding sci-fi drama Timeless: NBC said it would bring the series back for a second […]
Kiefer Sutherland gets to do something he was never able to do on 24 – become President of The United States. And he didn’t even battle Dennis Haysbert for the job. The biggest debut of the night was the premiere of Designated Survivor, the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle where he plays the President Of The United States – getting the position […]
Local news returns to ABC 7 at 11 a.m.; Dr. Oz returns for three more years; WGN-TV needs a new GM; and more. In a victory for local programming (and yet another defeat for syndicators), ABC-owned WLS-TV (ABC 7) announced Tuesday it was bringing back its 11 a.m. newscast after three years and moving current time slot occupant Windy City […]
Emphasizes drama; only one hour of comedy on the fall sked for the first time in 37 years NBC released its 2015-16 schedule Sunday, with six new comedies, seven new dramas, and one new short-term variety hour emceed by Neil Patrick Harris. The sked also features two revival efforts: Coach, which ran on ABC from 1989-96 and Heroes, which ran […]
South Park beats Fox’s entire Wednesday night lineup One of the season’s most anticipated – and most controversial sitcoms premiered last night to strong numbers. ABC’s new Black-ish scored a 3.3 rating among adults 18-49, down from its Modern Family lead-in (3.9), but matched it in total viewers, earning 11.1 million viewers. The sitcom is about an African-American father of […]
Welcome to NATPE 2014! The 51st annual gathering got underway in Miami Monday, as syndicators, programmers, producers, and content creators converged in Miami for the three-day conference. Here’s what went down on Monday: – During NATPE’s opening keynote speech, Twitter managing brand of global brand strategy Jean-Phillippe Maheu said his social media platform would influence this spring’s TV upfronts, as […]
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