Elon Musk to advertisers who paused after he supported anti-Semitic comments: “Go (bleep) yourself”

Musk responds to advertiser boycott of X platform after support of anti-Semitic remarks [Editor’s Note: This post contains some offensive language. Reader discretion is advised.] Proving he is nowhere near fit to run a business, X/Twitter Chairman Elon Musk unleashed the fury Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook summit, calling out advertisers who paused on his platform due to […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: “Velma”: Bombs away?

Online reviews, viewer anger sink Mandy Kaling’s Scooby-Doo-less reboot In the 40 years I’ve followed the television business, I’ve never seen a series as panned as Velma – and I don’t mean by TV critics. On its way to becoming one of the biggest flops in television history, HBO Max released the much-talked about Velma adult animated series from Mandy […]

The Media Notepad: Marquee sees ratings slide two years after launch

Also: Elon Musk officially takes over Twitter; “The Real Love Boat” becomes the season’s first casualty; “Dr. Phil” drifting toward right-wing propaganda? The new Marquee Sports Network’s fortunes seems to ebb and flow with the Cubs’ performance, and with two consecutive losing seasons, ratings are down. But the picture may not be what it seems. According to a Chicago Tribune […]

The T Dog Media TV Hall of Shame

No one expected CNN’s Chicagoland to be a love letter to the city – but no one expected it to be a Rahm infomercial either. A critical and ratings flop, Chicagoland is the one of TV’s lowlights in 2014. Recently, the prime-time portion of The Simpsons marathon on FXX attracted more viewers than Chicagoland did. (As of May 2018, the […]

Clear Channel changes name to iHeart Media

When you think about Clear Channel, what usually comes to mind? Layoffs. Voice tracking.  Low pay. Heavy commercial loads. The Arby’s of radio (OK, you get the drift.) Looking for a fresh start, Clear Channel announced on Tuesday it was changing the name of the company to the more audience-friendly iHeart Media, named after the successful iHeart Radio Internet platform. […]

Why “Bethenny” failed

Lack of experience, awkwardness, and arrogance kept viewers away from former Real Housewives star’s daytime talker In a project that never should have seen the light of day, Warner Bros. (or Telepictures, or Lorimar, or whomever) decided last week to put former Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel’s talk show out of its misery after just five months on the air. […]

A look back at The Great Talk Show Rush Of 1995

  The few, the proud: the fallen heroes of The Great Talk Show Rush Of 1995. The video above explains it all.  On Monday, three new syndicated talk shows debut in syndication, with new hosts Katie Couric, Jeff Probst, and the return of Ricki Lake. Along with Steve Harvey (whose show debuted Sept. 4) and Trisha Goddard (debuting Sept. 17), […]

The Grab Bag: The Santa edition

Ho, Ho, Ho! It’s Terry Claus about to deliver you a special Christmas edition of The Grab Bag! I got special presents from the world of media that will make you happy – or cringe. Let’s start handing out the gifts! Ho! Ho! Ho! – WGN-TV has extra good reasons to cheer this holiday season – the Tribune-owned CW affiliate’s […]

The latest Shame inductees: A Band of "Brothers"

            With the induction of Fox’s “Brothers”, it marks the first time two series with the exact same name are in The T Dog Media Blog Hall Of Shame. Both programs are unrelated to each other, except for the fact both are sitcoms and they both suck. Above, from top: Showtime’s version of “Brothers”, from […]

Jeremy Kyle makes his way to U.S.

Get ready for yet another British invasion – this time from Britain’s top daytime talk show host. As rumored  for months, Debmar-Mercury has signed a deal with Jeremy Kyle to host an American version of his hour daytime talk-show strip for fall 2011. Kyle’s show has been cleared in 70 percent of the country, and declared a firm go. The […]

WLS-TV to replace "Oprah" with live, local morning show

In news first reported Tuesday morning on Robert Feder’s blog at Vocalo, ABC-owned WLS-TV has announced plans to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show, which departs first-run syndication on September 9, 2011: The station is developing a live, local morning show to take her place. There is no word yet on a host or format, but it is expected to be […]