T Dog’s Think Tank: Rush’s Lament

Limbaugh gets called out for nasty behavior. But what about everyone else? As you know by now, syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh made a rather nasty comment on his nationally syndicated radio show last week calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified in Congress on difficulty obtaining contraception and felt she needed […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Pour a wet beverage on me

It’s time to grab your favorite beverage (a six pack of it would be best…) because it’s time for T Dog’s Six Pack! In this edition, Jerry Bryant expands his business, Betty White’s is actually on her rockers celebrating her 90th birthday while the Rev. Michael Pflager is far off his.       Rounds of Hot Cocoa for everyone. […]

NBC cancels “The Playboy Club”

          NBC picks up Whitney and Up All Night for full season If you had NBC’s The Playboy Club in the-first-show-to-be-canceled-of-the-season pool, you win! The low-rated shot-in-Chicago drama became the first cancellation of the 2011-12 television season after three episodes, joining other embarrassments that lasted just as long, including 1978’s The Waverly Wonders with Joe Namath […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Oprah, Master Shake, and you

 Aqua Fraud?   In this edition of the Six Pack: The biggest Oprah Winfrey diss ever, Chicago’s news media possibly aiding and embedding a cover-up by city officials, and a sequel of a series that turned out not to be a sequel after all: Winners WFTV and Bob Jordan. WFTV news director Bob Jordan (no relation to WGN-TV’s Robert Jordan) […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Pigskin!

Today’s six-pack has somewhat of a football theme in honor of today’s big game! Time for kickoff… Touchdown! WFLD. Yes, you read this right! According to Chicago Business, Fox-owned WFLD scored a whopping 43.2 household rating for last Sunday’s Divisional Playoff between the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears, and the number should certainly go higher for this Sunday’s NFC […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: A lot to be "Glee"-ful about

It was a tumulus past week in the media world, highlighted by the exit of Tribune Court Jester Randy Michaels and the possibly of the Parents Television Council going bust. Is that a cause for celebration, or what? Winners Robert Feder. His coverage of the saga at Tribune Tower was exceptional work – truly a wonderful job by Chicago’s best […]

NBA Finals perform a ratings slam dunk

Viewers fled into the entrances for Game 7 of the NBA Finals between storic rivals the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics and blew the competition out of the water. The game drew 28.2 million viewers in final ratings released Friday afternoon, marking it as the most-watched NBA game since Game 6 the 1998 NBA Finals, which the Michael […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Basic cable’s racy content at a crossroads

Stan wasn’t the only one up in arms about Comedy Central taking a hatchet job to a recent episode of “South Park.” For the last few weeks, cable was on a hot streak: SyFy acquired Friday Night Smackdown, stealing it away from My Network TV, while Turner Broadcasting snared both Conan O’Brien and part of the NCAA Tournament. But on […]

T Dog’s Four Pack: Cheers! (and Jeers)

The past week’s winners and losers: Four cheers of the week – Bulls-Celtics Playoff Series. Even though the Bulls did not win, admit it: It was the most entertaining playoff series in years. Thanks for the ride. – … but the Blackhawks are still in! They advanced past Calgary in the first round and now facing Vancouver in the second, […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – 3/17/09

Haven’t done it in awhile, so let’s see what’s working this week – and what’s not: Four you should grab off the shelf – Garry Meier on WGN-AM. After rave reviews for his recent four-day stint at the news/talk outlet, the station should just give him the vacant 1-4 afternoon slot right now. There’s no contest. – Jon Stewart takes […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

Ah, it’s good to be back… because of several scheduling snafus (eliminating any free time I had), The T Dog Media Blog was unexpectedly put on hiatus last week. But we’re back -and better – and snarkier – than ever before. Let’s celebrate by reaching into the Grab Bag… – A word about this article in TV Week regarding reality’s […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

From the bag today: – Comcast SportsNet announced it is splitting its signature sports news show SportsNite into two half-hours at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (Yours truly thought they were already separate.) – It looks like an Obama-led FCC could steer the focus away from indecency, which has been the focus of the agency over the last few years. […]

Who’s in your four, Edition III

The week that was: T Dog’s Fab Four – Jay Mariotti leaves the Sun-Times. Yes! Oh God, Yes! -Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech. Drew just as many viewers as the opening ceremonies of the recent Summer Olympics. – The U.S. men’s and women’s basketball team. The ladies brought home the Gold and the Redeem Team did likewise. Way to go! – […]