Bears also win in the ratings

The Bears weren’t the only winners in yesterday’s NFC Championship Game. Fox’s ratings for the event were up 21 percent from last year’s Carolina Panthers-Seattle Seahawks tilt. The Chicago Bears-New Orleans Saints game drew a whopping 25.1 rating and 42 share, and it drew 43.2 million viewers, the most in 10 years. And yes, like the AFC Championship Game that […]

Slogan change at Defender

The Chicago Defender, one of Chicago’s oldest African-American newspapers, has dropped its branding from the paper’s front page. The slogan, “Honest. Truthful. Unapologetically Black.” was discontinued by the paper’s owner, arguably to go in a different direction. The slogan was created by Executive editor Roland Martin, whose contract to the Defender was not renewed. He gave the paper new life […]

Peyton Manning destroys competition in prime-time

Last night’s AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, was the highest-rated program of the season, topping the debut of American Idol. The game (which the Colts won 38-34), featured the biggest comeback of all time in a championship game, led by the Colts’ Peyton Manning. The Bears won earlier in the day in the […]

TCA Update

The latest from the tour: -The CW announced that its is streaming programs from cwtv.com shortly after their airdate, beginning immediately. The programs include all of the net Monday’s comedies, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Beauty and the Geek, and Supernatural. -Meanwhile, the network is planning to premiere two new reality shows in the next few weeks: Crowned, a mother-daughter beauty […]

Sitcoms renewed

Good news for fans of quality shows – and for TV stations looking for off-network sitcoms in 2009. NBC has renewed My Name Is Earl and The Office (and Law & Order: SUV), and the CW has renewed Everybody Hates Chris for next season -all show should be available for off-network syndication in 2009, a year after there will be […]

Presenting the 18-49 ABC affiliate leaders…

…. and surprise, surprise, is not WLS (Chicago), WPVI (Philadelphia), or WSB (Atlanta)- stations we usually talk about when we’re talking about ABC affiliates dominance in prime-time (or any time period during the day.)It’s actually three ABC affiliates owned by the Hearst-Argyle Co.– WISN-TV in Milwaukee, KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, and KMBC-TV in Kansas City. Among adults 18-49 in the […]

High school hoops

Chicago’s Simeon is in the national spotlight tonight as Chicago’s top high school basketball team plays Oak Hill (Va.) at 8pm on ESPN. Whatever the outcome, we’re pretty much guaranteed that Simeon will draw bigger ratings than last Tuesday night’s Blackhawks-Blue Jackets Crap-O-Rama on Versus.

Tribune Watch: Deadline Passes

The deadline passes for bids on the beleaguered Tribune Co. and is mulling two offers: one from the Chandler family, Trib’s largest shareholder, and the other from two Los Angeles billionaires. Either way, it looks like the Tribune Co. will no longer be under local control.

NATPE/TCA update

Here is the latest going on at NATPE in Las Vegas and TCA press tour in Pasadena, Calif.: -Warner Bros. has pulled its proposed new show, Celebrity Jury– for now. Warner Bros. was unable to come to an agreement with the Fox-owned stations on the program, but may be launched at a later date. Meanwhile, the chances for Dr. Keith […]

Idol wallops

Michael Wilbon of PTI may not have been watching, but the rest of America was: American Idol drew 37.3 million viewers, the second-highest total in the program’s history-a 15.7/38 rating/share among the money demo (A 18-49) and a 20.3/30 among households (In Chicago, Idol drew a 20.1/30, about average.) Meanwhile, way, way, waaaaaaaaayyyyyy on the opposite end of the ratings […]

You’re out!

Two shows have been called out at the plate: ABC’s anemic Big Day, and NBC’s Passions. The latter, a modern-day Dark Shadows, is being replaced in the NBC daytime lineup by a fourth hour of Today.

Well, that didn’t take long…

Rachael Ray’s syndicated talk show, which debuted the same day this blog did, has been picked up for another two years, according to CBS Television Distribution’s Roger King. The program is the highest-rated freshman talk show this season and in the top five overall.