"Family Feud" brings back bullseye game.

Dr. Oz debuts strong – and the rest of the week that was in syndication Family Feud has added a new element – all right, it’s not so new. The Debmar-Mercury syndicated game show has returned the “Bullseye” round to the start of the game, which started on the series’ eleventh season premiere on September 7. The round features contestants […]

Chicago Wolves hockey return to broadcast TV

For the first time in twelve years, Chicago Wolves hockey has landed on a local broadcast outlet. Fox-owned WPWR-TV acquired the rights to air fifteen Wolves games starting this fall, with ten of those games on Saturday nights, starting with a game with the Milwaukee Admirals on October 3. Five other games are scheduled for Sunday afternoons later in the […]

"Cleveland" off to good start

The new Family Guy spin-off got some good sampling last night. Fox’s premiere of The Cleveland Show, featuring the next-door neighbor of The Griffins who moved to Virginia to start a new life drew 9.4 million viewers and a 4.9 rating in adults 18-49, growing 17% from its Simpsons lead-in. The premiere of Cleveland coincided with the season premieres of […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag

Lots of items of note in today’s Grab Bag: – WCFS-FM (Fresh 105.9) has dumped morning man Mark LeBaron. Rick Hall will take over until a replacement is found. Is this a signal something big is coming? Or is the cancellation clock ticking for Fresh FM? – Speaking of which, the clock is up for The Beautiful Life, which CW […]

Dancing with disaster

Don’t drop Cheryl, Tom! Or she’ll be like The Tribune… All right, I’ve seen some absurd items on Chicago Tribune’s editorial page before… but this one takes the cake. One of Wednesday’s  editorials in the paper was titled “Dancing With DeLay” , about former disgraced Texas congressman Tom DeLay competing on the newest season of Dancing With the Stars. You’ve got […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – the start of a new season

The new season is here, and here’s the first T Dog’s Four Pack for the fall 2009 season: Winners. The Emmy Awards. Neil Patrick Harris rocked as host with a smooth and speedy presentation – and the ratings weren’t too bad either. Glee. This Fox musical dramedy has been picked up for a full season after a strong start and […]

"30 Rock", "Mad Men" take Emmys. Again.

For the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards – it was deja vu – the year of the Repeat – as in repeat winners. For the third year in a row, 30 Rock won for Outstanding Comedy Series, while Mad Men swept its way to its second straight Outstanding Drama Series win.  Another repeat winner came in the reality category, with […]

Off to see the doctor… The Wonderful Doctor of Oz

The early returns for Dr. Oz have been positive and Sony Pictures Television and Harpo Productions hope Oz can lead the company down the Yellow Brick Road to riches. The three day average of Dr. Oz – a new medical talk show hosted by Mehmet Oz which premiered on Sept. 14 – had a three day average of a 1.7 […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – The Jay Leno edition (updated)

(This was supposed to been up Tuesday night, but somehow it didn’t get up here. – T.H.) UPDATED: See below. It’s a special Jay Leno Show edition of T Dog’s Four Pack – here are the highlights and lowlights from night one of the show, plus other relevant information ( I was flipping back and forth between Leno and Star […]

WGN-TV expands midday, evening newscasts

WGN-TV announced it has expanded its news and shuffled its weekday programming lineup, just two days into the new syndication television season. Beginning October 5, WGN expands its 5:30 p.m. newscast an hour, starting at 5 p.m. Its midday newscast expands to 11a.m. and now run two hours until 1 p.m. And to go along with the expansion are some […]

Welcome to the fourth season

Wow. It’s been three years already? Welcome to the fourth season of The T Dog Media Blog. Yes, as of today we enter season number four of the blog with yours truly’s twisted, satirical take on the media business and the incompetent fools who run it. Yours truly started this blog on September 18, 2006, and to date more than […]

For Leno, it’s time to put up – or shut up

You’ve heard about this for the last nine months. And it arrives tomorrow night. For the first time in the history of television (and excluding special stunts, like Millionaire or Deal or No Deal), there is a five night a week strip in prime-time on a major broadcast network on a regular basis. The Jay Leno Show debuts Monday night […]

T Dog’s Four Pack

Haven’t done it for awhile, so let’s bring it back! It’s another edition of T Dog’s Four Pack: Winners. – Diane Sawyer to World News Tonight. She replaces the retiring Charles Gibson, and she certainly has the ability to anchor a major network evening newscast – unlike a certain former Today co-host (and the ratings more than tells that story.) […]

Chicago’s August PPM results

Here are the results for the August PPMs for 12+ and for adults 25-54. Among the findings: – Winners include WSCR, WPPN, WXRT, WUSN, and drumroll please…. Q101! Yes, Q101 – or WKQX-FM grew 27% in 12+ month-to-month. – The biggest winner of all is WTMX-FM (The Mix), who dominated the 25-54 ratings and 12+ with Eric & Kathy leading […]