The Six Pack: Occupy this!
While America is holding protests against rampant greed, T Dog Media has the winners and losers of the past week who “occupied” the media spotlight:
Winners
Last Man Standing. Tim Allen picked up right where he left off – as a prime-time success for ABC. Standing debuted last Tuesday to a 3.6 adult demo rating and 13 million viewers. The only protests came from TV critics, who thought the sitcom was about as funny as an episode of It’s A Living. Look for some critics to stage a rally at ABC to prevent another episode from being taped.
The Simpsons. Some fans were ready to hold an Occupy: Simpsons rally because recent seasons have been lacking of recent quality. Well, pack up the tents and go home – Fox renewed the series for its 24th and 25th season after reaching a deal with the animated series’ voice actors.
Netflix and The CW. Here are two brands you don’t see in the winner’s circle very often… In a deal that “saves” both flagging properties, low-rated network CW and beleagured online and mail-order subscription service Netflix struck an non-exclusive multi-year deal worth nearly a billion dollars to air previous seasons (not current season) of CW fare. Shows in the deal include 90210, Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and One Tree Hill. The deal comes as Netflix is recovering from several PR gaffes (the price increase, losing Starz content, an idiotic apology letter from its CEO, and the now-abandoned plans to the split the DVD and streaming services into different companies), while CW has gotten off to one of the worst ratings starts in its history. The Netflix-CW marriage means both entities could be here to stay.
Losers
Randy Michaels. The Court Jester made headlines as gain with another embarrassing gaffe as he was arrested Friday morning in Middletown, Ohio (26 miles southwest of Dayton) for drunk driving. Guess he was coming back from another poker party. Why some in radio celebrate this buffoon is beyond me. Talk about a symbol of greed – and none comes bigger than Michaels, thanks to his “golden parachute” he received after completely destroying the Tribune Co. So when does the Occupy: Court Jester protests begin? Expect thousands.
Baseball. How y’all liking those baseball playoffs? The ratings for both the ALCS (Texas Rangers vs. Detroit Tigers) and the NLCS (St. Louis vs. Milwaukee Brewers) were down from last year, and now MLB may wind up with the lowest-rated World Series (Texas vs. St. Louis) of all time. Speaking of no buzz, how about those White Sox? You hire a new manager and somehow fail to attract any attention. Without loudmouthed Ozzie around, the White Sox have reduced themselves to little more than the Los Angeles Clippers – who may not even play this season. So if Leno is looking for jokes…
Charlie’s Angels. Sorry, ladies – your Occupy: ABC movement on Thursday nights ended after just four weeks because no one showed up to your rally. You can’t expect the audience to take you seriously if you fight crime with just shopping bags.