T Dog’s Grab Bag: Robin Robinson to stay at WFLD after all

Bob Sirott (left) and Robin Robinson. (FoxChicago.com)

– Robin Robinson is going to stay at Fox-owned WFLD after all: first mentioned by Robert Channack at the Chicago Tribune last Thursday and verified by Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder the following day, Ms. Robinson has signed a one-year contract extension to continue co-anchoring the station’s 9 p.m. newscast alongside Bob Sirott. According to the Tribune, the deal was finalized Monday night and made official by WFLD management Tuesday.

Online media reports surfaced a few weeks ago that Robinson’s contract was not being renewed after 25 years at the station.

– I guess Charlie Sheen’s “winning” streak may have stopped: Anger Management, the new FX sitcom featuring the former Two And A Half Men star plunged 38 percent from its opening-week totals. Management drew just 3.37 viewers this week, down from the 5.5 million viewers the premiere drew the week before. Management also drew just 1.71 million viewers in the 18-49 demo, down from 2.65 million a week ago. In order for FX to greenlight 90 more episodes of Anger Management, the program must meet a  certain ratings threshold, and last week’s premiere episodes don’t count.

In other words, Management needs to stabilize it ratings now if it wants a future.

– Think the sport of boxing is dead? Might want to think again. NBC Sports Network struck a deal to expand its Fight Night boxing series through the 2013-14 television season with an order of sixteen shows, with at least three of the bouts airing on NBC itself. One of the matches is scheduled to air December 22 in a late afternoon time slot. The Fight Night series was created by promoters Kathy Duva and Russell Peltz.

The announcement of the deal is good timing – the sport is still recovering from the black eye it received (no pun intended) from the Timothy Bradley-Manny Pacquiao PPV debacle from a few weeks back. Pacquiao clearly beat Bradley, but the judges (appointed by the Nevada Athletic Commission) gave Bradley the victory in a split decision corrupt Chicago judges would be proud of.

– Switching to something totally different: with worthless talk show The Revolution now dead and buried (with a burial plot reserved at The T Dog Media TV Hall Of Shame), former Insider host Lara Spencer now takes the reign in the 1 p.m. (CT) time slot for ABC in Good Afternoon America, an extension of the morning franchise, which premiered on July 9. But don’t get used to it – beginning September 10, GAA vanishes to make way for General Hospital, which is being moved to 2 p.m. as ABC is giving the hour back to affiliates for local programming, which in many markets, consists of Katie Couric’s new talk show.

– And don’t forget, Comic-Con begins on Thursday from San Diego. To make up for not being able to write about the festivities last year due to the blog-to-website transition, T Dog Media will have daily roundups from the world’s biggest comic book and entertainment convention, and yours truly will search out as much material allowable by law to post here. Writing about Comic-Con is going to be a welcome change from covering the often absurd dealings of Chicago media (and if something big breaks here, T Dog Media will be front and center. Maybe.)

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