T Dog’s Media Notepad: WMAQ may add more news

Formerly known as T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag, T Dog’s Grab Bag and The Grab Bag and maybe 100 other ridiculous names

– Is WMAQ looking to add a 4 p.m. newscast? A report on FTVLive.com Monday suggests several NBC-owned stations may be looking to add another hour of news at 4 p.m. in 2016 in order to take advantage of the influx of political advertising headed to local news stations.

Currently, Warner Bros.’ Ellen occupies the 4 p.m. early fringe time slot on WNBC in New York and KNBC in Los Angeles, and at 3 p.m. on WMAQ in Chicago. WMAQ airs the long-running Extra at 4, leading into a local newscast at 4:30 p.m. Extra generally airs in prime access (7 or 7:30 p.m.) in other NBC O&O markets.

The NBC-owned stations recently passed on Harry Connick Jr.’s new syndicated daytime show, which went to Fox. Connick is distributed by sister company NBCUniveral Television Distortion.

With The Meredith Vieira Show likely ending this season and the NBC O&Os yet to pick up a replacement, all signs could point to an afternoon local news expansion, which would shift Steve Harvey and Ellen an hour earlier in some markets. Since WMAQ would not have room for Extra, the show could head for another outlet. Not all NBC-owned stations carry Extra; the magazine show is airing on non-NBC stations in San Diego and Washington D.C.

– Fox Television Stations announced it has renewed daytime talk show strip The Real for two more years, taking it through the 2017-18 season. The show has done best in urban markets where Fox owns stations, but was actually downgraded in a few markets. The series, from Warner Bros. Television, airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on Fox-owned WFLD and at 8 a.m. on sister station WPWR.

– Fox has also renewed its pact to carry My Network TV’s programming service for the next two seasons, also taking it through the 2017-18 season. Since switching over to a format predominantly featuring drama repeats, ratings have grown and the venue has become profitable. MNT recently added Walking Dead reruns to its lineup.

Originally created as a replacement for UPN after the network merged with The WB to create The CW ten years ago, My Network TV debuted with nightly English-language telenovelas which were quickly replaced with reality TV fare. My Network became a programming service in 2009, excluding them from nightly ratings reports.

– For the first time in history, none of the broadcast networks aired a sitcom on Monday night since CBS’ The Big Bang Theory returned to Thursday night this week, replaced by Supergirl. But never fear, comedy fans: beginning in January, NBC is scheduling two new sitcoms in the first hour of prime-time Mondays – Superstore and Telenovela, beginning January 4. Both shows – starring America Ferrera and Eva Longoria, respectively, will each have a special showing after The Voice with Superstore previewing Nov. 30 and Telenovela previewing Dec. 7.

– Speaking of sitcoms…in what is bad news for “The Home Of The Bears”, Fox-owned WFLD is not scheduled to air any more Bears games in November. That’s because the NFL decided to flex Nov.16’s Bears-Rams game from St. Louis to CBS from Fox. The move was part of a larger announcement by the NFL for the following Sunday, flexing out Kansas City-San Diego out of Sunday Night Football and flexing in Cincinnati-Arizona, both teams with strong records.

CBS also holds the rights to air Broncos-Bears on November 22. The Bears play the San Diego Chargers this Monday night on ESPN and WCIU.

The loss is noticeable is the Bears games against the Vikings (Nov. 1) and Rams were the only ones on WFLD’s schedule for this sweeps month, which needs the games to promote the station and its ratings-challenged newscasts. Plus, WFLD is the official “Bears” station anointed by the team, which carries their propaganda – er, I mean programming. Despite a subpar performance on the field, the Bears still draw more viewers than any program in the Chicago market. A bad football team outdrawing most prime-time programming? Stop being so surprised.

-Resident assclown Mancow Mueller – who only got his current WLUP morning job because his Cumulushit bosses are even more dumb than he is, boasted to the Chicago Tribune recently he moved into a $2 million home in the North Shore suburb of Winnetka. This wouldn’t be newsworthy only given he took a shot at Chicago again. Like he did two years ago in a similar article, he whines about the parking, Obama voters (seriously…still?), the mayor, and the city’s morals. His whining plays out like a rerun of Everybody Loves Mancow… crank up the laugh track!

Of course he would talk about how bad Chicago is given it’s “The Chicago Way” atmosphere that gave him his current job at “The Loop” in the first place – thanks to a scam of a “morning show contest” his idiot bosses concocted so he could “win”. This shameful display lead yours truly to declare Chicago radio “the worst in the country”. Ratings for his garbage radio show are… you guessed it, in the toilet.

If Manshit hates Chicago so much, then maybe the fucking hypocrite should give up his job and his lofty paycheck at WLUP, based in the Merchandise Mart – in CHICAGO, but you know he won’t. Manclown should talk about “party girl vomit”… because he is vomit. What a fucking asshole.