Heeeeere’s Stephen!

Goodbye Comedy Central, Hello Church Of Tisch – Colbert is CBS’ new late-night host It’s probably not a surprise who is replacing David Letterman, but a surprise it came this quickly. CBS announced last Thursday the hiring of Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report as their new 10:35 p.m. guy to replace a retiring David Letterman, who is […]

FX networks unveils “Simpsons” plans

                  FX Networks, the group who purchased the exclusive rerun cable rights to The Simpsons for new channel FXX for close to a billion dollars last fall,  has made public their plans on how to best run 552 episodes of the Fox animated classic, which was reported by Broadcasting & Cable in […]

“How I Met Your Mother” ends on a high note (in ratings)

Long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother ended its nine-year run on CBS on a high note, scoring its highest numbers ever in total viewers and in key demos. Monday night’s one-hour sendoff drew 12.9 viewers and a 5.3 rating in the adult 18-49 (HIMYM generally averages around a 3.) While these numbers would have Barney Stinson shouting “Awesome” and […]

WGN-TV looks Easterly for new GM hire

A man named Easterly is heading west to become WGN-TV’s new general manager. Tribune Broadcasting announced Monday the hiring of Greg Easterly as president and general manager of WGN-TV, moving over from the same capacity at WJW-TV in Cleveland effective April 14. Easterly is a seventeen-year veteran of the Cleveland Fox affiliate, with a news background. He spent the first […]

English-language programming returns to WGBO…somewhat

For the first time in twenty years, WGBO-TV is once again airing English-language programming. Well, somewhat. Spanish-language WGBO and other Univision-owned stations agreed a few months ago to carry a new English-language – yes, English-language digital subchannel network called Get TV from Sony Pictures Television, mainly featuring pre-1970 classic films from the Columbia Pictures Library, which Sony owns. Classic movies […]

Playing media catch-up

Man, how long has it been since yours truly has written a post around here? Well, this is what happens when you get sick and have Writer’s Block at the same time (or, yours truly has just been lazy.) Anyway, yours truly is revved up (or more like riled up) and ready to go – here are some thoughts on […]

CNN’s “Chicagoland” stalls at the starting gate

The first episode of Robert Redford’s eight-episode documentary didn’t attract much of an audience Reviews mixed, but Chicago viewers’ reception is more positive Chicago is in the spotlight once again thanks to a new eight-hour documentary Chicagoland, which premiered Thursday on CNN and is running at 9 p.m. for the next eight weeks. Produced by Robert Redford, Mark Levin, and […]

Ratings Box: Ellen gives boost to Oscars

* The Academy awards telecast on ABC Sunday night with Ellen DeGeneres as host scored the biggest ratings in fourteen years: the gala drew 43.74 million viewers and a 13.1/33 among adults 18-49, easily ranking as the highest-rated entertainment program of the year, up 0.7 percent from the 13/33 final numbers last year, and was up 8 percent in total […]

WMAQ hires former “Survivor” contestant as an investigative reporter

If Tammy Leitner thought politics on a reality show was something, she hasn’t seen anything yet in regards to Chicago’s. As first reported by Robert Feder last week, Ms. Leitner has joined the investigative team of NBC-owned WMAQ-TV (known as NBC 5 Investigates) which currently employs Carol Marin, Rob Stafford, Marion Brooks, and others. Leitner started at NBC 5 Monday. […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: “Arsenio” to return for second season

Grab Baggin’- * It’s like good prevailing over evil: CBS Television Distribution announced the renewal of The Arsenio Hall Show for a second season Wednesday evening, with former Tonight Show host Jay Leno delivering the news to Arsenio in person (see above.) This comes as Arsenio has the youngest median age of any late night talk show amid a recent ratings […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: “Heroes” returns. Oh God, why?

Just when you think the idiots who run broadcast network television couldn’t get any stupider, here comes this piece of news: NBC aired a promo Saturday night – yes, Saturday night during the Winter Olympics for the debut next year of a hot new series… Heroes. What the what? And here’s the kicker: the person helming this revival of Heroes: […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Sports-talk war escalates with Finfer defection

* The first shot has been fired in the Chicago’s new sports-talk wars: Robert Feder reports that Tribune’s new Game has stolen Ben Finfer away from CBS’ The Score (WSCR), where he’ll serve as producer – but also as show host, being paired with David Kaplan at Noon and then joins Alex Quigley and Howard Griffith from 1-3 p.m. Finfer […]

Why “Bethenny” failed

Lack of experience, awkwardness, and arrogance kept viewers away from former Real Housewives star’s daytime talker In a project that never should have seen the light of day, Warner Bros. (or Telepictures, or Lorimar, or whomever) decided last week to put former Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel’s talk show out of its misery after just five months on the air. […]