T Dog’s Think Tank: What’s wrong with the NFL?

Ratings for the NFL are off this year. Why?  Over the last few weeks, you have read about why the NFL’s ratings are declining, with answers ranging from noncompetitive matchups to national anthem protests. Well, now it’s my turn to weigh in. So what’s wrong with the NFL? Well, let’s start locally as the Chicago Bears continue to drive away viewers […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: A Tronc war breaks out

Can’t we all get along: With the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, leave it to those idiots at  Tronc to ignite a war between the two cities’ newspapers – given the company runs newspapers in both cities. On Friday, overrated Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke wrote a column bashing Los Angeles, saying the city is a […]

Cubs post-season run begins

Media outlets looking for boost – even those who aren’t carrying games For better or worse, the worldwide spotlight on Chicago lately hasn’t been a positive one: the city continues to make headlines for its gun violence epidemic, as Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has name-dropped Chicago every chance he got as a symbol of what’s wrong in America – […]

Think Tank Express: “Son Of Zorn” doesn’t make grade

Bad writing sinks “innovative” show During the 1968-69 season, NBC premiered a new Sunday night show titled The New Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, becoming the first television series to use a hybrid of live-action and animation. Based on the characters of Mark Twain’s book of the same name (minus the “New”), the Hanna-Barbera series lasted only one season and wound […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Sylvia Perez joins Fox 32 as weekend anchor

Chicago news veteran Sylvia Perez is returning to the airwaves this coming week as new weekend anchor for WFLD’s 7-9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts and starting Monday, filing special reports for the station at 9 p.m. Perez was with ABC-owned WLS-TV for 24 years, spending several of them co-anchoring the station’s 11 a.m. newscast with Linda Yu, who […]

Sunday Night Television: The Brown Bag Club

Sad sack Bears, lackluster ABC and Fox lineups dampen night Note: numbers are 18-49 preliminary unless otherwise noted.  And you thought Friday night television was bad. Sunday is fast becoming Tune-Out Night In America. And the lackluster Bears (and two of their oldest animated sitcoms who are like Steve Dahl and Jonathan Brandmeier – past-their-prime acts who won’t get off the […]

“MacGyver” tops Friday ratings

CBS remake scores decent sampling; Church of Tisch dominates the evening Note: These results are based on adults 18-49 preliminary ratings. On The Simpsons, Patty and Selma said they’re favorite TV show was MacGvyer, the 1985-92 ABC series featuring Richard Dean Anderson (it was even part of a plot of one 1992 episode where Selma marries Sideshow Bob.) So you […]

Tough night for network TV

Unless you’re CBS After three nights of momentum, network TV slid off the rails Thursday as two programs’ premieres underwhelmed. For the record, real-life events had an effect on TV schedules – police protests in Charlotte were covered on cable news networks and spurred pre-emptions on several Charlotte TV stations; and here in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a […]

“Designated Survivor” off to strong start

Kiefer Sutherland gets to do something he was never able to do on 24 – become President of The United States. And he didn’t even battle Dennis Haysbert for the job. The biggest debut of the night was the premiere of Designated Survivor, the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle where he plays the President Of The United States – getting the position […]

“This Is Us”, ‘Bull” rams through competition

New dramas get strong sampling; The Voice continues to dominate; S.H.I.E.L.D. skids off radar The first Tuesday of the new season bought more ratings riches for both CBS and ABC while ABC and Fox struggled to remain competitive. Obviously, the story of the night is the successful debuts of CBS’ Bull and NBC’s This is Us. The latter show benefited […]

Bears bomb on field and in ratings

  If you thought the Chicago White Sox had a bad season…you ain’t seen nothing yet Maybe we should send Chris Sale to cut up some Bears jerseys in the locker room. Monday night certainly wasn’t football night for Bears fans as the team put up the worst performance in at least two seasons as the team was blown out […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: T Dog Media at 10

Happy anniversary to T Dog Media! It’s a different media world today than it was when I started this. As we mark the ten-year anniversary of T Dog Media this weekend, I would like to take a look back – not at dopey posts from the early years such as these (really bad idea)…or getting involved in feuds (Wil Wheaton and […]

Cubs score one for the record books

Cubs destroy competition off the field, including the once-mighty NFL – setting a cable TV record in the process Despite loss, Cubs clinch NL Central Even with a loss last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs continue to roll with a dominant ratings performance on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. According to a press release, the Brewers-Cubs telecast Thursday night on […]