NBC 5’s upstart effort unseats ABC 7’s annual show In news no one saw coming, NBC-owned WMAQ’s freshman New Year’s Eve show beat ABC-owned WLS-TV’s in live plus-same day ratings, according to Nielsen and first reported by Robert Feder. In the quarter half-hour before the New Year began, Chi-Town Rising on WMAQ scored a 17. 1/36 household rating/share, beating WLS’ […]
The longtime newsman calls it a career WBBM-TV Anchorman Harry Porterfield announced his retirement Thursday after 51 years in journalism, effective immediately. The 87-year old Porterfield started his career at the CBS-owned station in 1964 as a newswriter and later a reporter. His Someone You Should Know segments were a signature part of WBBM’s newscasts in the 1970’s and 1980’s, […]
Dusting off an old New York area- electronic store slogan from the 1990’s, Nobody Beats The Wiz – at least when it comes to entertainment programming. And that was more than true Thursday night when as the NBC live presentation of the Broadway Musical drew strong ratings – even opposite a special edition of Thursday Night Football. In metered overnight […]
Maybe, maybe not – but negotiations leaves show’s future up in air One unlikely name to surface among syndicated TV programs whose future is questionable is…. Steve Harvey? According to Broadcasting and Cable, syndicator NBCUniversal, Emendol USA, and Harvey are negotiating on a contract renewal for his talk show beyond next season. Harvey’s contract with NBCU doesn’t expire until 2017, […]
Bears surprise; ABC 7 dominates November ratings; another new game show planned; Tom Joyner’s future On paper, it looked like another game against the Packers where the Bears would get blown out and the ratings would take a hit, given what happened last year. Turns out it wasn’t the case. Led by Jay Cutler, the Chicago Bears stunned their Green […]
Departure comes after only two months on air Guess Tyra Banks wasn’t cut out for the “Fab Life”. After just two months as lead host and executive producer, the former supermodel and host of America’s Next Top Model is bailing out of the sinking ship known as The FAB Life, to focus on her recently-launched cosmetics line. In a statement, […]
Also: Bears score on the field in the ratings in Chicago; Wicked City dies. How bad is broadcast prime-time programming is this year? So bad, they can’t even get a prime slot after the Super Bowl: CBS announced Wednesday it has given the post-game lead-out to a live edition of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on February 7, marking […]
With corruption, high taxes, and gang violence, Chicago has become an international embarrassment and may never recover If you’ve read this blog for the last ten years, then you know yours truly doesn’t just write about the media business. I’ve also written about Chicago and its image problems. The latest international embarrassment came last week when a nine-year old was […]
This useless reboot tells you all you need to know about the state of broadcast network prime-time television Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you the new Heroes: Reborn would be a disaster? I told you – right here in this space in February 2014 – about how bad an idea rebooting Heroes was. And it turns out […]
The legendary series returns to the airwaves – but on CBS’ SVOD service The Starship Enterprise is back in business. But if want you get on board, it’s going to cost you. CBS announced Monday it was rebooting Star Trek, which would be the seventh television incarnation of the franchise. But there […]
Networks now playing games with viewers Remember a few years ago when radio was tagged as a dying medium? Now you can give the title to broadcast networks’ prime-time TV programming. As more and more viewers are shifting to streaming services to watch their shows, the Big Five certainly aren’t giving a reason for viewers to stick around – renewing […]
Soon, we might be saying so long to Meredith Vieira’s daytime talker. Why you may ask? The former 60 Minutes correspondent and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host’s show received yet another downgrade Friday when ABC affiliate WCVB in Boston announced it was shaking up its early fringe lineup, moving Ellen from 4 p.m. to 3 p.m. to make room […]
Chicago ratings go on a roller coaster ride; ratings drop for fourth game The Chicago Cubs may have been swept out of the playoffs by the New York Mets, but Turner Sports was really the big winner in the series. The National League Championship Series between teams from two of the largest markets in the country brought in a record […]
Catching up on media news: Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper is returning to the Fox 32’s morning show: as first reported by Robert Feder Monday, Roeper has signed on as host of Good Day Chicago, joining Corey McPharrin and Darlene Hill. Roeper will continue his role as film critic at the Sun-Times. The signing comes as current host Jon Kelley is departing […]
In a stunning surprise – and perhaps a thumb to the nose of vertical integration – NBC Universal Television Distribution has sold Harry, a new talk hour featuring musical artist Harry Connick Jr., was sold to the seventeen Fox-owned and operated stations – including the Fox duopoly here in Chicago, WFLD and WPWR for next fall. NBCU is now selling […]
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