The deadline passes for bids on the beleaguered Tribune Co. and is mulling two offers: one from the Chandler family, Trib’s largest shareholder, and the other from two Los Angeles billionaires. Either way, it looks like the Tribune Co. will no longer be under local control.
Here is the latest going on at NATPE in Las Vegas and TCA press tour in Pasadena, Calif.: -Warner Bros. has pulled its proposed new show, Celebrity Jury– for now. Warner Bros. was unable to come to an agreement with the Fox-owned stations on the program, but may be launched at a later date. Meanwhile, the chances for Dr. Keith […]
Michael Wilbon of PTI may not have been watching, but the rest of America was: American Idol drew 37.3 million viewers, the second-highest total in the program’s history-a 15.7/38 rating/share among the money demo (A 18-49) and a 20.3/30 among households (In Chicago, Idol drew a 20.1/30, about average.) Meanwhile, way, way, waaaaaaaaayyyyyy on the opposite end of the ratings […]
Two shows have been called out at the plate: ABC’s anemic Big Day, and NBC’s Passions. The latter, a modern-day Dark Shadows, is being replaced in the NBC daytime lineup by a fourth hour of Today.
Rachael Ray’s syndicated talk show, which debuted the same day this blog did, has been picked up for another two years, according to CBS Television Distribution’s Roger King. The program is the highest-rated freshman talk show this season and in the top five overall.
Steve Wilkos, a Marine and former Chicago police officer, will be getting his own talk show, thanks to NBC Universal. WIlkos, who first moonlighted on Springer since 1994 as a secruity guard, and probably best known for breaking up the altercations on the program, was signed to do an issued-oriented talk show that will tape here in Chicago at the […]
Here is the latest from the NATPE convention in Las Vegas: – The Fox O&Os, as it has been spectacled for the last few weeks, has acquired Warner Bros. new magazine strip, TMZ, for next fall. The program will air locally on both WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV this September. The show is based on the wildly popular entertainment website TMZ.com, which […]
Man… on the day where the TCA and the NATPE shingdings are going on…. the browser crashes. Took an hour and a half to get it back working. That’s why we’re late tonight … anyway… Ed Sherman of the Trib has a review of Fox’s coverage of the Seahawks-Bears NFC Divisional Playoff game yesterday. If I haven’t seen an extended […]
With the NATPE convention getting underway today, Let’s visit an article TV Week published last week on Syndication’s Most Bankable Stars, picked by a panel of syndication experts. Among the highlights: -Topping the list again is Oprah Winfrey, thanks to her continuing success of new now two- decades old talk show. -Oprah’s spinoff show, Dr. Phil, is number two. -Newcomer […]
I knew I couldn’t go two weeks without bashing According to Jim. So, I have my friends at Nobody’s Watching do it for me.
The 2007 Winter Critics Poll is out from TV Week, and not surprisingly, The Wire is on top as best show (as it was in Broadcasting & Cable’s earlier TV Critics Poll), followed by Excellent 10 program Heroes (yay!), and The Office. Other notables: –Ugly Betty, another Excellent 10 favorite finished in a tie for fourth with Grey’s Anatomy. –Lost […]
The Q’s are out… Bravo dumps Queer Eye for the Straight Guy after five seasons, while ESPN cancels Quite Frankly after two. Rest assured these shows won’t be missed. (Let’s hope Stephen A. stays away from daytime TV… There are already too many bombastic personalties in that field already.)
AT&T, which bought Cingular wireless in the Bell South deal, is dropping the popular brand name to go another hot, sexy name…. AT&T. AT&T sold its wireless business a few years back to Cingular, which was created in 2001 as a result of a joint venture of SBC and BellSouth. Customers who had the AT&T Wireless name were converted to […]
– Debmar-Mercury has cleared 85% of the country for the ninth syndicated season of Family Feud, which was previously distributed by Tribune Entertainment. Debmar-Mercury has also recruited Twentieth Television to sell ad time for Feud and off-cable weekly sci-fi hour The Dead Zone. That program has also been sold to 85% of the country, including season two renewals for ABC […]
The Canadian-owned producer of shows ranging from Night Heat to DaVinci’s Inquest to the CSI franchise has been sold to CanWest Global and Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs for a whopping $2.3 billion. Even if it’s Canadian currency, that’s a lot of money! CanWest Global runs Global, Canada’s third broadcast network.
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