The Excellent 10 of 2011

There is a lot of mediocrity that abounded in the media business this year. But in this post, T Dog Media is honoring the standouts of 2011 – the year’s ten best shows and the best media items. Let’s countdown the best shows of the year first… Best shows of 2011 10. Bob’s Burgers (Fox). What could’ve been the next […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Rewarding failure

“I failed at doing the CBS Evening News. Now ABC is going to reward me with a big contract for doing a talk show no one will watch. Suckers!! “ On Monday, Katie Couric joined The Walt Disney Company as a syndicated talk show host in what has to be the worst syndicated deal ever. The multi-year, multi-platform deal also […]

"All My Children", "One Life To Live" get the ax

Erica Kane is being shown the door. In a move rumored for weeks, ABC pulled the plug today on two of its longest-running soap operas: All My Children and One Life to Live. Both series have been longtime staples of ABC’s daytime lineup, each of them being on the air for over four decades. Children is scheduled to end this […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Needing some extra “support”

Ah, lucky Providence, R.I. They get to see women in bras in the prime access hour. We Chicagoans get Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson. You know, it’s hard to be a bra salesman these days in Providence when you have the Internet… and now you have infomercials running as early as 7 p.m.! Is it no surprise that 25% of […]

“Windy City Live” blows into town

Officials at ABC-owned WLS-TV has decided on a title for its new morning talk show not named Oprah, and it’s blowing into town. The generic-like name of Windy City Live was chosen as the title of WLS’ new local morning show which replaces The Oprah Winfrey Show. Two weeks ago, Robert Feder of Time Out Chicago reported that WLS sports […]

WLS-TV dominates households in November

ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was Chicago’s top entertainment (non-sports) program in November.  November sweeps came and went and as usual, ABC- owned WLS-TV won the 10pm news race, and also dominated the market overall (thank you Oprah and Dancing With The Stars.) While household numbers were only available at this time, look for WLS to dominate in all key […]

Chicago stations in for political ad revenue windfall

With Mayor Richard M. Daley’s decision not to run for a seventh term, it could mean good news for local television and radio outlets in the terms of revenue in the form of increased political advertising. While the rest of us will being running to our nearest electronics store to buy Tivos, the announcement would mean a huge influx of […]

WLS-TV jumps into the 4:30 a.m. news derby

Remember when yours truly said an expansion for local news at 4:30 a.m. was inevitable in the Chicago market? Well, the race to have the first newscast of the day is getting awfully crowded. Just two weeks after Tribune’s WGN-TV announced it was expanding its morning newscast to 4:30 a.m. on August 16, ABC-owned WLS-TV announced yesterday it was expanding […]

Nine O’Clock news numbers not so nice

Jeff Goldbatt out at WFLD; WISN, WTMJ tie in 10 p.m. news race in Milwaukee The recent trends in local news is somewhat puzzling to figure out sometimes – while two stations scored rating increases at 10 p.m. with their local newscasts, the two local 9 p.m. newscasts were down from year-ago averages. Both CW affiliate WGN-TV and Fox-owned WFLD-TV […]

WFLD wins a Peabody, but still loses in the ratings race

WFLD continues to struggle at 9 p.m. with its local newscasts, despite the fact of a strong prime-time lead-in. The March numbers show the Fox-owned station continuing to lag behind WGN and the other stations in the market in households and key demos. According to Nielsen and numbers supplied by the Sun-Times, WFLD averaged a 3.1 household rating for its […]

Local Feburary "sweeps" good as Gold for WMAQ and WCIU

NBC-owned WMAQ-TV won the Gold when it came to Olympic ratings, but it was WLS-TV that grabbed the medal where it really counts: late news. And WCIU-TV came home with some Gold itself. The February “sweeps” period ended on Wednesday, but this ratings period won’t be as important because of the heavy skew of the Winter Olympics. Some stations (notably […]

Asking the questions: Why is WFLD struggling at 9 p.m.?

The T Dog Media Blog is “asking the questions”… why is Fox-owned WFLD squandering prime-time lead-ins from its parent network? Maybe they should find some answers. According to Nielsen and from Lewis Lazare’s column today, WFLD continues to lag behind its competitors in the month of January. Despite changes to the 9 p.m. newscast – notably adding Anna Davlantes as […]

Chicago ratings box

Here are some notable ratings items: – Lewis Lazare’s Sun-Times column noted ABC-owned WLS-TV’s continued ratings dominance in the month of December. According to the ratings “book”, WLS finished first at 10 p.m. in households, followed by CBS-owned WBBM-TV and NBC-owned WMAQ-TV, which continues to suffer from having Jay Leno as a news lead-in (though that may not be the […]

WBBM-TV 10 p.m. news soars in the ratings

Leno hampering NBC affiliates’ late news; other November “sweeps” notes ABC-owned WLS-TV dominated the ratings in households and key demos in the just concluded November “sweeps” period (do we still have those in this LPM era?) but it was the two other network O&Os who made headlines. NBC-owned WMAQ-TV slipped to third place in households at 10 p.m., behind a […]