The tough landscape of weekend programming

Man of the People latest to strike out as viewers head to streaming services on weekends (Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to reflect recent changes in programming schedules.) Funny thing as this person was watching the final Man Of The People Monday night via DVR as in the next-to-last segment, Bill Kurtis said “Tonight we look back at […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Enough of the reboots

As the major networks go all in on rebooting familiar television shows – even using the same stars, they risk becoming irrelevant Over the last few weeks, you’d think network television executives were taking cues from those who run Chicago radio: over the last few years, we were treated to “reboots” of Jonathon Brandmeier, Mancow, Steve Dahl, Bob Sirott (and […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Limo-for-a-Lame-O Jr. finally drives away

How does it feel to become the second Silverman in history to screw up a network – in fact, the SAME network ? Goodbye, Mr. “Party All The Time”. Don’t hit your head when you get in that limo… Yours truly doesn’t know if the departure of Ben Silverman will immediately improve NBC’s fortunes. But it is a start. Yes, […]

Ben Silverman out at NBC

The long national nightmare is over – the Bulls Ballboy is moving on. NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman resigned today after two years to start a new company with Barry Diller’s IAC. He’s essentially returning to his entrepreneurial roots: he founded production company Reville, producers of The Office and Ugly Betty. His replacement is Jeff Gaspin, who will now add […]

Cubs dominate ratings in Chicago

Anyone watching the new summer fare here in Chicago? You know, shows like I Survived a Japanese Game Show, Celebrity Family Feud, Swingtown, Duel, and Wanna Bet? Didn’t think so (in fact, no one is watching them anywhere else, either.) What people are watching in the Windy City are the Cubs – and on Monday night, the Cubs-Brewers game dominated […]

Local stations’ sweeps numbers hit by writers’ strike

Affiliates – who depend on their network’s prime-time programs to draw viewers to their late newscasts – suffered ratings declines during the just-concluded February sweeps as the writer’s strike forced the networks into reruns and were forced to air less-appealing reality shows. Judging by the few markets available for review, NBC affiliates seemed to be affected less, thanks to a […]

Ask the T Dog Media Blog

Going back through some old posts, I discovered a question asked by an anonymous reader regarding the original version of American Gladiators. Instead of answering in the comments section of the post, I decided to answer in a new post here: Q: Anonymous said… Do you know what the ratings were for the original American Gladiator series? Also did it […]

"Gladiators" smashes competition

The return of American Gladiators was a huge ratings success story, drawing a 5.9 rating among adults 18-49 for NBC, according to Nielsen. The two-hour premiere even drew numbers that it never achieved in its syndication run (1989-95). It also drew the highest-rated program for any new show this season. Gladiators will move to regular day and time tonight (8 […]

CBS, NBC unveil midseason schedules

A lot more changes than usual because of the ongoing writer’s strike. This includes a revival of American Gladiators on NBC. You know, there was an episode of “The Simpsons” from 1992 where Homer Simpson complains about missing prime-time, where “the stars come out to shine.” Well, let’s just say he won’t be making that complaint today, because he won’t […]

American Gladitors returns – to NBC

The sports-competition show that aired in syndication locally on WPWR-TV (and later WFLD-TV) in the 1990’s, is coming back in midseason – as a prime-time program on NBC. Reville Entertainment, whose former president Ben Silverman is now co-chairman at NBC, is producing the show along with MGM Television. MGM holds the rights to the series, inherited when they acquired The […]

More NBC from the press tour

More nuggets from the NBC portion of the press tour: – NBC has signed disposed Grey’s Anatomy star Isiah Washington to appear in five episodes of The Bionic Woman, which debuts this fall. – Jerry Seinfeld will appear on the season premiere of 30 Rock, while Alec Baldwin will stay with the show. Last spring, he wanted out of the […]