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 […]

Chicago turns out for "Conan"

The debut of Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show Monday scored huge ratings, though not as big as Leno’s sendoff on Friday. Conan debuted to a 7.1 overnight household rating and 17 overnight household share, according to Nielsen. Locally in Chicago (WMAQ-TV, NBC5), O’Brien’s debut notched a 8.7/18 (scroll down), tied for fifth with Pittsburgh (WPXI-TV) for the most-watched market. […]

WHDH to Leno: Get lost

In a move that could put its fourteen-year NBC affiliation at risk, WHDH-TV in Boston has told NBC it plans not to run Jay Leno’s new weeknight show at 10 p.m. (ET) but instead run a prime-time newscast. Leno got the 10 p.m. time slot after losing his longtime 11:35 p.m. Tonight Show slot to Conan O’Brien. Leno leaves Tonight […]

Super Bowl XLIII Ratings Box

The Super Bowl XLIII matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals drew 95.4 million viewers, making it the third most-watched TV show of all time, trailing the 1983 series finale of M*A*S*H and Super Bowl XLII between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Here’s the breakdown: – In the 56 markets metered for overnight and/or […]

And the number one show in African-American households is…

No surprise here, it’s Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. But there is a surprise when compared to other programs in the viewer’s landscape: When you take the rating from its’ syndication airings and its cable runs on TBS, Payne tops everything else among African-Americans in all of television among adults 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54, including network prime-time, beating Grey’s Anatomy […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: So what happens if "Oprah" exits?

With Oprah Winfrey scheduled to run her new cable network in a joint venture with Discovery beginning next year, there is increasing speculation she may discontinue her daily talk show strip when her contract with CBS Television Distribution expires in 2011. The speculation increased when Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav revealed in an earnings report a few days ago that […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag – The X Edition

– CBS X’s out The Ex List – Yeah, the lead in this show is hot. And I mean very hot. But that alone won’t bring the viewers to the set. CBS dropped The Ex List from its Friday after four episodes, and is being replaced by NCIS repeats. But man, I wish I was on her “Ex List”… Somebody, […]

Local May sweeps numbers, Part 2

Continuing our look at local May sweeps numbers: Denver: NBC affiliate KUSA-TV swept local news (except 9 p.m. on KTVD) in all time periods. At 10 p.m., KUSA was up a share point from May 2007. Buffalo: CBS affiliate WIVB-TV won at 11 p.m., but the big story here was NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV’s 11 p.m. news show improving from its […]

The sad state of local TV

Last week’s purge at the CBS O&Os is just another reminder of how tough things are going on the local TV level, especially in the newsrooms. This article from the Baltimore Sun details how things are really going in the market’s local station community, where CBS’ WJZ-TV laid off four people last week and ABC affiliate WMAR-TV axed three employees. […]

This team is about as bad as the Orioles

Here’s another Channel 2 that can’t get arrested in news. ABC affiliate WMAR-TV in Baltimore has been the long-time ratings laggard in this market. The Scripps-owned station hoped it could inject some ratings juice into the also-ran by switching from NBC to ABC in 1995. The moves sent WJZ-TV to CBS (as part of a larger CBS-Westinghouse affiliation deal) and […]

Hearst-Argyle not happy with NBC’s performance

Hearst-Argyle (and probably a lot of station groups) aren’t happy with NBC’s primetime performance. David Barrett, the CEO of the station group, says he’s “disappointed” in the performance of the network, and its been a earnings drag on the company’s ten NBC affiliates. But don’t look too much into this. It’s not likely Hearst-Argyle will break with NBC anytime soon. […]

NBC stations dominate in late news

Remember when I said NBC stations get no help from their network lead-ins, hurting them? Turns out they don’t need them. NBC stations in Boston, Milwaukee, and Baltimore won the 11 p.m. late news races, according to recent July numbers from Nielsen. Among the highlights: Boston: NBC affiliate WHDH won the 11p.m. news race, but finished behind ABC affiliate WCVB-TV […]

"The Office" sold to TBS and Fox

My Name Is Earl also goes to TBS NBC Universal sold its (somewhat) popular sitcom The Office to TBS and to several Fox-owned television outlets today. Fox stations will clear the show in ten markets, including WFLD/WPWR in Chicago. TBS will air repurposed episodes this fall and will strip the program in 2009. TBS adds the show to its stable […]