T Dog’s Think Tank: Better days ahead for NBC (2000th post)

The party’s over for Doogie and Partyman. Post number 2000. Yes, yours truly is finally written his 2000th post after four years. And what better way to celebrate by writing a Think Tank regarding the departures of biggest boobs to ever grace – or disgrace a media corporation’s executive suite outside of Laurence Tisch. I’m talking about Jeff Zucker and […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The Late Shift 2: The Screwjob Continues

It all began on January 7, when a website reported that NBC had canceled The Jay Leno Show. It ended on January 22, with Conan O’Brien leaving The Tonight Show. Welcome to The Late Shift 2: The Screwjob Continues. Based on New York Times writer Bill Carter’s book (and later HBO movie), this is a sequel to the mid 1990s […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The white flag

On Monday, the Chicago White Sox traded veterans Jim Thome to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jose Contreras to the Colorado Rockies, bringing back memories of the July 1997 White Flag Trade which sent Wilson Alvarez and two others to the San Francisco Giants. The move was sent as a signal the White Sox has given up on the season […]

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, […]

TCA: NBC

NBC Universal had its presentation at the Television Critics Association press tour on Tuesday and Wednesday: NBC – Two NBC executives (Angela Bromstad and Paul Telady) came out to reporters and pretty much gave the same, usual canned responses you hear at the press tour every year. They downplayed Ben Silverman’s departure from the network; vaguely described the ratings expectations […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – The Summit

There have been some conflicts in the media world lately. So let’s have a T Dog’s Four Pack Beer Summit – where we can hash out our differences and make the world a better place. Or not… A four pack worthy of Budwesier and Miller Genuine Draft – Mark Burhele’s Perfect Game. The first Chicago pitcher to throw a perfecto […]

Anna Davlantes out at Channel 5

Yours truly was celebrating when Ben “Party All The Time” Silverman left NBC Monday. Now comes the bad news: it appears Anna Davlantes is following him out the door. Ms. Davlantes exited NBC-owned WMAQ-TV today after failing to come to a contract renewal agreement with the station. WMAQ’s station manager (Fran Whitaker) put out a short statement thanking her for […]

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 […]

Post No. 1700: Grab a bag.

To celebrate 1700 posts at The T Dog Media Blog (corrupting your mind since 2006), here’s the Super Groovy Grab Bag of items! (sorry, no party… the budget’s real tight this year…) – Book ’em, Danno!: David Hernandez, the co-owner of the now-defunct Chicago Sports Webio.com, was arrested today in Normal, IL today a week after he skipped town. He […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The joke’s on us

In a recent column in the Chicago Tribune, Steve Dahl wondered what the country – and the world – thought of Illinois thanks to Patti Blagojevich (former Governor Rod’s wife) appearing on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! He said it gave Illinois a Hollywood feel, but a Third World one at the same time. Of course, we […]

NBC announces new lineup for 2009-10 season

Here’s Ben “Party All The Time” Silverman now, driving the Losermobile for another pathetic season at Nothing But Crap. All Aboard! Pathetic, weak, terrible. And that just explains Heroes and Parks and Recreation. But no Chuck – at least not yet. Easy call to renew the Amy Poheler tripe but couldn’t renew a show with a rabid fan following. Typical […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Zucker and Silverman have got to go

When you think for losing disasters, you think of the Detroit Lions, Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Islanders, etc. And then there’s NBC, who has been taking losing to a whole new level as of late. Consider this: Recently, the network announced it was airing a “new” reality show this summer, titled I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out […]

T Dog’s Four Pack : The Baseball Edition

In honor of the start of another baseball season, we have an out-of-the-park edition of T Dog’s Four Pack: You can put it on the board, yes! – Super Saturday. All of Chicago’s four sports teams who played on Saturday (including the Bulls and Blackhawks, who are in the playoffs) hit a home run, with each winning their games. The […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

Grab bag time! – Tom Joyner, whose TJMS was disposed of from Clear Channel’s WVAZ-FM (V103) yesterday, has more on the show’s departure from Chicago’s airwaves in an interesting blog read. – George Lopez has signed a deal with TBS to launch a Monday-Thursday late night talk show for the cable network this fall. The program plans to target 18-34 […]

Jay Leno to stay with NBC – at 9 p.m. Central

And that’s 9 p.m. every weeknight. In a stunning and historic announcement, NBC is keeping Jay Leno by giving him a hour a night – in primetime. Leno is expected to take over the 9 p.m. time slot (that’s 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific) every weeknight as a strip beginning next fall. Excluding special events (and My Network TV’s short-lived […]