Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup – and the TV ratings battle

The Chicago Blackhawks are back on top in the hockey world – and in the ratings. This was quite a year for the Blackhawks, who saw some ups (the 23-game unbeaten streak) and some downs (the late start due to the lockout and Susannah Collins’ controversial firing.) But it was Dave Bolland’s game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins – one […]

Blackhawks rock the Stanley Cup House

Big tune in locally – and nationally The Stanley Cup Final began Wednesday night between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins. This marks both teams’ second appearance in the last four years with the Blackhawks last appearing in 2010 and the Bruins in 2011. The Blackhawks not only won Game 1 in a triple-overtime thriller against the Boston Bruins, […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: WLS-TV widens lead over rivals

Grab baggin’: – ABC-owned WLS-TV widened its lead over its competitors during the just-completed May sweeps, according to Nielsen. According to CRM, ABC 7 swept all local news time periods in households (25-54 demos weren’t available at press time), with a decisive victory at 10 p.m., surging 11 percent from May 2012 with a 10.0/18, leaving NBC-owned WMAQ-TV (5.9/11, +4% […]

WBBM-TV restores weekend morning newscasts

WBBM-TV (CBS 2) announced the return of weekend morning newscasts to the station after a three-year hiatus. The announcement was made during a meeting in the CBS-owned station’s newsroom with General Manager Bruno Cohen and News Director Jeff Kierman. Beginning on September 22, WBBM plans to air an hour of local news on Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and from Sundays […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Four thoughts – one column

(Editor’s Note: The original version of this post stated that the Chicago White Sox had a nine-game LOSING streak when in fact, they had a nine-game WINNING streak. T Dog Media regrets the error and apologizes. This also makes yours truly qualified to work in the Los Angeles news media, where I can botch up names of Los Angeles Kings’ […]

Blackhawks a winner – on the ice and on the tube

Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Toews hoists the Cup, the Blackhawks’ first since 1961.  (Photo courtesy of Chicago Tribune) For the first time in 49 years, the Chicago Blackhawks hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup. And viewers fled into the entrances to see the history making event. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers drew a […]

Blackhawks continue to roll in the ratings

The ultimate showdown in marquee events took place Sunday when the Game 2 of the NBA Finals took on ABC and Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers took place on NBC. While it was no surprise the NBA finals rolled over the Stanley Cup by the wide margin, in Chicago the […]

Canada-USA Gold Medal game scores in Chicago – and everywhere else

What’s the best part of the Winter Olympics? Seeing one of the best hockey tournaments in the world. And this Olympics proved no different. The Gold Medal Game in Men’s Hockey between the United States and Canada drew the largest audience for any hockey game in 30 years on this side of the border and the largest audience ever for […]

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 […]

WEEK, WHOI merge operations

Playing in Peoria is hard these days… The owners of NBC affiliate WEEK-TV and ABC affiliate WHOI-TV in Peoria have decided to merge their operations, effective immediately. WEEK’s owner (Granite Broadcasting) took over the operations of Barrington Broadcasting-owned WHOI in a local marketing agreement, leaving just Nextstar’s CBS affiliate (WMBD-TV) as their sole local competitor. A similar scenario has played […]

This TV clears 60 percent of U.S.

    This TV, the new digital movie channel launched by MGM and Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting on November 1, 2008, has now cleared 60 percent of the country on digital subchannels, including several major markets. This features movies mostly from MGM’s library (though not from the pre-1986 library, which Turner/Time Warner owns), as well as classic TV series such as […]

Crisis at RTN – Film at 10

A feud between Equity Media Holdings and Luken Communications left RTN off the air for close to four hours on Sunday morning. The spat came after a breakdown in an extension of an agreement on the use of Equity’s automated system to uplink customized local schedules to RTN’s 80+ affiliates. After failing to come to an agreement, Luken officials decided […]

Winter Classic shoots and scores in ratings

The third annual NHL Winter Classic which featured an outdoor game played at Wrigley Field between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings drew an 2.9 Nielsen overnight household rating for NBC on New Year’s Day, up 12 percent from the 2007 Classic between Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Here in Chicago, WMAQ-TV notched an 11.8 household rating and 21 share – […]

Olympic coverage: NBC or CBC?

Every one-and-a half to two-and-a-half years, the world pauses to celebrate the pageantry and the pomp that is the Olympics. And every one-and-a half to two-and-a-half years, Americans bitch about NBC’s coverage of them, while those who are lucky enough to get CBC’s coverage from Canada (in Detroit, Buffalo, Seattle, Burlington, Vt., or anywhere near the Canadian border. And judging […]

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 […]