Mountain Movers: CBS All Access rebrands as Paramount Plus

A mountain of entertainment awaits the home viewer As the streaming wars continue to heat up, ViacomCBS announced Tuesday it was ditching the CBS All Access name and rebranding as Paramount Plus, or Paramount + beginning in early 2021, with a dedicated website already launched. The move to freshen up the streaming service comes as other big conglomerates have jumped […]

Fall syndication preview: It’s all Drew

Drew Barrymore show set to debut Monday – on TWO local stations [Editor’s Note: An earlier draft listed incomplete time period information for Law & Crime Daily and The First 48. This post was updated on September 19.]  With Nick Cannon’s new syndicated talk show on the shelf for another year, it’s just Drew Barrymore as the lone new syndicated […]

CBS Television Distribution swings deal for off-network African-American sitcoms to Netflix

Numerous off-network sitcoms are receiving a second life thanking to the proliferation of streaming service, reconnecting viewers with past laughs. But not all sitcoms have shared in the streaming fortune. Some off-sitcoms – mainly targeted to Black audiences, have been left out despite the fact those shows being were quite popular in the 1990s and 2000s. But all of that […]

Coronavirus update: Local shows shut down production

CW 26’s The Jam, ABC 7’s Windy City Live enter production hiatus The coronavirus epidemic has not only crippled the economy and changed the way we live, but it’s now affected television production in Chicago and nationwide. The latest scheduling changes took place last week when CW 26’s (WCIU) morning show The Jam and ABC 7’s (WLS-TV) Windy City Live […]

Coronavirus fears forces “Wendy Williams”, others to pull live studio audiences

Syndicated, network daytime shows latest to pull audiences due to coronavirus After Sony’s decision to close tapings of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune to the public as of Monday night due to coronavirus concerns, more shows have followed suit as expected. Tuesday night, Debmar-Mercury and Wendy Williams announced they would not host audiences for their show for now: https://twitter.com/WendyWilliams/status/1237512070100209664 Wendy […]

Coronavirus sacks “Jeopardy”, “Wheel” live studio audiences

Decision made after epidemic spreads across globe; Chicago film studio also affected Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 4 p.m. on March 10.  The coronavirus epidemic has affected sporting events, large gatherings, canceled trade shows (including four at McCormick Place) and other places around the world. Now, it is affecting tapings of television shows. Late Monday evening, the producers […]

“Judge Judy” to end production; new show to take its place?

Judy Sheindlin exits on top; reruns to air in a long-term deal A major change is about to take place involving television’s top-rated syndicated show. Long-running courtroom strip Judge Judy is ending production next season (2020-21) after 25 consecutive seasons on the air. However, the series is continuing in repeats in a long-term deal with numerous unidentified local stations, with […]

The Media Notepad: Marquee’s future getting on Dish looks very bleak

Also: Big 3 add overnight news repeats; Fox renews three daytime shows; Disney + signs ten million users; two prime-shows pink-slipped We have an update on the latest with the Cubs’ new Marquee Network and Dish…and I’m guessing those negotiations aren’t going well. In an interview with the Tribune’s Eric Zorn (a rather pointed opinion piece urging Dish not to […]

Report: Drew Barrymore to launch daytime talk show

New show to air locally over CBS 2 – or somewhere else It’s October and that means it’s already time to start planning for next fall’s syndicated shows. With that said, CBS Television Distribution announced a new talk show featuring Drew Barrymore, scheduled to debut in September 2020. The program cleared the CBS-owned stations in 38 percent of the country, […]

The Media Notepad: Dish drops NBC Sports Chicago

Also: Fox32/My50 goes up Schitt’s Creek; stunning fall from the top for The Mix; ABC closes Grand Hotel As expected, Dish has pulled the plug on NBC Sports Chicago October 1 as the satellite carrier continues to make life miserable for content providers – and subscribers. With the Cubs leaving the partnership effective October 1 for new upstart Marquee, new […]

Reunification: CBS and Viacom get back together

Split in 2005, both companies re-merge in order to compete with other entertainment giants In news that was expected for several months, it is now official: CBS Corporation and Viacom, Inc. are re-merging after nearly fifteen years apart. The company will be known as ViacomCBS. The reunification returns several well-known properties to one roof: CBS, with its top-rated broadcast network, […]

It’s over: James Holzhauer’s “Jeopardy” winning streak ends

Impressive streak ends at 32 games, falls short of Ken Jennings’ winnings record (An earlier draft of this story appeared on T Dog Media’s Facebook page Monday afternoon.) James Holzhauer’s Jeopardy winning streak abruptly ended Monday ending at 32 games after he was beaten by a Chicago contestant, no less. The former Naperville resident-turned-Las Vegas gambler entered the day only […]

“Jeopardy!”: A case of a successful game show

  A: This show has been a successful story for 35 years – even before Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer came on the scene. Q: What is Jeopardy? In 1983, King World was looking to pair something with its already red-hot Wheel of Fortune, an NBC daytime game show debuted in evening syndication and became a smash hit. So they […]

Media Notepad: “Red Line” derails in the ratings against “Game of Thrones”

Plus…. Ratings for Bulls and Blackhawks continue to fall; Jeopardy continues to roll thanks to a winning contestant; Crain’s partners with WGN Radio As one might have predicted, CBS’ new limited-series drama The Red Line got off to a rough start Sunday night, and it was indeed “A Long Night”. The two-hour premiere of the shot-in-Chicago series drew next-to-nothing in […]

The Media Notepad: “Game of Thrones”, Masters score big

Also… Face The Truth won’t be back for a second season; CourTV returns May 8; AT&T sells Hulu strike While HBO turned Chicago’s weather into one big promotional machine (Winter came on Sunday…and left a big, slushy mess), it seemed to have worked: Sunday’s eighth-season premiere of Game Of Thrones proved to be a big draw. The season premiere attracted […]