July 19 is deadline In what could be the biggest retrans showdown yet, CBS on Tuesday afternoon warned of a looming blackout for AT&T customers for this coming Friday, including those who subscribe to DirecTV, U-Verse, and the DirecTV Now streaming service. This is big because CBS is one of the nation’s largest broadcasters, and own stations in almost all […]
Millionaire runs out of lifelines as game show comes to an end (Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.) Friday was the ultimate final answer for the fate of two long-running syndicated shows. According to TVNewscheck, Dish Nation was renewed for an eighth season, taking the show through September 2020. “Yeah eight seasons,” said Stephen Brown, Fox’s executive vice president […]
Production commitments likely after station clearances top 70 percent, plus other syndication news of note As expected, new talk shows headlined by former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and former WFLD news anchor and Today co-host Tamron Hall received a big boost as both programs announced new stations at the beginning of NATPE from Miami, which begins today. NBCUniversal’s Kelly […]
Sinclair realigns newscasts downstate; talent shows to hit syndication; No one is “asking America” – Remember back in October when yours truly asked if new weekly hour-long game show Monopoly Millionaires’ Club would air in Chicago because Illinois was not participating in the related lottery game? Well, here’s your answer: WGN-TV picked up the new Monopoly game hosted by Mike & Molly’s […]
ABC, Scripps stations clear new diginet; ABC to keep LiveWell after all ABC and Scripps Broadcasting announced this weekend they are launching a brand new digital subchannel called LAFF, injunction with Katz Communications beginning on April 15, “tax day”. Details on what the planned comedy network would carry (hint: you can’t go wrong with Mystery Science Theater 3000 reruns) were […]
ABC-owned station to run 25 games a season from 2015 through 2019 “Catch the action on WLS”… That’s right, you heard me… ABC-owned WLS-TV (that’s TV, not AM) struck a five-year deal with the Chicago Cubs to air 25 games a season beginning this spring. According to the station’s website, WLS would air games in daytime, primetime, and weekend […]
In an unusual move, at least in this day and age, freshman first-run strip Hot Bench is changing stations locally in the middle of the season. As part of a CBS O&O deal, Hot Bench – syndicated by co-owned CBS Television Distribution – is shifting to WBBM-Ch.2 where it will air weekdays at 2 p.m effective as of March […]
At least Jimmy DeCastro didn’t screw this up. But it wouldn’t have mattered: Sony Pictures Television has canceled The Queen Latifah Show after two seasons, marking the second time she struck with with a daytime talker (the last time was in 2001, when Warner Bros. dropped her similarly-titled show after two seasons.) The program will continue in […]
HBO, CBS bypass middlemen to provide content to you, the customer If there was a turning point in the cord-cutting movement, remember this week. HBO announced it was launching a streaming service on Wednesday, attempting to attract those “cord-nevers”, the term thrown around for those who refuse or can’t afford to subscribe to cable or satellite. It was followed by […]
Illinois residents may not be able to join the Monopoly Millionaires’ Club A new Monopoly-themed TV show is coming to a market near you this winter. But if you live in Chicago or in the state of Illinois, you are likely frozen out of the cold. A new syndicated game show titled Monopoly Millionaires’ Club is scheduled to debut in midseason […]
Attention viewers: baby mama drama time may soon be over. As reported by TVNewscheck on Friday, Tribune Broadcasting may not renew its contracts for its three conflict talk shows from NBCUniversal Television Distribution, hosted by Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, and Steve Wilkos. Neither Tribune or NBCUniversal had comment. Tribune is developing programming for time slots in 2015 and according to […]
Chicago’s news stations might want to rethink their news presentations. An analysis of May local news sweeps numbers in the adult 25-54 demographic in the nation’s ten largest DMAs from TVNewsCheck showed Chicago’s local newscasts losing ground faster than those in New York and Los Angeles. In fact, Chicago’s 21 percent drop overall was second only to Boston (down 23 percent.) […]
Also: WGN-TV to launch 4 p.m. newscast this fall; cooking Brisket on TV – for 13 straight hours [Editor’s Note: It has come to my attention that some of the Chicago demo numbers – notably for WFLD and WGN at 9 p.m. – are incorrect. All info from the source has been removed and the post has been rewritten. I […]
FCC approves purchases; deals close It’s a Holiday Week edition of the Grab Bag – will it be presents or several lumps of coal? Let’s find out: Both Gannett and Tribune received presents in their stockings thanks to the FCC approving their deals on December 20. Gannett purchased Belo last summer, while Tribune announced their takeover of Local TV, LLC […]
A return of a favorite… T Dog Media’s Six Pack is back! The week’s (or in this case, the summer’s) media winners and losers in a nutshell: Winners. Netflix. The investment in original programming seems to be paying off: House Of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and the newly revived Arrested Development each earned Emmy nominations, with Cards becoming the first web series to […]