In his 2008 speeches, President Barack Obama talked about change. Well, in the media world, change arrived in the 2000s. And boy, did it ever! When the decade started, who knew we would be watching clips on YouTube, or friending people on Facebook, or watching network TV shows online? Or how broadcast television and terrestrial radio would both have trouble […]
A post I wrote last Tuesday received some negative feedback, as yours truly painted a too-rosy picture of Comcast SportsNet’s ratings regarding the Cubs and White Sox – particularly the latter team. According to an article appearing in Sports Business Journal ranking Major League Baseball’s thirty teams in terms of television ratings on games aired by their regional sports networks […]
This week’s Four Pack contains the baseball playoffs, some dancing, and Rachael Ray – oh my! Winners – Postseason baseball. Ratings for the divisional baseball playoffs on TBS were up from last year…. maybe because the Cubs and White Sox weren’t in it? – Rachael Ray. Her talk show is renewed until 2011-12 in 90 percent of the country, including […]
While Chicago’ baseball teams did not have a successful season on the field, they had some success on the tube. Sports Business Journal ranked the 2009 regular season of thirty teams, and the Chicago Cubs finished ninth among regional sports networks, with a 4.1 household rating – but this number was down 16% from 2008 numbers. Meanwhile, the Chicago White […]
Yours truly had a thing or two to say about Thursday’s White Sox-Cubs interleague game on Steve Rosenbloom’s blog Monday night: Cubs-Sox game on Thursday? Yawn. Thank god I have a job. The players and management on these two loser teams shouldn’t have theirs. I don’t know what’s more pathetic…The Cubs… The White Sox… or the fact “Heroes” is still […]
The last few weeks had some noteworthy stories, and here’s how it all went down: the good and the bad. Winners – Rick Bayless win Top Chef: Masters. Yes, our town’s own Rick Bayless won Top Chef: Masters last week, just giving us more proof he’s more talented than his brother, Skip. – Project Runway. The move to Lifetime and […]
A ton of news featuring Family Guy and South Park today here in The Grab Bag. It’s like having Cubs fans and White Sox fans together in the same room. Oh-Oh… Hey, no beer throwing! – To build up Emmy buzz for its nomination as a Best Outstanding Comedy Nominee, the producers of Family Guy held a live table reading […]
Monday night’s NCAA College Basketball Championship between Michigan State and North Carolina turned out to be the lowest-rated of all time (how often have you heard that phrase?) But what we are mad for now is baseball. The game, in which North Carolina blew out Michigan State drew only a 10.8 household rating and an 18 share, according to Nielsen, […]
Meet the latest victim of Floptober (a.k.a. Darkmane strikes again.) In the end, it wasn’t Kimbo Slice, Seth what’s-his-name (McFarlane? nah…), and UFC that knocked EliteXC out. It was a foe that has been knocking everything out left and right as of late: The weak economy. Due to a lack of funds, Showtime Networks and ProElite have shuttered the Mixed […]
In this week’s edition, we have a renewal, a couple of layoffs, and two firings… T Dog’s Fabulous Four Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. Say what you want about The CW (I know I have), but last Monday’s duo finished second in its time period among women 18-34 (with One Tree finishing first among women 12-24), doing what the […]
Forget the goat, it’s this guy’s fault the Cubs didn’t win. There’s only one Floptober… Remember when I said Darkmane (from those X Games spots) couldn’t foil the X Games but could show up at Wrigley to foil the Cubs chances at going to the World Series? Not only he succeeded, but he also managed to find time to show […]
In celebration of post number 1400, let’s see what’s in the bag (some celebration, huh?) – How about this? With the White Sox victory over the Twins in last night’s tiebraker game for the American League Central Division Title, both the Cubs and the White Sox are in the postseason for the first time in 102 years. But if you […]
This is retroactive to last week (I’ll post this week’s edition on Friday), so here it goes: T Dog’s Fabulous Four – The Insider cans Pat O’Brien. He was fired after sending e-mails to staffers at the show and Entertainment Tonight, criticizing the programs. O’ Brien, who was demoted to special correspondent for this season after a stint in rehab […]
Another installment in the Groovy Grab Bag – let’s see what’s in the sack: – WGN-TV announced it was re-airing the Carlos Zambrano no-hitter on Friday night at 10 p.m. on WGN and WGN America. Zambrano no-hit the Houston Astros Sunday night in Milwaukee in a game moved from Houston because of Hurricane Ike. Zambrano became the first Cubs pitcher […]
Former Chicago White Sox pitcher – and Chicago Cubs analyst Steve Stone has signed a six-year deal with the White Sox to be their television analyst along side Hawk Harrison, replacing Darrin Jackson in the process. Except for a stint when Joe Carter was in the booth, Stone was the Cubs analyst alongside Haray Caray and later Chip Caray for […]