Bears rule Monday night – in the ratings and on the field

The Bears ruled Monday night. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. The Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys were featured on ESPN’s Monday Night Football and drew the largest audience of the season with 16.6 million viewers, a 12.3 household rating, and a whopping 6.8 rating among adults 18-49, topping all competition – broadcast or cable. The Bears – led by quarterback Jay Cutler […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Associating with Mariotti sends the wrong message

Look what washed up on the shores on the beaches of L.A. after all these years…: it’s the human garbage disposal: Jay Mariotti. Two weeks ago, the former Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Around The Horn panelist on ESPN – and who twice pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic abuse – wrote a not-so-glowing piece on Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler […]

Despite loss, Bears still dominate Chicago ratings

While the Chicago Bears (and Jay Cutler in particular) disappointed in their hugely anticipated matchup against the archrival Green Bay Packers, they certainly didn’t disappoint in the ratings department (and for a change, it was Cutler who was nastier than Simon Cowell was.) Last Thursday night’s game locally drew a 31.3/48 household rating/share according to Nielsen. The game aired over […]

Sports, tech snafus zap media coverage of teachers’ strike

As Chicago teachers head for the picket line, media coverage of the strike has been filled with some miscues and some frustration from local news stations due to sports overruns.  If you watched ABC 7’s (WLS-TV’s) newscast Sunday night, technical snafus took place as video from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s press conference at the Harold Washington Library often looked choppy and […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: CBS, AT&T sign retransmission deal

Reach out and touch someone…. No, not there. Or there. The Grab Bag: – CBS AT&T . CBS Corp. and AT & T have signed a brand new retransmission consent deal, covering all CBS-owned stations (which includes CBS, CW, and independent stations), Showtime, The Smithsonian Channel, and CBS Sports Network. Locally, the deal covers CBS-owned WBBM-TV over all AT&T U-Verse […]

ESPN re-ups with Major League Baseball

(Editor’s note: the wrong draft of this article was posted earlier. This is the correct version. -T.H.) It’s been the mantra for the last couple of years now: whatever ESPN wants, ESPN gets. I guess there are some benefits to being The Worldwide Leader in B.S. ESPN announced on Tuesday a renewal deal with Major League Baseball, with the sports […]

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’ […]

Fox at 25: The hits and misses

Fox celebrated their 25th Anniversary in prime-time this past Sunday with a two-hour retrospective, featuring clips of past shows and a few cast reunions. While the network officially launched its primetime lineup on April 5, 1987 with three airings each of Married… With Children and The Tracey Ullman Show, the network actually launched on October 9, 1986 with The Late […]

Tribune, DirecTV in dispute

        Here we go again: yet another broadcaster-MSO dispute – only this time, Chicago baseball and Vampire Diaries fans (wow, there’s an odd combo) may be left in the lurch. Tribune Broadcasting and DirecTV are in a retrans dispute and if a deal isn’t reached by March 31, Tribune’s 24 stations across eighteen markets – including WGN-TV […]

The T Dog Media 2011 Turkey Awards

            Allen Gregory: Worst. Sitcom. Ever. Welcome to the 6th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards! Every year around Thanksgiving, yours truly hashes out the worst in the media business – in television, radio, and sports. So bring out the stale stuffing and expired cranberry sauce! It’s time to go gobbling! And the “winners” are… […]

The Six Pack: Occupy this!

              While America is holding protests against rampant greed, T Dog Media has the winners and losers of the past week who “occupied” the media spotlight: Winners Last Man Standing. Tim Allen picked up right where he left off – as a prime-time success for ABC. Standing debuted last Tuesday to a 3.6 adult […]

Grab Bag: “Last Man Standing” stands tall

        Plus other news of note, including Rosie Show results; Brandmeier’s return; and a new game show in an unusual time slot. – Viewers welcomed back Tim Allen to network TV Tuesday night with open arms with strong sampling of his new sitcom Last Man Standing. On Tuesday, the series opened with  13.1 million viewers and grew […]

Grab Bag: Savage wrestles down a new outlet in Chicago

Can you smell… what WJJG is cookin’? You most certainly can as another edition of The Grab Bag is upon us… -Mancow Mueller now has a new tag-team partner at WJJG-AM (1530 AM) with syndicated radio host Michael “Macho Man” Savage. Beginning October 3, the duo will enter the ring every day to grope and piledrive their liberal opponents into […]