Going for the ratings gold

Chicago ranks 25th in Olympic ratings When it comes to the Summer Olympics, Chicagoans haven’t really been too excited about the games (perhaps we still have a hangover from losing the 2016 Olympics bid to Rio?) The games of the XXX Olympiad from across the pond in London has drawn an average of 32.8 million viewers in primetime for the […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: RIP Sherman Hemsley, Chad Everett

There is other media news besides the Olympics and the Television Critics Association Press Tour – including a new morning show for the new i101 and the return of a bad Scooby-Doo reboot. And we once again mourn the loss of a television great – in fact two of them. – Sherman Hemsley, who is best known as George Jefferson […]

Let’s get busy…again. Arsenio Hall returns to late-night

Move over Frank Woolanski, here’s comes someone who packed a lot of bark in late-night back in the day – and is looking to woof again. CBS Television Distribution and Tribune Broadcasting announced today it will launch a new late-night talk show with Arsenio Hall beginning in September 2013, returning him to the daypart that made him famous and reuniting […]

Arsenio Hall mulling late-night return

Get ready to woof again: there’s a possibility Arsenio Hall may return to late-night television with a new version of his talk show. According to Broadcasting & Cable, CBS Television Distribution and Tribune Broadcasting are looking to bring the Cleveland native and recent Celebrity Apprentice winner back into the fold, with an eye toward a September 2013 launch. CBS and […]

The Puppet’s Court

When you come across something like The Puppet’s Court, you’re probably thinking this must be one of those first-run syndicated strips that was being pitched at the recent NATPE gathering in Miami back in January. But believe it or not, The Puppet’s Court was actually a newscast segment earlier this year on a local TV station in Cleveland – with […]

The radio firing squad

It’s a phrase we’ve been hearing for the last couple of years: it’s not a good day to be in the radio business. And no day was as brutal as this past Thursday. In addition to Cumulus cutting loose Chicago radio veteran Michael Damsky after four years at WLS-AM/FM, Clear Channel had to come and announce scores of layoffs – […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: The March Madness edition

Did you fill out your brackets yet? It’s time for T Dog’s March Madness Six Pack. We have two regionals: The Chicago Bulls region (winners section; the Bulls have the best record in the NBA) and the Pac-12 Supersectional (losers; – seriously, just two teams in the NCAA tournament?) It’s time for tip-off! The Chicago Bulls Regional Steve Harvey to […]

The Grab Bag: “Brandmeier” renewed; Antenna TV a hit – in Cleveland

This week’s Grab Bag include plenty of local TV items – and some not so local: – In an item first reported Saturday at Chicagoland Radio and Media, Brandmeier has been picked up for a second cycle by NBC-owned WMAQ-TV. The series stars WGN-AM morning host Johnathan Brandmeier where takes on the week’s headlines and interviews special guests. Brandmeier had […]

NFL agrees to new deals with CBS, NBC, and Fox

The National Football League has secured deals with three of its network partners to keep football on over-the-air broadcast TV for the next decade. The deals keeps everything status quo – Fox continues to broadcast the NFC package it has held since 1994; CBS retains the AFC package it has held since 1998; and NBC keeps the Sunday night package […]

Life After Oprah

              Anderson Cooper’s new syndicated talk show began on Monday.   Welcome to Life… After Oprah. Monday marked a new era in syndication as repeats of The Oprah Winfrey Show came to an end on Friday (her last original episode aired on May 25) as the broadcast business is without the queen of talk […]

The Grab Bag: You, the people

This Grab Bag is for you – that’s right. You – the people. You have the right to gripe about yet another newscast or yet another new daytime courtroom show (We The People) on the horizon. You also have the right to have an alternative to the regular crap on TV – thanks to two new diginet TV channels. You […]

The race to replace Oprah: "Anderson", "Ellen" benefit

Modern Family syndication sales reaches up to 50 percent of the U.S. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution seems to benefitting the most thus far when it comes to replacing The Oprah Winfrey Show when it leaves this September, with Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres’ talk shows snapping up time slots soon-to-be formerly held by the queen of talk. Anderson has […]

Stephen J. Cannell, R.I.P.

Writer, producer, and businessman Stephen J. Cannell, died yesterday at the age of 69 in his Pasadena, Calif. home from complications resulting from melanoma. The news came as a shock to a lot of people, since his illness wasn’t made public. Cannell wrote, created, and produced many television shows, selling his first script in 1968 to Universal for It Takes […]

Scripps stations make a deal with "Dr. Oz"

In a two-station deal with Sony Pictures Television, Scripps has acquired The Dr. Oz Show to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show on its ABC stations in Detroit and Cleveland. In Cleveland, WEWS simply upgrades the show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., while sister station WXYZ-TV snatches the show away  from NBC affiliate WDIV in Detroit. In the Motor City, […]

Sam Sylk heads to Power 92

Former WGCI-FM afternoon personality Sam Sylk is headed back to Chicago to fill the same capacity at WPWX-FM (Power 92). Sylk kept WGCI at or near the top of the ratings during his tenure there, but left in 2006 to join WUSL-FM in Philadelphia to become the morning personality. Subpar ratings forced him out, and wound up at Cleveland’s WENZ-FM, […]