Media Notepad: Tribune sacks NewsFix, Morning Dose

Also: Start TV starts; Jenny Mikowski exits WSHE; Pickler & Ben goes national, comes to Chicago on two stations As Chicago-based Tribune Media prepares itself to go on the sales block again, the company Thursday pulled the plug on its NewsFix and news programs on several of its stations, including CW affiliates KIAH in Houston and KDAF in Dallas, a […]

The Media Notepad: Comcast drops bid for Fox assets

Also: Start TV debuts; WGN Block Party in Homewood; and Comic-Con begins today. Consider it deal done…for Disney: Comcast announced Thursday it was dropping its $65 million bid for 21st Century Fox, essentially giving rival Disney a victory in the battle for the assets. Disney agreed to buy most of 21st Century Fox in December originally for $52 billion but […]

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 […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: WGN Radio loses steam in latest PPMs

A lot of stuff in this grab bag this week: – What’s this? A historic low for WGN Radio? The Tribune-owned talker . Even with Cubs baseball (and the you know the team sucks this year), WGN finished behind WVAZ (V103) and WTMX (The Mix) and also behind WBBM-AM and WDRV (The Drive). Other May PPM highlights include WGCI’s return […]

CBS shakes ’em up in 2010-11

The most aggressive moves front the upfront didn’t come from the three other major networks – it came from the front runner, CBS. CBS unveiled its 2010-11 lineup Wednesday in front of advertisers in New York City, and it came with some surprises: the biggest one of them all is the move of hot comedy The Big Bang Theory to […]

Macon, Ga. station dumps ABC affiliation

Is it retransmission consent? Or is it content? (no, I’m not confusing the two.) Yours truly doesn’t usually report on the happenings in the Macon, Ga. media world (because, hell there isn’t anything to report, given the market’s CBS affiliate has dominated the ratings since Adam took a bite of that apple.) But this one caught this one’s eye… ABC […]

"Cleveland" off to good start

The new Family Guy spin-off got some good sampling last night. Fox’s premiere of The Cleveland Show, featuring the next-door neighbor of The Griffins who moved to Virginia to start a new life drew 9.4 million viewers and a 4.9 rating in adults 18-49, growing 17% from its Simpsons lead-in. The premiere of Cleveland coincided with the season premieres of […]

"Cold Case Files" heads to syndication

WBBM-TV picks up series, bringing Bill Kurtis back to station. CBS-owned WBBM-TV has picked up repeats of a reality series titled Cold Case Files, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The series will air on the CBS O&O in a 1:07 a.m. Tuesday thru Saturday time slot, beginning Sept. 22. But in a rather odd twist in the deal (but a positive […]

CBS reveals schedule for 2009-10

The Tiffany Network unveiled its 2009-10 schedule to advertisers at Upfront Week. The Church of Tisch is keeping the status quo on some nights and has made changes to others, including the addition of former NBC stalwart Medium to Friday nights, leading out of Ghost Whisperer. Click here to read the press schedule and look at the lineup. Three new […]

"Family Guy", "Men" show growth in Week 2 (corrected)

In what may be encouraging signs for Warner Bros. Two and a Half Men and Twentieth Television’s Family Guy, ratings for both off-network programs in syndication are up from the previous week in metered markets, ever so slightly. Both look like they’re keepers. Law & Order: Criminal Intent scored a 1.0/3 as a strip in off-network syndication in its first […]