The winners and losers of the week: The stamp of approval: The Chicago Blackhawks (before Friday’s night’s loss): The Mighty Blackhawks are mighty once again thanks to record-breaking regular season ratings. The Hawks are in the playoffs against the Nashville Predators, which continue Sunday night. Go Hawks! Conan moving to TBS. Fox getting out-foxed by Conan. While Murdoch and the […]
WFLD continues to struggle at 9 p.m. with its local newscasts, despite the fact of a strong prime-time lead-in. The March numbers show the Fox-owned station continuing to lag behind WGN and the other stations in the market in households and key demos. According to Nielsen and numbers supplied by the Sun-Times, WFLD averaged a 3.1 household rating for its […]
While the Tribune Co. is struggling with the antics of CEO Randy Michaels and Chapter 11 bankruptcy, its TV division is actually taking care of its own business – despite the struggles of The CW – the network which thirteen of its stations (including WPIX in New York, KTLA in Los Angeles and WGN-TV in Chicago) are aligned with, in […]
Disney/ABC’s weekly action-adventure hour Legend of the Seeker is going to have an adventure of its own – trying to find new outlets after a major station group carrying the show declined to renew it. In a memo obtained by TV By The Numbers, Tribune Broadcasting said it would not renew the sci-fi/fantasy action hour after two seasons. Tribune is […]
The next time you hail a cab in New York City, you might be on a game show and not even know it. Call it a game show – on wheels. Discovery Channel’s New York-based game show Cash Cab has been picked up by WCIU-TV in Chicago for airing this fall as a weekday strip on a straight barter basis. […]
Many affiliates are upset with ABC and ESPN over a decision to remove several Sunday afternoon NASCAR races from the broadcast network to ESPN, leaving them with just three prime-time races to carry. The move rankled affilates – particuarly in Southern television markets, where NASCAR is very popular. NASCAR – whose season begins this Sunday with the Daytona 500 – […]
Soon, “Family Guy” will have TWO places to call home in Chicago. In a rather odd twist to a renewal deal, Tribune-owned WGN-TV has renewed syndicated repeats of Family Guy for a second cycle in a new four-year deal through 2015, which kicks in on September 12, 2011. But as a part of the deal, Weigel-owned independent station WCIU-TV […]
Leno hampering NBC affiliates’ late news; other November “sweeps” notes ABC-owned WLS-TV dominated the ratings in households and key demos in the just concluded November “sweeps” period (do we still have those in this LPM era?) but it was the two other network O&Os who made headlines. NBC-owned WMAQ-TV slipped to third place in households at 10 p.m., behind a […]
In the latest of a slew of off-cable programs hitting the broadcast syndication marketplace, Twentieth Television has cleared FX sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia for Fall 2011 in 45 percent of the country. Clearing the show are a wide variety of stations, meaning no over-the-board group deals (which is good.) The clearences include WPSG-TV in Philadelphia, the CBS-owned CW […]
Lots of items of note in today’s Grab Bag: – WCFS-FM (Fresh 105.9) has dumped morning man Mark LeBaron. Rick Hall will take over until a replacement is found. Is this a signal something big is coming? Or is the cancellation clock ticking for Fresh FM? – Speaking of which, the clock is up for The Beautiful Life, which CW […]
For the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards – it was deja vu – the year of the Repeat – as in repeat winners. For the third year in a row, 30 Rock won for Outstanding Comedy Series, while Mad Men swept its way to its second straight Outstanding Drama Series win. Another repeat winner came in the reality category, with […]
WGN-TV announced it has expanded its news and shuffled its weekday programming lineup, just two days into the new syndication television season. Beginning October 5, WGN expands its 5:30 p.m. newscast an hour, starting at 5 p.m. Its midday newscast expands to 11a.m. and now run two hours until 1 p.m. And to go along with the expansion are some […]
In a blockbuster deal, the NBC Thursday night comedy 30 Rock was sold in syndication to cable networks Comedy Central and WGN America and to Fox and Tribune stations on the broadcast side, each for Fall 2011 debuts. NBC Universal decided to sell the sitcom to Fox and Tribune station groups, splitting the difference. Locally, 30 Rock will air on […]
From the recently concluded March ratings period: Chicago: WLS-TV remained on top, as usual at 10 p.m., but CBS-owned WBBM-TV is up 50 percent in the same time period in households. At 9 p.m., WGN-TV’s newscast had a 43 percent advantage over an above-average WFLD-TV, despite popular Fox prime-time lead-ins. Milwaukee: And lead-ins didn’t matter here either, as NBC affiliate […]
In a move that is a huge blow to his nationally syndicated show, The Tom Joyner Morning Show (aka The TJMS) lost its biggest – and most important – affiliate. Clear Channel-owned WVAZ-FM (V103) has canceled Joyner’s show, effective immediately, and is replacing it with The Steve Harvey Morning Show, which airs on sister station WGCI-FM. No word yet on […]
ABC ABC-Owned Stations ABC 7 Chicago American Idol CBS CBS Chicago CBS Media Ventures CBS News And Stations Chicago Bears Chicago Blackhawks Chicago Bulls Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox ESPN Family Guy FCC Fox Fox 32 Fox Television Stations Los Angeles Milwaukee NBC NBC 5 NBC Owned Television Stations NBCUniversal Syndication Studios New York City Nexstar Media Group Radio Ratings Sinclair Inc. Syndication The Big Bang Theory The CW The Simpsons Tribune Media Warner Bros. WBBM-TV Chicago WCIU Chicago WFLD Chicago WGN-TV Chicago WGN Radio WLS-AM Chicago WLS-TV Chicago WMAQ Chicago WPWR Chicago