CW cancellations fuel speculation of deal forthcoming Five months ago, The CW – the joint venture between Warner Media (now Discovery Warner Bros.) and ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), created by the merger of UPN and The WB in 2006 was up for sale, with Irving, Tex.-based Nexstar the leading suitor. So where does things stand now? A glimpse of […]
Also: Black Chicagoans (still) not happy with media outlets; Syndicated ‘Dateline’ shifts to new local outlet; Rock 95.5 surges in ratings After just four weeks, CNN Plus is getting… subtracted. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned service announced Thursday it was closing April 30 after launching on March 28, debuting to poor reviews and a cumbersome price of $5.99 monthly or […]
House Dems, Writer’s Guild voice opposition to deal Media consolidation is a hot topic once again as criticism of recent mergers has Capitol Hill up in arms. Thirty Democrats in the U.S. House sent a letter to the Justice Department Monday to investigate the proposed $43 billion merger between Warner Media and Discovery Communications – one of many occurring in […]
Move adds more programs to Fox’s syndication portfolio In a surprising move reported last month, WarnerMedia parent AT&T is in talks to sell its TMZ franchise to Fox Corp. Today, the deal became official according to Deadline. TMZ consists of the gossip website and the two syndicated television shows they spun off of, TMZ (alternatively titled TMZ on TV) and […]
Plans to merge assets with WarnerMedia to spinoff to own company Here we go again. Sunday morning, Bloomberg published a report stating Discovery Communications and AT&T’s WarnerMedia would be merging assets, marrying Bugs Bunny and Friends with Oprah Winfrey and Chip and Joanna Gaines. The news was made official Monday, with AT&T spinning off those assets into a new, […]
Plus: Classic Hip-Hop loses ground as Soft AC makes a comeback; Tribune Media bidding heats up; another cable channel is in the works In a move widely anticipated, conservative talk show host and podcaster Ben Shapiro is joining WLS-AM’s weekday afternoon lineup. Beginning January 7, Shapiro has been slotted in the 2 to 5 p.m. slot replacing Steve Dahl, who […]
New daytime show to air on NBC 5 locally; replaces Steve on NBC O&Os In a deal before the fall season begins, NBCUniversal Television Distribution has struck a deal with the NBC-owned stations to carry Kelly Clarkson’s new daytime talk show scheduled to debut exactly a year from now. The Grammy Award and first American Idol winner shot a talk […]
Also: Chicago White Sox gets a ratings boost; Discovery merges with Scripps; Chicago R&B star to appear in new daily show. If you blinked, you might have missed the premiere of The Jam, WCIU’s new morning show premiering Monday with little fanfare. Announced back in June, The Jam unveiled its format and its hosts: Jordan Cornette, Felicia Lawrence, and Danielle […]
Wallenda’s stunt over Chicago skyline draws viewers Biggest draw for Discovery since 2010 – or is it? As far as we know, there was no trickery involved in Nik Wallenda’s wire-walking stunt, which he successfully walked from Marina City to the Leo Burnett Building and between the Marina City towers themselves, high above the air with no net or no […]
It’s official: the alternative rock format, which vanished from the 101.1 frequency in 2011 after Merlin Media took over, returned Friday morning at 9 a.m. prompt, simulcasting sister station WKQX/87.7 FM for a period of 30-45 days. The move came a week after Cumulus announced it was taking over operations of three Merlin Media stations in Chicago. According to Radio […]
January is yours truly favorite time of year. Why? (No, its NOT the weather.) This month is home to TCA Winter Press Tour and the National Association of Television Program Executives gatherings take place, with the latter being held later this month. Let the fun begin! This edition – the Winter portion of the tour – is taking place over […]
From last week, here is the cable portion of Television Critics Association press tour from Los Angeles – three days, and lots of cable networks… Wednesday/Thursday portion Starz Exec session: On Thursday, CEO Chris Albrecht spoke about the end of Spartacus, saying the series had run its course. Albrecht also gave updates on the series Starz had in production – […]
Obviously the biggest highlight of the Winter version of Television Critics Association Press Tour was a rare appearance by the Queen of Talk, Oprah Winfrey. She was at the press tour to promote her new cable network, The Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, which launched January 1 in place of Discovery Health. Discovery Communications owns half of the new joint […]
It’s “Game” back on for the one-time CW sitcom. The Television Critics Association tour continued in Pasadena on Thursday with Oprah Winfrey and her new OWN network obviously the biggest attraction (more in the next post.) But there was other news from this day as well, with BET, Turner, and Discovery making presentations: BET The biggest projects BET has on […]
Welcome to a special edition of T Dog’s Four Pack (special because this is a bit serious in tone.) On Thursday, Oprah Winfrey announced she was leaving her syndicated daytime talk show after 25 years and ending the program on September 9, 2011. She is focusing on launching her new cable network with Discovery Communications, which goes live in January […]