As long speculated, NBCUniversal Television Distribution announced Tuesday it has officially signed Meredith Vieira to host a syndicated talk show for the fall of 2014. And while not a done deal, TV NewsCheck is reporting a deal is close with the ten NBC-owned stations, including NBC-owned WMAQ-TV here. Vieira shot a pilot of her new show two months ago, and […]
– In a stunning move, the Chicago Sun-Times fired almost all of its photography staff on Thursday, which left 28 people out of work. The Wrapports -owned paper instead plans to train reports to take pictures with smartphones. Yes, smartphones. Among those who were laid off include 35-year veteran Pulitzer-prize winning photographer John H. White, one of the first African-American […]
– Good news for fans of Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show: Warner Bros. has renewed the strip through 2017 on more than twenty station groups, including all ten of the NBC-owned stations. Airing on WMAQ in Chicago at 3 p.m., Ellen is the top-rated program among women 25-54 in the time period, besting rival talkers Katie, Dr. Phil, and Maury. […]
Say with me everybody… ABC-owned WLS-TV (ABC 7) dominated the local news competition during the sweeps – this time is the February “book”, as it has done since 1987 (excluding Olympic years.) According to information obtained by Chicagoland Radio and Media, WLS won almost all local news time slots in households and the key adult 25-54 demo, with one major […]
In a move that is widely being praised by many local and national media observers, current WMAQ general manger and Chicago-area native Larry Wert was named the new president of local broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting on Wednesday. Poaching Wert from NBC is the biggest move Tribune has made yet since Peter Ligouri took over as CEO, which is coming off a […]
Brenly becomes new Arizona Diamondbacks color analyst The latest Grab Bag is here with a possible new classic TV channel on the way, two primetime network series renewed, and more: – Bob Brenly, who has been the color analyst for Chicago Cubs broadcasts alongside Len Kasper over WGN-TV broadcasts and Comcast SportsNet since 2005 announced he’s leaving the team to […]
Hey Katie, the old school’s got a message for you: we can draw an audience, too. That was the vibe sent Monday while Katie Couric posted strong numbers of her debut Monday – but returning talkers also posted good numbers for their season premieres, despite pre-emptions from tennis on some CBS stations. Warner Bros.’ Ellen tenth season premiere drew a […]
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 […]
Chicago’s WMAQ fares better than New York and Los Angeles counterparts The NBC-owned-and-operated stations are blowing up their daytime schedules this fall, with two new programs (and possibly a third) coming this fall while three shows are exiting. NBC Local Media chief John Wallace explains in a recent TVNewscheck article on how the station group is preparing for the massive […]
You can take Ellen DeGeneres off the list of potential replacements for Oprah Winfrey on ABC’s O&Os. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution’s Ellen was renewed by all ten of the NBC owned-and-operated stations (including WMAQ-TV in Chicago) through 2014, when it reaches its 11th season. The NBC stations have been with Ellen since day one, when her show began in […]
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 […]
Believe it or not, there are places where NBC affiliates actually won late news despite having The Jay Leno Show as its lead-in. What’s notable is these two NBC affiliates – WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. and WDIV in Detroit, rose in the ratings ranks as recently as ten years ago, when NBC was enjoying ratings dominance – surpassing former market […]
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 […]
The NBC-owned stations have made a deal with co-owned NBC Universal Television Distribution to begin airing off-cable repeats of The Real Housewives Of… as a weekday strip beginning in the fall of 2010. Locally, the program will air in a unspecified time period on WMAQ-TV. The program has also been sold to Hearst Broadcasting, which means the series will also […]
– Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game drew 14.6 million viewers to Fox, according to Nielsen. Locally, the game drew a 12.8 household rating and 21 household share – a big number despite the fact only two players from Chicago’s baseball teams were represented. In St. Louis (where the game was held), the contest drew a whopping 37 rating […]
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