A midweek edition of T Dog’s Four Pack: What’s not – and what’s not: Worthy of Gold Olympic hockey. Nothing hokey about it – most watched program ever in Canada, third most-watched hockey game in history in the United States – and we had four Blackhawks in the game! Undercover Boss. Whaaa? This is the surprise Sunday Night 8 p.m. […]
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 – […]
Here’s what working for me this week… Yes. – Chicago broadcasters branding together to help Haiti. If you read this blog on a regular basis, then you know yours truly often criticizes our town’s media outlets – a lot. But these competitors can band together for a cause in a time of need like no other, with Thursday’s Chicago Helps […]
Well, well, well… I guess the Bears are still relevant in Chicago after all. Despite a losing season, Bears fans turned out by the boatload for Monday night’s game between the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears. Locally, ABC-owned WLS-TV averaged a 20.6 Nielsen household rating for its ESPN simulcast of the game. ESPN itself added 10.5 rating […]
Comcast SportsNet’s morning show titled Monsters In The Morning is being dropped after one season on the air. Hosted by former WSCR-AM co-hosts Mike North and Dan Jigeetts, the duo discussed local sports issues of the day, sort of a local version of ESPN’s MIke & Mike in the Morning (which features another WSCR alum, Mike Greenberg.) CSN and Mike […]
While Chicago’ baseball teams did not have a successful season on the field, they had some success on the tube. Sports Business Journal ranked the 2009 regular season of thirty teams, and the Chicago Cubs finished ninth among regional sports networks, with a 4.1 household rating – but this number was down 16% from 2008 numbers. Meanwhile, the Chicago White […]
The final day of the press tour came Saturday, and it was ABC’s turn to face the press. ABC – During the ABC executive session, Stephen McPherson talked about ABC’s aggressive new series push this fall – eight in all – airing Tuesday through Friday (more on this a little later.) – But the big news is McPherson wants Paula […]
For the next nine or so days, television critics (or those who are left) will be at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. for Q&A sessions on the new fall shows, countless press releases, and sharp exchanges with network execs (sorry, no more Ben Silverman.) Here are some of the early highlights of the tour: – TBS […]
Another edition of T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag: – As you know by now, Jay Leno’s final Tonight Show was last night. Courtesy of TV Barn, here’s a short transcript of Leno’s monologue from his final program, and here’s an article on how Jay Leno’s reign of The Tonight Show didn’t change much during its 17-year run. And the best […]
A lot of sports-related news today: – CBS and Fox have extended their deals with the NFL until 2014 with CBS getting rights to carry Super Bowl XLVII (47) in 2013 while Fox has Super Bowl XLVIII (48) in 2014. – The NFL has also agreed to bury the hatchet with Comcast over the NFL Network. The two struck an […]
The Worldwide Leader in Sports is going local. ESPN announced it will plan to launch a new Chicago-themed sports site in April named ESPNChicago.com. It will feature local breaking sports news and original content, including three-to-five minute local SportsCenter video segments. Also, ESPN Chicago plans to add social networking to the site as well. Already, MillerCoors is on board as […]
Remember a few days ago when I said Chicago media is one big freak show? Well, I think Detroit may have us beat… WDIV in Detroit ran a crawl during NBC’s Super Bowl pre-game coverage when former Detroit Lions GM Matt Millen appeared on-screen and the station ran a crawl ripping into him stating: “Matt Millen was president of the […]
It is sad I could barely scrape up four positive items to put in this week’s four pack. It just goes to show you how bad this business has really become. T Dog’s Fab Four: – Bones. The procedural’s move to Thursday nights finally puts Fox on the map with a 3.2 A18-49 rating, defeating ABC’s Ugly Betty. – NCIS. […]
While Barack Obama was being sworn in as our 44th President, something else was going on. And it wasn’t good. Clear Channel made what is perhaps the biggest one-day layoff of any media company in history by axing around 1,850 jobs nationwide from Chicago to Atlanta, from Detroit to San Francisco, and everywhere in between. Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays […]
As you know by now, ESPN’s WMVP-AM cut Dan McNeil from the Mac, Jurko & Harry show, with only Jurko & Harry remaining, joined by Carmen DeFalco – for now. Ed Sherman (formerly of the Chicago Tribune) wrote in his sports blog for Crain’s Chicago Business with more on McNeil’s firing – one important factor was McNeil’s high salary, commanding […]
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