Bears, Bulls pack ’em in on Christmas

Chicago sports fans had good reasons to cheer on Christmas Day as they received gifts from two of their teams – even though one of those gifts should be sent back. According to Nielsen ratings information obtained by Fang’s Bites and Sports Media Watch, Chicagoans and the rest of the country tuned in for the return of the NBA and […]

Pan Am takes off

The much-hyped premiere of ABC’s new airline drama Pan Am took off on Sunday with respected sampling. Now the challenge is not to crash in the ratings and not have their membership in the mile-high club revoked. The drama – about a group of stewardess who work for the now-defunct airline in the 1960’s (which filed for bankruptcy and ceased […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Rewarding failure

“I failed at doing the CBS Evening News. Now ABC is going to reward me with a big contract for doing a talk show no one will watch. Suckers!! “ On Monday, Katie Couric joined The Walt Disney Company as a syndicated talk show host in what has to be the worst syndicated deal ever. The multi-year, multi-platform deal also […]

T Dog’s Six (Nine) Pack: Upfronts edition

It’s an special edition of T Dog’s Six Pack – a supersized one with nine items related to last week’s upfronts in New York as advertisers, media buyers, and the networks  now have the hardest job ahead of them – negotiations. Here are the hits and misses from last week’s presentations: Epic successes:The return of the sitcom. Just when you’ve […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Win or go home

The Bears didn’t win. And they went home.  (Photo: Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune.) The Packers went to the Super Bowl and the Bears went home with a quarterback who has an iffy knee who gets blasted on Twitter while Chicago’s long-time rocker thinks you’re not getting enough Steve Miller Band in your listening diet. Yep, this week that was in the […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Khannnnnn!!!!!!

Senator-elect Mark Kirk and “Captain Kirk” William Shatner: Separated at birth? Win, Lose, or end up hosting a bad 1980’s game show: The past week’s winners and losers: Win.$#!* My Dad Says. OMG. Believe it or not, thus show is actually getting funnier each week. Thank you, Big Bang Theory lead-in. Kirk. And speaking of William Shatner, his Star Trek […]

Tribune suspends Lee Abrams

Tribune Co. announced the supension of Chief Innoviation Officer Lee Abrams today after he e-mailed a rather racy memo to employees of the company on Monday. The suspension is indefinate, and further disciplinary action may take place, including termination. The story – ironically enough – broke Tuesday on Chicago Tribune’s website by Phil Rosenthal.  The move comes at a time […]

People of Earth: Conan says no to late-night move

His future at NBC now in very serious jeopardy Oh, it’s on. Conan’ O Brien rejected NBC’s for him to move The Tonight Show he hosts  to 11:05 p.m. (12:05 a.m.) Central to make room for a half-hour version of The Jay Leno Show, which is being bumped out of prime-time after the Winter Olympics. Mr. O’Brien said moving Tonight […]

Vikings-Bears score in the ratings

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 […]