I guess in Chicago media, you don’t need a degree to get a job. Just look pretty. Or be dumb. Or be an unfunny, talentless hack. Or just yell a lot. Welcome to the Chicago media freak show, former Representative Joe Walsh. In a town whose media outlets hired embarrassments such as Randy Michaels, Jim Laski, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Belushi, […]
MacFarlane panned at Oscars, but he wasn’t the problem with the show A few months ago on Twitter, yours truly said Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane wasn’t a good fit as host for the 85th Annual Academy Awards, aka The Oscars. Sunday’s telecast certainly verified that fact – well, somewhat. The first few minutes of MacFarlane’s gig actually got off […]
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 […]
Happy New Year! The first Grab Bag of 2013 is here: – Countdown Chicago, ABC 7’s annual New Year’s Eve countdown special which aired from 11:08 p.m. to around 12:15 a.m., drew a huge 17.4 household rating and a 40 share – despite the annual bashing from viewers (after all, we still attend Cubs games, don’t we?) Hosted by WLS-TV’s […]
Get the cranberry sauce ready: it’s time for the 7th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards where every Thanksgiving, yours truly honors the worst in the media business for the year and 2012 is filled with so many media turkeys! Without further ado, here are this year’s, um… “winners”: Animal Practice. Premiering after the Summer Olympics (or more aptly put, […]
It’s a four-for-one-special in this edition of T Dog’s Think Tank – thoughts on four subjects in one post. What a deal! – Is Fox’s incompetence at its local Chicago stations spreading to the network? Last week, the network scheduled X Factor to Wednesday, but game three of the NLCS between San Francisco and St. Louis (which started earlier in […]
Beep! Beep! The cancellation bus is here for Animal Practice to take the show to the television graveyard (and The T Dog Media TV Hall Of Shame.) In the surprise of the year (not), NBC canceled Animal Practice Thursday after just four weeks on the air. The show was essentially a throwback to other failed chimp shows, including The Hathaways, […]
Tuesday was not a great night for the networks as many shows tumbled in their second week. Many blame the surging use of DVRs as the reason as many shows enjoyed huge gains as DVR use is factored in a few days later. Will this have an impact on the prime-time schedule? We shall wait and see. Here are Tuesday’s […]
Chicago’s worst-run television duopoly meets Chicago’s worst radio personality. Confirming news that was speculated since July, local Fox executives have signed radio personality Erich “Mancow” Mueller to a deal, simulcasting two hours of his nationally syndicated radio show on WPWR-TV every weekday from 6 to 8 a.m., in a story first reported by Robert Channick in the Chicago Tribune. Specifics […]
There is other media news besides the Olympics and the Television Critics Association Press Tour – including a new morning show for the new i101 and the return of a bad Scooby-Doo reboot. And we once again mourn the loss of a television great – in fact two of them. – Sherman Hemsley, who is best known as George Jefferson […]
In a sale that could alter the power structure among which station groups purchase off-net sitcoms – and other programming in the future, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has sold CBS Monday night comedies Mike & Molly and 2 Broke Girls to Weigel broadcasting’s WCIU in Chicago and to thirteen non-CBS affiliated stations owned by CBS Corporation for fall 2014 […]
On May 20, yours truly sent out a tweet stating the local stations did a good job on NATO coverage. Well, I’ve re-thought that statement – particularly after reading this brilliant guest commentary from Rich Jasculca at Crain’s Chicago Business’s website, and the feedback section (except for one comment) was also spot on. As Jasculca pointed out, the media coverage […]
It’s the first Six Pack of 2012 and here’s and the list of winners and losers of the new year so far: A Happy New Year Chicago Bulls. With the team off to a strong start this (abbreviated) season, ratings are already soaring for Comcast SportsNet and WGN-TV – not a good thing to hear for the major networks locally, […]
McDonald’s dumped alleged rapper Twista, the biggest embarrassing export out of Chicago since Jenny McCarthy and Jim Belushi, from a concert that’s scheduled to take place today. Something about his lyrics? Thought it was about his talent, or lack thereof….
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