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 […]
Remember back last December when yours truly wrote how stripping The Jay Leno Show was a creative counter-programming idea? I think I might want to retract that statement. Since it debuted September 14, The Jay Leno Show has been a hot topic of debate in television circles across the country – especially in newsrooms, where Leno leads in to late […]
One of Chicago’s most recognizable faces is coming home after… wait for it… 24 years! That’s right. Harry Porterfield – who was an anchor at WBBM-TV for 21 years before moving over to WLS-TV in 1985, is returning to the CBS-owned station on August 10, anchoring the 11 a.m. newscast. The 81 year-old Porterfield is also bringing the Someone You […]
After nearly three decades, the curtain drops on one of New York City’s hollowed traditions. Live at Five, the one-hour newscast on NBC-owned WNBC-TV which aired at – well, 5 p.m. every weekday, is being removed for a new one hour strip titled LX New York. The locally-produced program premieres September 14, and it targets females 25-54 with segments featuring […]
Stop me if you’ve heard this before… The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is being criticized by governmental leaders and actor unions for airing too much American programming on the public network – a practice it has been doing for decades. The controversy comes as CBC dropped two Canadian-produced newsmagazine/lifestyle shows: Fashion File and Steven & Chris, due to low ratings and […]
Enough doom and gloom! Time for some happy news (if you can call it that…) Two of television’s most durable franchises received pacts ensuring their future for some time to come. While this news actually became “official” when they started work on next season’s episodes last July, Fox announced Wednesday the renewal of The Simpsons for seasons 21 and 22, […]
Another edition of The Groovy Grab Bag: – A report in the New York Post states the long-running The Simpsons may be picked up for not one but three more years, taking the program through 2012. After this season, The Simpsons will become the longest-running scripted program in television history (the all-time champ is NBC’s Meet the Press, which has […]
One of the deacons at The Church of Tisch has been shown the door. WBBM-TV General Manger Joe Ahern was fired today after six years at the CBS-owned station, this after they moved into new digs on Washington Blvd. in the Loop and started broadcasting their news in HD. Replacing Ahern is Bruno Cohen, who is currently GM at CBS’ […]
Now the Favre watch never ends. Journal Communications’ WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee is adding a 3 p.m. newscast to its lineup beginning Sept. 8, as well as adding a 6:30 p.m. newscast at the end of August, which displaces the Warner Bros.-syndicated Extra from the time slot. The move brings the total number of local news hours at the NBC affiliate […]
It’s official. The Simpsons is poised to surpass Gunsmoke as the longest-running prime-time scripted TV show in history after Fox revealed to a Newsday reporter (albeit reluctantly) that the network has started production on the 21st year, slated to air in the 2009-10 season. Gunsmoke ran on CBS from 1955 to 1975, running twenty seasons. Law & Order, which debuted […]
I thought I’d just slap together these stories for you… – Here are The Daytime Emmy Award winners, held last Friday Night. The biggest surprise here was Tyra Banks beating out Dr. Phil in the best talk show/informative category (and Tyra also told off her critics as well…) – Mike North didn’t show up Monday at WSCR-AM – told by […]
After Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! became major successes in the mid-1980’s, games shows became a hot property in syndication. By 1988, more than ten of them were on the air, including Win Lose or Draw, and Wipeout!, and successful revivals of Hollywood Squares, The Dating Game, and Family Feud. But the game show boom went bust by 1991 after […]
– The game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins that aired on WPWR-TV last Thursday night from the NFL Network averaged a 16.6 rating – the highest number on that station since at least 1994, when WPWR aired the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But it’s not so good for the Bears: The 16.6 rating and […]
Current WLS-TV vice president and general sales manager John H. Idler has been promoted to president and general manager of WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Idler succeeds Bernie Prazenica, who was promoted to the same positions in Philadelphia at WPVI. WLS, WPVI and WTVD are owned and operated by Disney/ABC. WTVD is a solid number two in the Raleigh-Durham market, behind […]
This week’s issue of Crain’s Chicago Business details the continuing ratings struggle of CBS-owned WBBM-TV. Joe Ahern, who helped rocket competing WLS-TV into a ratings powerhouse in the ’80’s and ’90’s, is finding it a difficult task to repeat the same feat at WBBM. At issue is the station’s poorly-rated newscasts, which places behind not only ABC-owned WLS and NBC-owned […]
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