Ryan Seacrest to exit “Live”; Mark Consuelos to replace him

Ripa’s husband to take over co-host chair For those who complain about Ryan Seacrest holding too many jobs in this economy, there is now an opening – but it was quickly filled. Seacrest announced Thursday morning he was departing Disney Media Distribution’s New York-based top-rated daytime talker Live With Kelly And Ryan after six years and is moving back to […]

Remembering Regis Philbin

Iconic television personality dies at 88 Television fans are mourning the loss of Regis Philbin, who was one of the most beloved hosts in the medium. Not only he successfully re-invented morning television with his Live franchise with Kathie Lee Gifford and later Kelly Ripa, but also “saved ABC” as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He holds […]

“American Idol” heads to ABC

ABC snags hit Fox show for reboot  [Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared Sunday and has been rewritten with new information.]  After rumors American Idol would resurface next year on NBC, ABC has acquired the rights to reboot the franchise. Variety first reported Friday a deal was near with ABC; but Fox, who aired the series for fifteen years, was reportedly still […]

It’s “Live With Kelly…. And Ryan Seacrest”

The Golden Boy ascends to another gig – the highly coveted co-host slot on Live While it is a surprise to some (really?), Monday’s announcement of Ryan Seacrest as the new co-host of Live With Kelly gives the long-running franchise more name power. The venerable personality, who was host of American Idol and seemingly a million other things started in […]

The 2016 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

(Editor’s Note: This is T Dog Media’s 3,000th post!)  Welcome to the 11th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards – celebrating the worst in media, sports, and life in general. There were many nominees this year, but I don’t think you want to be here all day. Thus, yours truly whittled it down to nineteen recipients this year. Let’s get gobblin’! […]

The 2015-16 season in a nutshell

With the upfronts a week away, it’s time to take a look at what was hot and what was not in the 2015-16 television season. This roundup not only is about primetime broadcast TV, but other programming as well from local news to local sports. These are not listed in any particular order. Winners. – Cable dramas. While the news has […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Rodents in the Mouse House

  Disney’s “Live” blunder the latest in management woes To understand the brouhaha over Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan, and ABC executives’ handling of this Live crisis, you have to go back 20 years. In 1995, the financial interest and syndication rules – or fin-syn as it was called – expired after 25 years, once again letting the major broadcast networks […]

Kelly Ripa returns to “Live”

But Michael Strahan’s exit moved up to May 13th Upon her return to Live Tuesday morning, Kelly Ripa joked “Our long national nightmare is over.” She might have referred to the 2015-16 Chicago Blackhawks season, which ended Monday night with a Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Or more likely, she was referring to the drama surrounding her […]

The “Live” mess

Michael Strahan’s unexpected departure from Live stuns industry insiders – and Kelly Ripa The announcement of Michael Strahan’s departure from Disney-ABC Domestic Television’s Live With Kelly and Michael stunned the entertainment world Tuesday – perhaps none other than co-host Kelly Ripa herself, who reportedly wasn’t happy about the news. The NFL Hall Of Famer and former New York Giants defensive back accepted an […]

Disney buys Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion

We knew Mickey Mouse had a little Darth Vader in him. The Walt Disney Co. announced its acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind the Star Wars franchise. Included in the deal is visual affects company Insudtrial Light & Magix, Skywalker Sound (a post-production sound house), LucasArts (computer and video game division), and Lucasfilm Animation, which produces Cartoon Network’s […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: “Live With Kelly” shifts to WLS-TV in 2013

The Jeff Probst Show finally clears Chicago, landing at WBBM-TV Due to a busy schedule covering and analyzing Upfront Week, there were a lot of notable media stories mentioned in the past week: – First mentioned in Robert Feder’s Time Out Chicago blog last week, ABC-owned WLS-TV has acquired Live With Kelly beginning in September 2013, falling in line with […]