This just in: Local news trumps reruns

KRON-TV San Francisco to dump Dr. Phil? It looks like these days viewers prefer the corruption, depression, politics, and crime to escapist fare. It what could be yet another blow to the syndication business, a story by Bloomberg News suggests local stations are dumping entertainment fare to air more local news especially in major markets. This comes as the fight […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

Inauguration ratings; Litton clears Street Court in New York and Chicago; Erica Cobb has a new gig. – The Inauguration of Barack Obama scored in the ratings yesterday, with the most watched swearing-in ceremony since President Reagan in 1981, with a 29.2 rating in the 56 markets metered by Nielsen on an “overnight” basis. In Chicago, here’s how the household […]

Tennis fans cry fault to WTSP

WTSP, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg Florida (and future home of soon-to depart-from WFLD weather person Tammie Souza), decided not to carry the re-scheduled U.S. Open Men’s Final where Roger Federer scored his fifth straight U.S Open Championship and the move angered the lob gods. It was moved instead to the station’s digital weather channel. Viewers slammed WTSP […]

Tennis fans cry fault to KSDK

You’d think KSDK-TV in St. Louis was doing the right thing when it decided to drop its Wimbledon coverage to air something they thought was more important, like a Cubs-Cardinals game. Nah. The Gannett-owned NBC affiliate shunted the Men’s Final featuring Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to a split-screen while the Cubs-Cardinals game was on and with audio, meaning tennis […]

St. Louis’ TV news viewership down

While TV News in other markets are either constant or actually up a little bit, ratings for TV newscasts in the Arch City were down.Belo’s CBS affiliate (KMOV-TV) won at 10 p.m. by a decisive margin, beating longtime dominant NBC affiliate KSDK-TV, owned by the Gannett Corp. KSDK was off by two points, while KMOV was essentially flat. Fox-owned (now […]

Local May sweeps numbers, Part 1

Overall analysis: While the major networks lost steam in the recently concluded May sweeps, many local stations actually saw increases year-to-year in late news and in other time periods. Translation: Viewers are tuning out the prime-time shows on the major networks, but not local programming or local news on their affiliates. Boston: CBS-owned WBZ-TV pulled off a major upset by […]

More NATPE News

– Twentieth Television has renewed The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet for a second season the Fox O&O’s, including WFLD-TV in Chicago. The program has done on many stations, especially in southern markets such as Birmingham (WBRC) and Greensboro, N.C. (WGHP). Other pickups include San Francisco (KTVU), Seattle (KCPQ-TV), and Portland, Ore. (KPTV). – Mighty Oak’s Whacked Out Sports […]

We’re Back

Happy New Year! This is The T Dog Media Blog. Welcome Back. Took a New Year’s breather, so let’s catch up on what’s been going on: – Giants-Patriots draws large audience: The NFL triplecast of the New England Patriots – New York Giants game Saturday Night, in which the Patriots beat the Giants to become the first team in NFL […]

Sweeping up

We’re back, and we’re sweeping up from the recent February ratings period in local markets (All ratings are measured by Nielsen): New York: WABC-TV dominated the ratings and in all local news time periods as usual, but it was WCBS-TV that surged to second place overall. A bad book for WNBC-TV, which fell to third, but it was an even […]

KSDK lands rights to Cardinals

NBC affiliate KSDK in St. Louis has re-acquired the rights to air World Champion St. Louis Cardinals baseball games beginning next spring (assuming the power, knocked out in some areas by last week’s snow/ice storms, is back on by then…) KSDK carried Cardinals baseball from 1947 until 1987. In 1987, KSDK had the number one network lineup, and didn’t want […]