Jennifer Lyons named president and GM of CBS 2 and CBSN Chicago

Former WGN News and NewsNation exec succeeds Derek Dalton Also at CBS 2: Drew Barrymore, Let’s Make A Deal swap time slots In hopes to turn around its moribund ratings, CBS-owned WBBM-TV hired WGN-TV and NewsNation veteran Jennifer Lyons as president and general manager, effective Monday. She will also oversee local news streaming channel CBSN Chicago. “We feel extremely fortunate […]

More affiliation musicial chairs: WNCN snatches CBS affiliation from WRAL in Raleigh-Durham

Another long-term affiliation relationship has bit the dust. This time, it’s Raleigh-Durham, N.C., known as “The Triangle” as the relationship between WRAL (Channel 5) and CBS is ending after 30 years after the network struck a long-term affiliation deal with crosstown rival WNCN (Channel 17), an NBC affiliate owned by Media General. WRAL turned around and quickly signed a deal with NBC. […]

“Simpsons” make serious “D’oh” with new cable deal

Twentieth Television sells to corporate sibling FXX for an estimated $750 million-$1 billion For fans eager for more Simpsons beyond the offerings on Fox and in broadcast syndication, finally some good news – but it comes with some strings attached. After two decades, The Simpsons are finally coming to cable in a $750-$1 billion mega deal with recently-launched FXX, 21st […]

Analysis: “Simpsons” finally headed to cable

What this means for fans of the long-running franchise, its syndicator and the show itself In news first reported by TV Guide’s Michael Schneider Monday, the longest-running series in primetime TV history is expected to be sold by Twentieth Television to a cable network this year for airing in the fall of 2014. Possible cable contenders include Turner Broadcasting (TBS, […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Topsy turvy

The Six Pack is back, but this edition is straight out of bizarro world: perennial loser NBC in the winner’s circle while top-ranked WLS-TV is in loserland? As Vince Lombardi would say, “What’s going on here?” Well, WIQI is the loser’s circle again, so it’s all not that unusual… the week’s winners and losers: Winners – NBC. Belated congrats to […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

Grab bag time! – Tom Joyner, whose TJMS was disposed of from Clear Channel’s WVAZ-FM (V103) yesterday, has more on the show’s departure from Chicago’s airwaves in an interesting blog read. – George Lopez has signed a deal with TBS to launch a Monday-Thursday late night talk show for the cable network this fall. The program plans to target 18-34 […]

This TV clears 60 percent of U.S.

    This TV, the new digital movie channel launched by MGM and Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting on November 1, 2008, has now cleared 60 percent of the country on digital subchannels, including several major markets. This features movies mostly from MGM’s library (though not from the pre-1986 library, which Turner/Time Warner owns), as well as classic TV series such as […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The mess at Channel 2

Sure is a great time to live in Chicago. Our transit service is about to scaled back or cut all together, our taxes have been raised, and to top it all off, our sports teams continue to suck, with the dysfunctional Bulls leading the way. This squad makes the ultra-stupid reality show Crowned more watchable than most of their games […]

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 […]