2015 in television was clearly unforgettable: a debut of a new series generating numbers not seen in years; a debate over whether we had “Too Much TV”; we said goodbye to David Letterman and Jon Stewart in late-night; and Donald Trump hijacked the news media (and will continue to do so in 2016.) As for scripted television, we went into […]
It’s official: the alternative rock format, which vanished from the 101.1 frequency in 2011 after Merlin Media took over, returned Friday morning at 9 a.m. prompt, simulcasting sister station WKQX/87.7 FM for a period of 30-45 days. The move came a week after Cumulus announced it was taking over operations of three Merlin Media stations in Chicago. According to Radio […]
(Editor’s note: the wrong draft of this article was posted earlier. This is the correct version. -T.H.) It’s been the mantra for the last couple of years now: whatever ESPN wants, ESPN gets. I guess there are some benefits to being The Worldwide Leader in B.S. ESPN announced on Tuesday a renewal deal with Major League Baseball, with the sports […]
A lot of stuff in this grab bag this week: – What’s this? A historic low for WGN Radio? The Tribune-owned talker . Even with Cubs baseball (and the you know the team sucks this year), WGN finished behind WVAZ (V103) and WTMX (The Mix) and also behind WBBM-AM and WDRV (The Drive). Other May PPM highlights include WGCI’s return […]
– Its over and out for Robert Murphy: Hubbard-owned WILV-FM (Rewind 100.3) has pulled the plug on his morning show after just seven months on the air. Murphy, who was a morning superstar at the former WKQX-FM back in the 1980’s, was unable to replicate his previous success. February’s Arbitron PPM numbers showed Murphy tied for 25th in the key […]
The 49th annual National Association of Television Programming Executives closed its three-day run on Wednesday from the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami. The gathering attracted many attendees from the around the globe, especially from South American countries, who were seeking Spanish-language programming. In addition, NATPE had a growing digital contingent, thanks to the growing influence (and clout) of Amazon, Hulu, and […]
The Winter TCA Press Tour concluded last weekend with many panels dedicated to cable. Here is a brief roundup of what went on, grouped in alphabetical order: AMC To the delight of critics (and fans), AMC announced it was extending the third season order of hit series The Walking Dead from thirteen to sixteen as the second season with thirteen […]
There is a lot of mediocrity that abounded in the media business this year. But in this post, T Dog Media is honoring the standouts of 2011 – the year’s ten best shows and the best media items. Let’s countdown the best shows of the year first… Best shows of 2011 10. Bob’s Burgers (Fox). What could’ve been the next […]
Oh happy day – frozen bananas for everyone! If you ever thought about dropping Netflix due to their recent fiascos, you might want to take this into consideration – especially if you were an Arrested Development fan (like yours truly.) The Emmy-award sitcom is returning with new episodes – via Netflix – in 2013. Arrested Development ran on Fox for three low-rated […]
Conan’s excited to be on TBS. Monday finally marked former NBC late-night host Conan O’Brien venture into basic cable on a network which was once stood as a momument to Ted Turner. Conan’s conquest of the Turner Broadcasting System started in essence with an overnight rating of 2.8 for his Monday premiere. But it gets better: – The program drew […]
On Sunday, NBC aired the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards live from Los Angeles with host Jimmy Fallon. Here are the hits and misses from the telecast: Shining bright on Emmy night – Jane Lynch’s shout out to the South Side. Glee’s Jane Lynch won Best Actress in a Comedy Series honors for her portrayal of Sue Sylvester in the wildly […]
For the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards – it was deja vu – the year of the Repeat – as in repeat winners. For the third year in a row, 30 Rock won for Outstanding Comedy Series, while Mad Men swept its way to its second straight Outstanding Drama Series win. Another repeat winner came in the reality category, with […]
The semi-annual TV Critics Poll from TV Week is out, and it has AMC’s Mad Men as the best show and Fox’s Do Not Disturb as the worst. Yours truly has been reading lists from TV Week/Electronic Media for nearly 20 years, and its’always a fun read, whether I agree with them or not. Some observations: – Cable made its […]
How about this for anti-climatic: As expected, both Mad Men and 30 Rock took home Emmys for best drama and comedy, respectively (really, do you think Two and a Half Men was going to win? Ha!) And the idea for five people to host the Emmys… don’t let it happen ever again. The opening was absolutely atrocious. They said they […]
Independents Lionsgate and Marvel Productions have signed interim deals with the Writer’s Guild, meaning those entities are no longer struck companies. Lionsgate produces Mad Men for AMC and Weeds for Showtime, while Marvel Productions’ current projects the company is working on include Captain America and Thor. Marvel, of course, produced animated programs based on characters from Marvel Comics, including Spider-Man […]