Monday night ratings roundup: “Manifest” rocks, “Magnum” tanks

Big Bang, Young Sheldon erode from last year’s premieres (Note: All numbers are in the adult 18-49 demo, unless noted.) The 2018-19 television season began in earnest yesterday and for the major broadcast networks, provided a mixed bag of results. The surprise of the night came from NBC’s new drama Manifest, who premiered with a 2.2 rating/9 share, and drew […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Enough of the reboots

As the major networks go all in on rebooting familiar television shows – even using the same stars, they risk becoming irrelevant Over the last few weeks, you’d think network television executives were taking cues from those who run Chicago radio: over the last few years, we were treated to “reboots” of Jonathon Brandmeier, Mancow, Steve Dahl, Bob Sirott (and […]

The “Empire” is crumbling

Fox’s highest-rated show is fading fast You wonder at this point if the Empire Carpet Man can draw better ratings than Empire itself these days. Wednesday episode of the serialized hip-hop drama drew its lowest ratings to date: a 1.9 rating in the key 18-49 demo, down 47 percent from the May 4, 2016 airing as  Empire was barely ahead of […]

A new classic TV channel – with a twist

It’s time to get Cozi. As first scooped by Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder on October 17, NBCUniversal confirmed today it was changing the name of its dot-two digital subchannels from NonStop to CoziTV, adding classic TV shows and movies from the NBCUniversal library and other studios to the mix, while retaining the lifestyle programming NonStop is currently airing, with […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Bob Brenly exits Cubs broadcast booth (updated)

Brenly becomes new Arizona Diamondbacks color analyst The latest Grab Bag is here with a possible new classic TV channel on the way, two primetime network series renewed, and more: – Bob Brenly, who has been the color analyst for Chicago Cubs broadcasts alongside Len Kasper over WGN-TV broadcasts and Comcast SportsNet since 2005 announced he’s leaving the team to […]

CBS shakes ’em up in 2010-11

The most aggressive moves front the upfront didn’t come from the three other major networks – it came from the front runner, CBS. CBS unveiled its 2010-11 lineup Wednesday in front of advertisers in New York City, and it came with some surprises: the biggest one of them all is the move of hot comedy The Big Bang Theory to […]