T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

– The ALCS Game 7 between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays on TBS last night drew a record-setting 13.4 million viewers, making it the highest-rated baseball game in cable TV history. Boston made a historic comeback in Game 5 being down 7-0 and winning the game 8-7, and winning Game 6. But the Rays beat Boston […]

CW scores an upset with "90210" premiere

The CW scored its highest ratings ever with the two-hour premiere of 90210 Tuesday night, the anticipated sequel to Beverly Hills 90210, which ran on Fox for ten seasons (1990-2000.) Courtesy of PIFeedback.com, here are the results: – Households (3.9/6, #3); Adults 18-34 (3.0/9, #1); Women 18-34 (4.3/12, #1); Adults 18-49 (2.6/7, #1); Women 18-49 (3.6/9, #1); persons 12-34 (2.7/8, […]

NBC buys, destroys, sells WTVJ

That’s according to Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel TV Critic Tom Jicha, who is dead on correct about NBC, who bought WTVJ (a CBS affiliate) in 1987, switched its long-time affiliation from WSVN-TV two years later, then traded in a strong channel position (Channel 4) to CBS for a weak one (Channel 6) in 1995 so they can own WCAU-TV (another former […]

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 […]

Mora departs Channel 2 for WFOR in Miami

Antonio Mora is going back home to South Florida – the co-anchor of WBBM-TV’s 6 p.m. newscast is leaving for an anchor job in Miami at WFOR-TV, where he will front the news at 5 , 6, and11 p.m. He begins on January 28. His final day at the station is Friday. WBBM and WFOR are both owned by CBS. […]

WCIU snags ‘Chris’

Weigel Broadcasting’s Chicago independent WCIU-TV scored another urban sitcom coup by acquiring CBS Television Distribution’s Everybody Hates Chris. The program will air in off-network syndication as a strip beginning in the fall of 2009, assuming the CW renews the show for next season. WCIU is likely to pair Chris with Debmar’s Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, another urban sitcom that’s […]

Local news no longer feel for the drive at five

There is a notable trend of big-market television stations on the East Coast dropping news at 5 p.m. for syndicated fare. WPLG in Miami went to No.1 in the time period when it inserted Dr. Phil several years ago, and its 6 p.m. newscast got a boost, too. WXIA-TV in Atlanta also scored ratings success with a similar move. That […]

NBC O&Os to start 7 p.m. newscasts

(Editor’s Note: The links in this story are provided by TV Newsday. Registration may be required.) The news expansion continues: Two NBC owned-and-operated stations in New York (WNBC-TV) and Miami (WTVJ) will be launching 7 p.m. weeknight newscasts, beginning on September 10. WNBC had a 7 p.m. network newscast until several years ago, when it moved NBC Nightly News to […]

Wallace named head of NBC-owned stations

NBC Universal announced this morning that John Wallace will succeed Jay Ireland as president of the NBC-owned stations (Ireland took a position with GE Capital management. GE owns NBC Universal.) Wallace will report directly to NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker. NBC owns and operates ten English-language stations in New York (WNBC), Los Angeles (KNBC), Chicago (WMAQ), Philadelphia (WCAU), […]

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 […]

Local November Sweeps roundup

I’ve been complying local sweeps results for 17 seasons now and this is the first time I’m posting these on a blog….. Local November sweeps stories from around the country… Dallas/Fort Worth: In Big D, NBC-owned KXAS-TV won its sixth straight 10pm news crown, defeating ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in households and in adults 25-54… KXAS returned to the top spot […]