Drastically different schedules begins today (Editor’s Note: This post was updated on September 17.) There are a ton of changes in television outside of prime-time with the new season beginning today. For one, there is no more Ellen DeGeneres as she danced off the stage last spring while Maury Povich and his paternity tests retired to Florida, leaving us with […]
Roe v. Wade dissolution will have impact from New York to Hollywood, and from Washington D.C. to Chicago. If you think Friday’s decision by the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion won’t have an impact on media…you’d better think again. The landmark decision to appeal the woman’s right to choose will have a ripple […]
CW cancellations fuel speculation of deal forthcoming Five months ago, The CW – the joint venture between Warner Media (now Discovery Warner Bros.) and ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), created by the merger of UPN and The WB in 2006 was up for sale, with Irving, Tex.-based Nexstar the leading suitor. So where does things stand now? A glimpse of […]
Low-income Chicago neighborhoods, suburbs lag behind [Editor’s Note: This story was updated on July 19th with a response from AT&T over accusations of digital redling.] With Dancing With The Stars and Thursday Night Football – two long-time broadcast programs moving to streaming this fall, it signaled something we knew for years – television is shifting to a streaming model […]
Party’s over as competition, governments take aim at streaming giant It wasn’t too long ago Netflix was the toast of the town, heralded as the best entertainment had to offer on a new, emerging platform. The company partied hardy for years feasting on praise as the darling of Wall Street. Well, the bill is now due. In a […]
The “slap seen around the world” takes dominates on night where it should have been about historic wins [Editor’s Note: This story was updated March 29 to add final Nielsen ratings and to make some minor corrections.] Ratings for this year’s Academy Awards telecast increased from last year but as we know, this isn’t the biggest story if the […]
Former Netlix shows heads to Disney Plus Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have a new home – just not in the place a lot of people expected. As reported here last week, Marvel’s six series on Netflix – Daredevil, The Defenders, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher were leaving the service on February 28 as rights to […]
Also: Televisa and Univision become one; Weigel launches another diginet ; The last tie to Marvel at Netflix severs Been away for awhile, so let’s catch up on some items of note making news: The non-profit merger between the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ officially closed on January 31, with $61 million in philanthropic backing, raised by WBEZ parent Chicago Public […]
Popularity isn’t exactly overrated as 2021 ends a wild year in media Like mystery of the sphinx or crop circles, you just can’t explain the continued popularity of certain things despite questionable changes. After the firing of Mark Giangreco and seemingly public disdain for one of her former co-anchors, ABC 7 remains on top of local Chicago news ratings, […]
Bad reviews, viewer feedback sink show as show falls off radar. Also: ESPN 1000’s Mike Thomas exits; ex-B96 jock Roxanne Steele leaves Detroit radio job; Peanuts specials back on PBS Remember a month ago when this space crowed about Chicago Party Aunt, telling her to party on? Well, the party may be soon over as not too many viewers are […]
Netflix’s new Chicago Party Aunt is creating a lot of buzz Over the years, we were treated to jokes regarding all the number of Chicago shows Dick Wolf has created for NBC: Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med. What’s next? Chicago Sanitation Department? Chicago Animal Control? Well, how about Chicago Party Aunt? For once, we have a show with […]
Plans to merge assets with WarnerMedia to spinoff to own company Here we go again. Sunday morning, Bloomberg published a report stating Discovery Communications and AT&T’s WarnerMedia would be merging assets, marrying Bugs Bunny and Friends with Oprah Winfrey and Chip and Joanna Gaines. The news was made official Monday, with AT&T spinning off those assets into a new, […]
Canadian sitcom makes history by sweeping Emmy Awards– Half-hour sitcoms are (or were) the bedrock of the television industry here in the United States, but in Canada…it’s a completely different story. The only sitcom from the Great White North to even come close to being a global hit was in the mid-1980s when Check It Out!, a sitcom taped in […]
Numerous off-network sitcoms are receiving a second life thanking to the proliferation of streaming service, reconnecting viewers with past laughs. But not all sitcoms have shared in the streaming fortune. Some off-sitcoms – mainly targeted to Black audiences, have been left out despite the fact those shows being were quite popular in the 1990s and 2000s. But all of that […]
Pandemic wipes out annual San Diego fanfest but the show must go on Every in-person event this year (ranging from Lollapalooza to the Chosen Few DJs Picnic) has been wiped out due to an villain far more vicious than The Joker, The Riddler, and The Penguin combined: the Covid-19 pandemic. And this includes the annual San Diego Comic-Con, which would’ve […]