This week’s winners and losers: T Dog’s Fab Four – Obama’s campaign infomercial. Great marketing ploy to get your message out by buying time on three major broadcast networks and a few cable outlets simultaneously, as the move scored 30 million viewers across all platforms Wednesday night. But will this translate to votes? – ‘Til Death goes on hiatus. Hopefully […]
– CBS X’s out The Ex List – Yeah, the lead in this show is hot. And I mean very hot. But that alone won’t bring the viewers to the set. CBS dropped The Ex List from its Friday after four episodes, and is being replaced by NCIS repeats. But man, I wish I was on her “Ex List”… Somebody, […]
WMAQ-TV here in Chicago has become the first station in the NBC Local Media Group to re-launch its website. The site’s new name – NBCChicago.com – provides photos, improved traffic and weather information, separate sections for news, sports, and entertainment, as well as videos, blogs, and other goodies. Compare this right now to sis station WNBC-TV in New York. WMAQ’s […]
Here they are… the first official Portable People Meter results for the Chicago market. Arbitron decided to release the numbers today instead of Wednesday for Chicago, New York, and six other markets to avoid an injuction by the New York State Attorney General, who isn’t happy with the system because he feels the system discriminates against minorities (never mind that […]
In the same Feder column from today, Fox-owned WFLD-TV (as well as WNYW-TV in New York and KTTV in Los Angeles) have purchased Dr. Oz from Sony Pictures Television for next fall. WFLD plans to air the show at 4 p.m. as a lead-in to a planned 5 p.m. newscast that could also launch next fall. Oz would replace syndicated […]
The new five first-run strips debuting in syndication last week entered the new world of expectations – holding the lead-in and at least matching the year-ago time period share. The five programs are Deal or No Deal from NBC Universal Television Distribution; The Doctors from CBS Television Distribution; Family Court with Judge Penny from Program Partners; The Bonnie Hunt Show […]
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, […]
Tribune has scrubbed The CW monkier off almost all of its’ affiliates websites, and its sending a message to the beleaguered network – improve your ratings. Tribune has even changed the branding of many of its CW stations. For example, WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C. goes by the name “DC 50” instead of “CW 50”. For KWGN-TV in Denver, it’s now […]
NBC Universal recently unveiled details of its new Deal or No Deal strip hosted by Howie Mandel (who continues hosting the prime-time version.) The daily half hour is being assembled along the lines of the version that airs in the United Kingdom. Among the changes: – The top prize won in the syndicated version is $500,000. – There are only […]
But not-so-groovy: A couple of exits to report… – Ed Sherman is out at the Tribune. The golf and sometimes media writer has accepted a buyout from the Trib and is expected to do freelance and co-author a book with Dan McNeil regarding the best and worst of Chicago sports. Best wishes to Mr. Sherman. The move comes as 30 […]
Disney has denied a report from investment research firm Caris & Co. that it planned to sell its ten ABC O&Os, and would focus on distributing content. Disney owns TV stations in the largest markets, including WLS-TV in Chicago. All three major networks have sold stations in the past year, although in smaller markets such as Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas […]
Photo courtesy of Fox Sports.com. The naked city just got one more story to add to its eight million. Television’s most fascinating drama landed in New York City on Thursday with the trade of Green Bay Packer Brett Favre to the New York Jets, ending his sixteen-year run as the Cheeseheads‘ quarterback. Favre originally retired from the game last March, […]
It looks like Mark Suppelsa’s move to Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN-TV is all but a certainty, while handling Steve Sanders’ situation could be dicey, according to this article from Robert Feder in today’s Sun-Times. WGN is expected to sign Suppelsa to a contract after June 17, the day WFLD’s option to match any offer a competitor may have expires. If […]
Fox-owned WPWR-TV has acquired Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a nightly strip from NBC Universal Television Distribution beginning in September 2009. SVU is already airing twice in syndication every weekend, where it has done exceptionally well. This comes as WPWR and nine other Fox-owned My Network TV affiliates are experiencing success with Law & Order’s sister show, Criminal […]
Three Tribune-owned stations – WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX-TV in New York, and KDAF-TV in Dallas have signed deals with bilingual digital network LATV. The Hispanic-targeted network is landing on one of the digital subchannels of each of the three stations. LATV replaces The Tube on these channels, which ceased operations last September. With the new adds, LATV now airs on […]
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