Syndicated version of “Good Morning Football” clears Fox-owned stations

Deal includes Fox 32 and My50 Sony Pictures Television made their first deals for the two-hour syndicated version of NFL Network’s Good Morning Football by signing the Fox Television Stations group. Known in syndication as GMFB, Fox did sign their duopoly markets including Chicago, but several non-duopoly ones as well, including WITI Milwaukee, WAGA Atlanta, WTVT Tampa-St. Petersburg, and WTXF […]

NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” heads to syndication

Sony returns to daily syndication with NFL show The NFL Network’s Good Morning Football morning show may soon be available on a local station near you. On Wednesday, the league confirmed plans that a new, separate first-run syndicated version of the show is in the works with Sony Pictures Television. Titled GMFB (an acronym for Good Morning Football), the show […]

Dish, Fox reach long-term agreement, restores signal

Viewers receive Fox 32 and My 50 via Dish again in time for Sunday’s Bears game After a little over a week of being knocked off the air, Dish and Fox Corporation announced Sunday morning the two companies came to a long-term carriage agreement, restoring Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, and Fox Deportes to the satellite service. The impasse […]

Cubs score one for the record books

Cubs destroy competition off the field, including the once-mighty NFL – setting a cable TV record in the process Despite loss, Cubs clinch NL Central Even with a loss last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs continue to roll with a dominant ratings performance on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. According to a press release, the Brewers-Cubs telecast Thursday night on […]

“The Wiz Live” scores with critics, fans

Dusting off an old New York area- electronic store slogan from the 1990’s, Nobody Beats The Wiz – at least when it comes to entertainment programming. And that was more than true Thursday night when as the NBC live presentation of the Broadway Musical drew strong ratings – even opposite a special edition of Thursday Night Football. In metered overnight […]

Peter Pan gets pummeled by Bears

Bears-Cowboys game beats live production of Peter Pan both locally and nationally The Bears haven’t done much this season on the field, but at least they beat an opponent. Unfortunately, it wasn’t on the field. In the battle of train-wreck programming, the Chicago Bears game against the Dallas Cowboys on the NFL Network (and WBBM-Ch. 2 locally) won out over […]

Grab Bag: CBS in lead to snare Cubs’ radio rights

  * As first reported by Ed Sherman in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune, CBS Corp. is the leading candidate to land the radio rights to the Chicago Cubs in 2015 and beyond. The most likely destination would be WBBM-AM, who already hold rights to the Chicago Bears and whose sports station (WSCR) holds rights to the Chicago White Sox. Current rights-holder […]

“Scandal” remains red hot

Super Fun Night has Super Fun ratings Crazy Ones decline; NBC Thursday sitcom block flops Judging by all the viewing parties held nationwide for this show (yours truly even got an invitation to one,) you’d think Scandal would be the hottest thing since the advent of the pancake. You’d be right. Scandal skyrocketed in popularity over the past year thanks […]

“Big Bang” gets bigger; “Crazy Ones” scores

But 36 percent ratings drop out of Big Bang is concerning The first major Thursday night ratings skirmish of the season took place with the return of two back-in-the-day TV icons battling it out: Robin Williams in CBS’ The Crazy Ones and Michael J. Fox in his own self-titled new sitcom for NBC. The first hour of primetime saw complete […]

CBS, “Grey’s Anatomy” run ripshod over competition

Remember when Thursday night belonged to NBC? Seems so long ago, doesn’t it? The Tiffany network won the first Thursday night of the 2012-13 season in households, total viewers, and in adults 18-49 (Fox won in adults 18-34) thanks to the season premieres of The Big Bang Theory, Two And A Half Men, and the series premiere of Elementary. All […]

The Grab Bag: “Brandmeier” renewed; Antenna TV a hit – in Cleveland

This week’s Grab Bag include plenty of local TV items – and some not so local: – In an item first reported Saturday at Chicagoland Radio and Media, Brandmeier has been picked up for a second cycle by NBC-owned WMAQ-TV. The series stars WGN-AM morning host Johnathan Brandmeier where takes on the week’s headlines and interviews special guests. Brandmeier had […]

NFL agrees to new deals with CBS, NBC, and Fox

The National Football League has secured deals with three of its network partners to keep football on over-the-air broadcast TV for the next decade. The deals keeps everything status quo – Fox continues to broadcast the NFC package it has held since 1994; CBS retains the AFC package it has held since 1998; and NBC keeps the Sunday night package […]

WGN-TV gets Nov. 18 Chicago Bears game

For the first time since being affiliated with the DuMont network way back in the 1950’s, WGN-TV will be airing a regular-season NFL football game. Thanks to a deal made with eight of Tribune’s stations, the NFL network will make those games available to those over-the-air outlets involving their home market’s teams.  For Tribune-owned WGN-TV, the station is airing the […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag- The Sports Edition

A lot of sports-related news today: – CBS and Fox have extended their deals with the NFL until 2014 with CBS getting rights to carry Super Bowl XLVII (47) in 2013 while Fox has Super Bowl XLVIII (48) in 2014. – The NFL has also agreed to bury the hatchet with Comcast over the NFL Network. The two struck an […]

WPWR scores big with Bears

Fox-owned WPWR-TV and the NFL Network scored big with Thursday night’s telecast of the New Orleans Saints-Chicago Bears game. Locally, the game scored a combined 25.2 rating on both outlets. In October, WPWR (as a My Network TV affiliate), finished seventh among English-language households in prime-time, behind WCIU-TV’s House of Payne and The Bernie Mac Show and CW programming on […]