Career spanned ABC, CBS, NBC plus his own production company Media watchers are mourning the death of Fred Silverman, an executive who re-invented CBS and took ABC to the top, and later formed his own production company. Born in the Queens borough of New York, Silverman began his career right here in Chicago at WGN-TV in the early 1960s where […]
No one expected CNN’s Chicagoland to be a love letter to the city – but no one expected it to be a Rahm infomercial either. A critical and ratings flop, Chicagoland is the one of TV’s lowlights in 2014. Recently, the prime-time portion of The Simpsons marathon on FXX attracted more viewers than Chicagoland did. (As of May 2018, the […]
The television world is remembering Grant Tinker and the legacy he left as he passed away at the age of 90 on November 28 in his Los Angeles home. While network executives were known for meddling into the creative process, Grant Tinker would be best known for his hands-off approach – which made sense given he headed one of the most […]
The new name for the second coming of Comiskey is a guaranteed flop with fans Nine alternative names for the ballpark With news like this, you’d wish Jay Leno and David Letterman weren’t retired. The Chicago White Sox announced Wednesday it has entered into a new naming rights agreement with a mortgage lending company, renaming their Guaranteed Rate Field, replacing teleco […]
Also: Walking Dead, Simpsons, Real Housewives are night’s ratings winners This is likely the last Bears TV ratings report you will see this season (hold your applause) because reporting on them – and writing about the team itself – is no longer interesting. But given the way the Bears have been playing, the butt-whopping the Green Bay Packers put on […]
Just when you think the idiots who run broadcast network television couldn’t get any stupider, here comes this piece of news: NBC aired a promo Saturday night – yes, Saturday night during the Winter Olympics for the debut next year of a hot new series… Heroes. What the what? And here’s the kicker: the person helming this revival of Heroes: […]
The face of TV has changed in the last 40 years…. “Me and The Chimp” (left) to “Animal Practice”. Wow, what an improvement! The hollowed halls of TV badness is back open for business! In the first update in over a year, a whopping 18 21 shows are being inducted into The T […]
Does the headline of this post look familiar to you? Well, aside from the “again” part. It should. I wrote this headline five years ago when the Chicago Sun-Times decided to put then-Chicago Bear Greg Olsen on the front page of the newspaper amid the controversy over a rap song he participated in while at the University of Miami, […]
In an item posted in Chicagoland Radio & Media about two weeks ago, Comcast Corporation announced it was making a $2.7 million donation to the Museum of Broadcast Communications to help open the new facility at the southwest corner of State and Kinzie in the River North neighborhood (immediately north of the Loop and Downtown Chicago.) The deal includes […]
Welcome to the Shame, Paul This program needs no waiting to get into this museum. After two forgettable and ultra-low rated episodes, NBC has canceled The Paul Reiser Show – not to mention an express induction of The T Dog Media Blog TV Hall Of Shame. The series was a part of NBC’s once-formidable Thursday night lineup. When it premiered […]
Twentieth’s game shows canceled, and other news of note For the first time in a long time, it’s time for The Grab Bag – items not good enough for individual posts – but good enough to be written here: – Ricki returns. In a report confirmed by B&C and TVNewscheck, Ricki Lake signed a deal with Twentieth Television to launch […]
The resignation of Tribune executive Lee Abrams on Friday was pretty much expected, and came as no surprise. Abrams sent a company-wide e-mail on Monday featuring Not Safe for Work videos and angering employees company-wide, and was suspended Wednesday for doing so. Some of the videos featured stuff you would normally find on a Girls Gone Wild DVD. And all […]
How does it feel to become the second Silverman in history to screw up a network – in fact, the SAME network ? Goodbye, Mr. “Party All The Time”. Don’t hit your head when you get in that limo… Yours truly doesn’t know if the departure of Ben Silverman will immediately improve NBC’s fortunes. But it is a start. Yes, […]
Haven’t done it in awhile, so let’s see what’s working this week – and what’s not: Four you should grab off the shelf – Garry Meier on WGN-AM. After rave reviews for his recent four-day stint at the news/talk outlet, the station should just give him the vacant 1-4 afternoon slot right now. There’s no contest. – Jon Stewart takes […]
One more on the floor! I’ve decided to add an extra item to both the Fab Floor and the Flop Floor this week, so instead of Four on the Floor – it’s Five. And when was the last time you saw both Family Guy and South Park on the same floor? T Dog’s Fab Four (make that Five) Lindsey Lohan […]