"Maury" thriving in new home

In a follow-up story on the Tribune story on Monday, the group’s trio of talk shows are having a resurgent year in daytime syndication. And Maury is one of those shows reaping the benefits. In this B&C article from last week, Maury Povich talked about how his program has reactivated itself since moving to new facilities in Stamford, Connecticut from […]

Flash Forward… to your demise… Part 2

It may be over for FlashForward. The ABC sci-fi drama did not generate any interest Thursday night, averaging only a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49, and 6.5 million viewers according to figures supplied by Nielsen and The Wrap. While the program fared better in households, the 25-54 demo, and even made Trending Topics on Twitter during the 8 p.m. hour […]

Local Feburary "sweeps" good as Gold for WMAQ and WCIU

NBC-owned WMAQ-TV won the Gold when it came to Olympic ratings, but it was WLS-TV that grabbed the medal where it really counts: late news. And WCIU-TV came home with some Gold itself. The February “sweeps” period ended on Wednesday, but this ratings period won’t be as important because of the heavy skew of the Winter Olympics. Some stations (notably […]

Meet your new ruler of Earth: "American Idol"

Not even the mighty Winter Olympics could slow down American Idol, which is now the undisputed ruler of the Nielsen Kingdom (with the expection of the Super Bowl, of course.) Tuesday night’s ratings showdown featured Idol, the Olympics, and a new episode of Lost. Idol won the 7-9 p.m. time slot with a 9.1/22 rating/share among adults 18-49 (and 24 […]

NBC, CTV score big with Winter Olympics Opener

A week ago, a 27- year record fell when Super Bowl XLIV between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts drew more than 106 million viewers, marking it as the most-watched television event ever in the United States. Now its Canada’s turn. Friday’s Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics drew the largest audience ever for a television event in Canada. […]

One for the record books

Courtesy: New Orleans Times-Picayune Super Bowl XLIV between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts brought down one of television’s most durable records. The game drew an astonishing 106.5 million viewers on CBS – breaking the record set by the February 28, 1983 episode of M*A*S*H titled Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, which closed out the series’ eleven-season run. It […]

Asking the questions: Why is WFLD struggling at 9 p.m.?

The T Dog Media Blog is “asking the questions”… why is Fox-owned WFLD squandering prime-time lead-ins from its parent network? Maybe they should find some answers. According to Nielsen and from Lewis Lazare’s column today, WFLD continues to lag behind its competitors in the month of January. Despite changes to the 9 p.m. newscast – notably adding Anna Davlantes as […]

"Monsters" off to a slow start

Monsters and Money in the Morning, the new morning sports and financial advice program on CBS-owned WBBM-TV, got off to a rocky start yesterday morning. According to Nielsen, the 5-to-7 a.m. outing could gather only a .6 household rating in the first hour and a .2 in the second hour. Among the 25-54 demo, it fared worse: Monsters averaged a […]

Chicago Blackhawks set another season high – and record

The Chicago Blackhawks continue to be a success story on – and off the ice. Comcast SportsNet set hit yet another season high – and broke another ratings record – for a Blackhawks game Thursday night. The Blue Jackets – Blackhawks matchup averaged a 4.2 household rating, breaking a record set only last week by a Blackhawks-Boston Bruins game (an […]

Chicago ratings box

Here are some notable ratings items: – Lewis Lazare’s Sun-Times column noted ABC-owned WLS-TV’s continued ratings dominance in the month of December. According to the ratings “book”, WLS finished first at 10 p.m. in households, followed by CBS-owned WBBM-TV and NBC-owned WMAQ-TV, which continues to suffer from having Jay Leno as a news lead-in (though that may not be the […]

Vikings-Bears score in the ratings

Well, well, well… I guess the Bears are still relevant in Chicago after all. Despite a losing season, Bears fans turned out by the boatload for Monday night’s game between the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears. Locally, ABC-owned WLS-TV averaged a 20.6 Nielsen household rating for its ESPN simulcast of the game. ESPN itself added 10.5 rating […]

Warner Bros. cancels "Bonnie Hunt"

Chicago-born comedian Bonnie Hunt has lost her talk show. Ms. Hunt announced to her staffers today that The Bonnie Hunt Show would not return for a third season. The program had two-year contracts with the NBC owned-and-operated stations (including WMAQ-TV here in Chicago), but it appears NBC has passed on renewing the show on its owned stations for a third […]

NBC affiliates buck the trend in Detroit, D.C.

Believe it or not, there are places where NBC affiliates actually won late news despite having The Jay Leno Show as its lead-in. What’s notable is these two NBC affiliates – WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. and WDIV in Detroit, rose in the ratings ranks as recently as ten years ago, when NBC was enjoying ratings dominance – surpassing former market […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – We’ll have a grand old time

It’s been two weeks, so a T Dog Media Blog Four Pack is long overdue… with a little bit of a Flintstones twist… Hanging out with Fred and Barney. Yabba Dabba Doo! -V103. The most (and only) surprising item in the recently concluded Arbitron PPM November survey is the strong performance of Urban AC WVAZ-FM, who ranked second in 12+ […]