Writer, producer, and businessman Stephen J. Cannell, died yesterday at the age of 69 in his Pasadena, Calif. home from complications resulting from melanoma. The news came as a shock to a lot of people, since his illness wasn’t made public. Cannell wrote, created, and produced many television shows, selling his first script in 1968 to Universal for It Takes […]
Yours truly had to do a double take when John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported last week that Fox affiliate WXIX-TV in Cincinnati was dumping off-network sitcoms Seinfeld and Family Guy for… Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy? It is indeed true – the Raycom-owned station in Cincinnati has purchased the older-skewing game shows for airing beginning in September 2012, […]
The one thing that was good about Bill Cunningham’s daytime stint last week was he proved he can actually host a TV talk show. Too bad it was the only good thing. The four-episode test of Big Willie, which ran on six Tribune Broadcasting-owned stations and one Raycom outlet (Fox affiliate WXIX-TV in Cincinnati) stumbled out of gate. According to […]
Here’s what going on: – WGN-AM’s Garry Meier is starring in his own TV special, set to air on WCIU July 11 at 10:30 p.m, titled The Garry Meier Special. Among the featured interviews: George Wendt (Cheers), Cubs broadcaster Len Kasper, Richard Lewis (Anything But Love), Tim Kazurinsky, and the lady who pick the lottery numbers. This sounds awfully like […]
But the Bengals rock the ratings in Cincy No matter how much Ed Sherman of Chicago Business paints a rosy picture of it, the Chicago Bears’ ratings on Sunday were an expected disappointment given the rather unexpected 45-10 blowout of the team by the Cincinnati Bengals. The game, which started at 3:15 p.m. Central and ran until about 6:20 p.m., […]
The off-net sitcoms are back. After a year without any new major off-network sitcoms debuting (aside from Tyler Perry’s House of Payne), three of them debut today in broadcast syndication – NBC Universal’s The Office, CBS Television Distribution’s Everybody Hates Chris, and Twentieth’s My Name Is Earl. Of these three, The Office is certainly the most successful, given its solid […]
Grab bag time! – Tom Joyner, whose TJMS was disposed of from Clear Channel’s WVAZ-FM (V103) yesterday, has more on the show’s departure from Chicago’s airwaves in an interesting blog read. – George Lopez has signed a deal with TBS to launch a Monday-Thursday late night talk show for the cable network this fall. The program plans to target 18-34 […]
Warner Bros’ move of Judge Jeanne Pirro from The CW to syndication is now complete, with a group deal with the Fox Television Group. The all-barter deal, which includes Fox’s duopoly of WFLD and WPWR, gives Pirro a clearance rate of 75 percent of the United States. Pirro may have benefited from the cancellation of Cristina’s Court on Friday, which […]
This TV, the new digital movie channel launched by MGM and Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting on November 1, 2008, has now cleared 60 percent of the country on digital subchannels, including several major markets. This features movies mostly from MGM’s library (though not from the pre-1986 library, which Turner/Time Warner owns), as well as classic TV series such as […]
– Station swap: Raycom and Local TV are trading stations with each other and maybe one to be named later… Raycom has traded CBS affiliate WTVR in Richmond, Va. to Local TV for Fox affiliate WBRC-TV in Birmingham. Raycom, which is based in Alabama, will now have a presence in most of the state. Earlier, the Justice Department rejected Raycom’s […]
An extended version of The Bag. Here what’s been going on the last couple of days: – Spike O’Dell signs off: The WGN-AM host wrapped up his eight-year stint in morning drive today with a live show at the Metropolis Theater in Arlington Heights. The building was sold out for the show, as people were lining up as early as […]
If you think radio stations in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles are worrying about Arbitron’s Portable People Meters – then you haven’t seen anything yet. Television executives in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Cleveland are sweating it out over the next several months as Local People Meters – or LPMs, become the standard of measurement for television ratings measured by Nielsen. […]
It’s a station ownership mess in Virginia: In a follow-up to a story in yesterday’s Groovy Grab Bag, The Department of Justice has told Raycom to sell its CBS affiliate in Richmond, Va. (WTVR) – and you have thirty days to do so. Or else. Raycom acquired NBC affiliate WWBT-TV in Richmond as part of the company’s acquisition of the […]
Let’s reach into the bag today and see what we can scoop out… – New fall syndication updates: WPWR plays the Feud again: Debmar-Mercury’s Family Feud returns to WPWR-TV for the third time beginning on Sept. 8, airing back-to-back episodes at 2 p.m, while Debmar’s new Trivial Pursuit: America’s Plays airs at 3 p.m. Family Feud aired on WPWR from […]
This time, it’s at beleaguered WOIO/WUAB in Cleveland, run by former WBBM-TV boss Bill Applegate. Six were laid off, including four in master control. Tribune’s KTLA in Los Angeles also let a few go, laying off seven people in the news division. ABC affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake Lake City recently cut staff as well. The moves come as stations […]
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