"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 […]

Tribune and The CW: Culture Clash?

While the Tribune Co. is struggling with the antics of CEO Randy Michaels and Chapter 11 bankruptcy, its TV division is actually taking care of its own business – despite the struggles of The CW – the network which thirteen of its stations (including WPIX in New York, KTLA in Los Angeles and WGN-TV in Chicago) are aligned with, in […]

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 […]

T Dog’s Four Pack -The Oprah Winfrey Edition

Welcome to a special edition of T Dog’s Four Pack (special because this is a bit serious in tone.) On Thursday, Oprah Winfrey announced she was leaving her syndicated daytime talk show after 25 years and ending the program on September 9, 2011. She is focusing on launching her new cable network with Discovery Communications, which goes live in January […]

Upon further review… the Cubs-White Sox TV ratings post

A post I wrote last Tuesday received some negative feedback, as yours truly painted a too-rosy picture of Comcast SportsNet’s ratings regarding the Cubs and White Sox – particularly the latter team. According to an article appearing in Sports Business Journal ranking Major League Baseball’s thirty teams in terms of television ratings on games aired by their regional sports networks […]

WGN-TV expands midday, evening newscasts

WGN-TV announced it has expanded its news and shuffled its weekday programming lineup, just two days into the new syndication television season. Beginning October 5, WGN expands its 5:30 p.m. newscast an hour, starting at 5 p.m. Its midday newscast expands to 11a.m. and now run two hours until 1 p.m. And to go along with the expansion are some […]

"Rachael Ray" moves to WGN-TV

Rachael Ray is on the move. After three underperforming seasons at CBS-owned WBBM-TV, Rachael Ray’s talk show is shifting to Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN-TV this fall. Rachael Ray has not fared well in its 2 p.m. time slot, with tougher competition coming from Chicago native Bonnie Hunt, whose talk show airs opposite it and has beat Rachael in the ratings. […]