The Media Notepad: NBC, Fox announce fall schedules

Also: Roku Channel to air Sunday MLB baseball  While back to normalcy is the word at Upfronts week after years of interruptions (from labor unrest and Covid), unfortunately so are the stupid and awful presentations to advertisers with Jimmy Fallon headlining NBC’s and Fox featuring Rob Lowe and new Fox Sports football analyst Tom Brady.  One tradition that didn’t return […]

The Media Notepad: Sinclair launches “The Nest” as Stadium empties

Also: Bally Sports Arizona folds; SAG-AFTRA talks fail; your newest talk show host is…Ken Jeong?  With Sinclair out as partner in Stadium, the digital subchannel occupying the same will have a new name and new format effective October 30.  Called The Nest, Sinclair says the new channel features “family-friendly programming” but with reality cable TV show reruns. Shows featured in […]

Rewinding 2019 in media

  Disney Plus made the biggest splash of the year 2019 saw the end of several institutions, big media battles, and disappointing sports teams. Let’s start with the huge changes in big media, as Disney closed on its purchase of the 20th Century Fox film studio and Viacom reuniting with CBS again with a new name (ViacomCBS) as the race […]

The 2019 Emmy Awards flops… hard

Awful presentation leads to lowest-rated Emmy show of all time  When Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane had a disastrous stint hosting the Academy Awards in 2013, I noted: “There’s nothing like seeing Hollywood in smarmy, self-congratulatory mode while the public is abandoning broadcast prime-time network television and terrestrial radio for alternatives with movie attendance declining thanks to media consolidation, which […]

Upfronts review: More legal dramas, less multi-cam laughs

Also: fewer new shows The 2019-20 season is going to be more dramatic and less comedic. That’s the analysis of the five major network’s fall schedules, containing perhaps the fewest number of new shows in memory. The major networks don’t really invest in pilots anymore, thus there are fewer programs to look at as replacements. Ratings aren’t really important as […]