The Media Notepad: Few are partying with “Chicago Party Aunt”

Bad reviews, viewer feedback sink show as show falls off radar. Also: ESPN 1000’s Mike Thomas exits; ex-B96 jock Roxanne Steele leaves Detroit radio job; Peanuts specials back on PBS Remember a month ago when this space crowed about Chicago Party Aunt, telling her to party on? Well, the party may be soon over as not too many viewers are […]

The fridge pack (plus one): The unlucky 13 of the decade

There are flops, and then there are….flops. For every success in the most recent decade, there were products coming off so badly, you don’t know how the hell they were even conceived in the first place – you basically had to see it to believe it! If you thought the 2000s version of “The Dirty Dozen” were bad, they have […]

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 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

Welcome to the 14th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards – celebrating the worst in media, sports, and life in general. We have 17 recipients to announce, so let’s get gobblin’: Survivor. The way CBS handled – or mishandled the latest Survivor controversy leaves a lot of be desired. An extra side turkey is given to Jeff Probst for what […]

Media Notepad: WTTW exec exits after long run

And… James Holzhauer’s final Jeopardy scores in ratings; Gov. Pritzker honors Rockford local show; Viewers skip Red Line. The man who helmed the Window To The World has called it a career. As first reported by Robert Feder, Dan Soles is stepping down from powerhouse public television station WTTW after 24 years on the job. His most recent position was […]

Media Notepad: “Red Line” derails in the ratings against “Game of Thrones”

Plus…. Ratings for Bulls and Blackhawks continue to fall; Jeopardy continues to roll thanks to a winning contestant; Crain’s partners with WGN Radio As one might have predicted, CBS’ new limited-series drama The Red Line got off to a rough start Sunday night, and it was indeed “A Long Night”. The two-hour premiere of the shot-in-Chicago series drew next-to-nothing in […]

Getting ready to board “The Red Line”

Limited-series debuts amid back drop of real-life problems, including Jussie Smollett The latest drama to be based in Chicago debuts (or debuted) Sunday night titled The Red Line. But you wonder if Chicago TV viewers would board for the ride. Named after the “L” line running from Howard Street in the North Side’s Rogers Park community to 95th Street on […]

Reboots of ’80s shows headline CBS’ 2018-19 lineup

Murphy Brown, Magnum P.I. lead eight new programs for next season CBS unveiled its 2018-19 lineup with the ongoing battle between CBS and Viacom as a backdrop. As you know by now, the two companies are at a tug-of-war over a proposed merger with CBS suing majority shareholder National Amusements over control. CBS CEO Les Moonves was absent at CBS’ […]