“The Orville” flies into turbulence

Poor writing, poor acting dooms Orville’s mission As one who used to watch Family Guy way back when, yours truly was a Seth MacFarlane fan. I even attended a live reading for the show ten years ago. But oh my, how times have changed. Outside of the brilliant Cosmos remake from a few years ago, he hasn’t done anything of […]

Media Notepad: Blackhawks renew pact with WGN Radio

Also: WGN Radio renews Chicago Blackhawks pact through 2024; Paternity Court renewed two more years -WGN Radio has extended its pact with the Chicago Blackhawks through the 2023-24 season, the team announced on Thursday. The deal keeps a sports presence on WGN, after the station lost Cubs telecasts in 2014. The news comes as the Blackhawks scored the highest local […]

“Heroes: Reborn” should’ve stayed dead

This useless reboot tells you all you need to know about the state of broadcast network prime-time television Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you the new Heroes: Reborn would be a disaster? I told you – right here in this space in February 2014 – about how bad an idea rebooting Heroes was. And it turns out […]

Comic-Con: “Heroes: Reborn” takes center stage

NBC’s relaunch of the 2006-10 series is massive – and actually impressive It was back in 2006 when a 73-minute pilot called Heroes was screened at the San Diego Comic-Con. The episode blew fans away as the success of the screening burned up the Internet (and this was when Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were in their infancy.) Anticipation was built […]

TCA Summer Tour 2014: NBC

The broadcast network portion of the TCA 2014 began Sunday, and the tone of the press tour changed quite a bit – there was a little more bite in these sessions, as one journalist squared off with a star of a new show and the network entertainment chief whined why his network gets no love. – Executive session: NBC Entertainment […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: “Heroes” returns. Oh God, why?

Just when you think the idiots who run broadcast network television couldn’t get any stupider, here comes this piece of news: NBC aired a promo Saturday night – yes, Saturday night during the Winter Olympics for the debut next year of a hot new series… Heroes. What the what? And here’s the kicker: the person helming this revival of Heroes: […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Rob Johnson re-ups with CBS 2

Plus: Meredith clears NBC 5 and other NBC O&Os; Heroes returns – in comic book form; the “Car Bomb” departs; and another old syndication name resurfaces – Rob Johnson is here to stay – the co-anchor of CBS-owned WBBM-TV’s 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. newscasts has signed a contract renewal in news first reported by Robert Feder on […]

TCA: Fox unveils new animation projects

  The Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour continued to roll along on Sunday with Fox’s turn at the mic. The network has a lot of new shows to roll out in midseason – not to mention the eleventh season of American Idol: – To start off, there was an executive session with entertainment president Kevin Reilly and addressed the crowd. He […]

Post No. 1700: Grab a bag.

To celebrate 1700 posts at The T Dog Media Blog (corrupting your mind since 2006), here’s the Super Groovy Grab Bag of items! (sorry, no party… the budget’s real tight this year…) – Book ’em, Danno!: David Hernandez, the co-owner of the now-defunct Chicago Sports Webio.com, was arrested today in Normal, IL today a week after he skipped town. He […]

The 2008 T Dog Blog Turkey Awards

Well, it’s that time of year again… It’s Thanksgiving… and it’s time for the third annual T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards, celebrating the worst in media. Gobble, gobble… – Media Rights Capital’s Sunday lineup on CW. The network leases its Sunday lineup to MRC, and programs it with junk like Valentine and Easy Money. The results? CW’s ratings go […]

B96 thanks Eddie & JoBo & Erica (updated)

WBBM-FM has a note on their website saying “thanks” to Eddie Volkman, Joe Bohannon, and Erica Cobb for their years of hard work and dedication on their morning show. As you all know by now, the trio were let go Friday. In an interview with Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune, Volkman talked about the harsh realities facing the radio business […]

Comic-Con, Day 3: "Lost" and "Heroes" takes center stage

Media news-related items from the third day of Comic-Con: Time to get Lost with some Heroes Two of television’s most discussed shows on the Internet took center change at Comic-Con today: – Lost had a panel in front of thousands of people today, and while few surprises were revealed – there was an appearance by cast Matthew Fox, which sent […]