The Media Notepad: Stanley Cup Game 7 scores for ABC

Also: Kenya Moore out at Housewives; Fox and Sinclair team up for new syndicated true crime show; Paramount looking to sell assets Even though the recent NBA Finals naturally drew a larger audience on average, the excitement of the Stanley Cup Final was unparalleled as the series lasted seven games with historic implications. The Edmonton Oilers – who won four […]

The Media Notepad: Fox (finally) releases fall schedule

Also: iCrime debuts this fall; another syndicated show calls it quits; TV/radio stations shifting to the burbs?  Catching up on some news:  After deciding to delay for a few weeks, Fox released their 2022-23 schedule on June 6 without much fanfare. As expected, much of the lineup remained intact, including The Masked Singer on Wednesdays, Smackdown on Fridays, and the […]

Syndication update: MGM pulls plug on court shows’ original production

Court genre thins out, but still viable After being one of the most reliable genres in first-run syndication during the last decade, the courtroom show pack is thinning the herd a little bit.  According to Broadcasting & Cable, MGM (through production company Orion, the former film studio acquired by MGM) has halted production on three court shows – Couples Court […]

Mountain Movers: CBS All Access rebrands as Paramount Plus

A mountain of entertainment awaits the home viewer As the streaming wars continue to heat up, ViacomCBS announced Tuesday it was ditching the CBS All Access name and rebranding as Paramount Plus, or Paramount + beginning in early 2021, with a dedicated website already launched. The move to freshen up the streaming service comes as other big conglomerates have jumped […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Chicago loses population again

Also…management change at CSN Chicago; another new entry in syndication; MeTV FM going national; new host for Sy-Fy’s Comic-Con show All together now: The Chicago DMA has lost population again,for a third year in a row, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Chicago proper lost nearly 8,700 residents in the past year – and is the only city in the top […]

“Meredith Vieira” on the way out? Probably.

Soon, we might be saying so long to Meredith Vieira’s daytime talker. Why you may ask? The former 60 Minutes correspondent and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host’s show received yet another downgrade Friday when ABC affiliate WCVB in Boston announced it was shaking up its early fringe lineup, moving Ellen from 4 p.m. to 3 p.m. to make room […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Tax the cloud

The latest edition of T Dog’s Media Notepad: – Only in Chicago: if you stream any kind of entertainment and have a paid subscription, you – the consumer- are now going to be subjected to a 9 percent sales tax. This includes any paid subscription to Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon Prime, etc. The so-called “cloud tax” also applies to businesses […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Bill Kurtis joins Decades

– Emmy and Peabody winner Bill Kurtis has a new gig: he’ll host a show on the new Decades network called Though the Decades, a weekday strip recalling the events of historical significance between the 1950s and 1990s, beginning in May. The series plans to draw from the vast resources of CBS News and Entertainment Tonight libraries for material. A […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Sports-talk war escalates with Finfer defection

* The first shot has been fired in the Chicago’s new sports-talk wars: Robert Feder reports that Tribune’s new Game has stolen Ben Finfer away from CBS’ The Score (WSCR), where he’ll serve as producer – but also as show host, being paired with David Kaplan at Noon and then joins Alex Quigley and Howard Griffith from 1-3 p.m. Finfer […]