Also: Two TV-related sites shut down; XFL off to good start With all the threats to our freedom of the press – from hedge fund operators buying financial stakes in newspaper companies to President Trump, now is the right time to discuss what it means to the future of journalism. On February 23, numerous journalists and reporters are gathering at […]
WABC-TV in New York City reveals Oprah replacement – a newscast. ABC-owned WLS-TV has finally chosen its hosts for its new morning show to succeed The Oprah Winfrey Show at 9 a.m. – WLS weekend sports anchor Ryan Chiaverini and WGN-TV morning news reporter Valerie Warner. The series’ working title is Morning Rush and is expected to debut sometime around […]
We all could use some R&R. But in this economy, even that’s going away. The Nielsen Company announced today it was ceasing publication of Radio & Records after 36 years. The move takes place immediately; the Radio & Records website has been shut down and redirected to sister website Billboard.biz, where some of the airplay charts are available (subscription required.) […]
Kind of a sad day for yours truly, since I credit this magazine and the now-defunct TV/Radio Age for stoking my interest in this business… Crain’s Communications announced today it is folding its print version of Television Week and at the same time, launching a spinoff titled NewsPro as a print monthly. NewsPro is currently a monthly feature launched in […]
Does TV Week still think Gossip Girl is a hot show? Well, here’s an even hotter show. ABC Family’s Secret Diary Of An American Teenager blew Gossip Girl out of the water last night in total viewers (4.5 vs. 2.2 million), in adults 18-34 (by 50%), adults 18-49 (by 43%) and viewers 12-34 (by 123%). It was the second half […]
Updated story The FCC has rejected an application for all of the stations in the Rockford-Freeport area (northwest of Chicago) to switch to all-digital broadcasting. The stations: CBS affiliate WIFR, NBC affiliate WREX, ABC affiliate WTVO, and Fox affiliate WQRF were among four of 123 stations whose applications to change over on the original switchover date (Feb. 17.) Those stations […]
The semi-annual TV Critics Poll from TV Week is out, and it has AMC’s Mad Men as the best show and Fox’s Do Not Disturb as the worst. Yours truly has been reading lists from TV Week/Electronic Media for nearly 20 years, and its’always a fun read, whether I agree with them or not. Some observations: – Cable made its […]
This week’s winners and losers: T Dog’s Fab Four – Obama’s campaign infomercial. Great marketing ploy to get your message out by buying time on three major broadcast networks and a few cable outlets simultaneously, as the move scored 30 million viewers across all platforms Wednesday night. But will this translate to votes? – ‘Til Death goes on hiatus. Hopefully […]
One more on the floor! I’ve decided to add an extra item to both the Fab Floor and the Flop Floor this week, so instead of Four on the Floor – it’s Five. And when was the last time you saw both Family Guy and South Park on the same floor? T Dog’s Fab Four (make that Five) Lindsey Lohan […]
In the magazine’s TV Managers of the year, Midwest division -apparently, being number one for 22 years (as well as capitalizing on your competitors’ mistakes – and there are a lot of them) doesn’t hurt, either. And yours truly thinks this is obviously the right choice. Dominant ABC affiliates in Philadelphia (WPVI-TV), Dallas (WFAA-TV), and Atlanta (WSB-TV) and NBC affiliate […]
No surprises this time around in TV Week’s 2008 Winter TV Critics Poll (which the publication decided to bury deep in its website for some reason)- they picked Pushing Daisies as the best, and Cavemen and the now-expired Viva Laughlin as the worst. One notable drop in the best category was NBC’s Heroes, falling from #6 to #25, reflecting what […]
The talented James Hibberd, who now blogs for TV Week, is joining The Hollywood Reporter as a senior television writer. Gee, who are the self-smarmy Drudgies (“Television is a left-wing conspiracy destined to destroy our country”) are going to whine to now?
After Warner Bros. announced on January 4 that they were releasing its content exclusively on Blu-Ray, with the possibly of Paramount joining them, leaving NBC Universal as the only studio exclusively in the HD-DVD camp. And according to the article, viewers might not want to fork over $300 for a Blu-Ray player but get downloadable HD content from Apple’s iTunes […]
Sopranos No. 1; 24 winds up number 2 on the worst list! There’s another TV critics poll out there this week, this time it’s coming from the people who invented it: TV Week. The trade magazine put out its 46th TV critics poll the same time Broadcasting & Cable released theirs. The Sopranos ranked Number one in the poll, despite […]