Syndication’s new season

Stations are hoping to strike it rich with “The Nate Berkus Show”.  While the official start of the 2010-11 television season is only a week away, syndicators rolled out their new programs this week per tradition, with several new faces. One is interior designer Nate Berkus, who hosts his own talk show courtesy of Sony Pictures Television. A lot of […]

Everybody Loves Mancow

Mancow’s shtick is so laughable, it could pass itself off as a pathetic sitcom. Welcome to Everybody Loves Mancow, starring Mancow Mueller! In this show, Mancow thinks the whole world only evolves around him and only him – and everybody who works with him suffers for it. In this latest episode, Mueller talks about Tuesday’s Federal Court ruling on indecency […]

CoCo heads to TBS

It’s something Ted Turner would be proud of – if he still owned TBS. In a move that shocks a lot of people in the industry, former NBC late-night talk show Conan O’Brien has signed a deal with TBS to do a late night program. O’Brien broke the news on Twitter earlier today. Details were sketchy, but O’Brien will begin […]

Local Feburary "sweeps" good as Gold for WMAQ and WCIU

NBC-owned WMAQ-TV won the Gold when it came to Olympic ratings, but it was WLS-TV that grabbed the medal where it really counts: late news. And WCIU-TV came home with some Gold itself. The February “sweeps” period ended on Wednesday, but this ratings period won’t be as important because of the heavy skew of the Winter Olympics. Some stations (notably […]

ABC cancels "Ugly Betty"

Remember two weeks ago when yours truly made up a “tweets” page for Ugly Betty as a response to her “blog”? Here’s the newest tweet from Ms. Suarez: – Mode closing. Sad. Readership fell off; ad pages dropped. Out of work like a lot of Americans. :-( Yes, even fictional Mode magazine isn’t immune from the problems plaguing the media […]

"Family Feud" brings back bullseye game.

Dr. Oz debuts strong – and the rest of the week that was in syndication Family Feud has added a new element – all right, it’s not so new. The Debmar-Mercury syndicated game show has returned the “Bullseye” round to the start of the game, which started on the series’ eleventh season premiere on September 7. The round features contestants […]

TCA: Fox

There is a lot to talk about regarding Fox in their press tour presentations, which took place Thursday and Friday: Fox – Of course, the big story is Paula Abdul leaving American Idol after eight years. At the Fox executive panel, executives Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice said they were talking to her for the last few months regarding a […]

Turner gets aggressive with broadcast networks

CW is turning into the All-Drama Channel. Another is already there. Only difference is they actually know drama. Turner networks unveiled their new programs at the network upfronts with TNT’s focus on dramas and TBS’ focus on comedies and sitcoms – and a new weeknight talk show hosted by George Lopez. TNT, one of the top-rated cable networks, trotted out […]

Warner Saunders, Robert Feder square off

Before I report this, I just want to mention this item was posted on Chicagoland Radio and Media on Monday night and yours truly pondered whether or not to post this story, since it was hearsay at the time and this blog can’t post gossip items which may or may not turn out not to be true, since a written […]

And the number one show in African-American households is…

No surprise here, it’s Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. But there is a surprise when compared to other programs in the viewer’s landscape: When you take the rating from its’ syndication airings and its cable runs on TBS, Payne tops everything else among African-Americans in all of television among adults 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54, including network prime-time, beating Grey’s Anatomy […]

"Ugly Betty’s" ratings get ugly

Trouble ahead: It looks like the party’s over for ABC’s Ugly Betty, as the series appears to heading for a ratings free fall. Last Thursday’s episode hit a season low, earning a 2.3 rating and 7 share in the Adults 18-49 money demo, and 7.9 million total viewers. The results were down 30 percent in total viewers and 35 percent […]

TBS grabs black viewers

And they are doing this on the strength of House Of Payne and the theatrical Diary of a Mad Black Woman. With the broadcast networks abandoning the African-American audience in prime-time (or any audience that isn’t a female aged 18-49), TBS has taken up the slack and has benefited greatly, with Payne the numero uno show in black households and […]

"House of Payne" rocks in debut

In what could be a very good sign for broadcast stations (such as WCIU) who bought the show (and for Lionsgate-owned syndicator Debmar-Mercury), Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne premiered to big numbers last night on TBS – with a 3.2 household Nielsen rating and 5 share, up 94 percent from its Everybody Loves Raymond lead-in (1.6/3). Not only that, the […]