Twentieth cancels "Morning Show with Mike and Juilet"

In what may be a harbinger for things to come regarding first-run syndicated fare, Twentieth Television has canceled The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet after a two-season run.The daytime strip, which competed with Live with Regis & Kelly in most markets (including Chicago until WFLD-TV expanded its morning newscast), averaged an season-to-date 0.8 Nielsen household rating, putting it twelfth […]

WFLD, WBBM-AM scores with Blago coverage

Score one for Chicago’s perennial news underdog: Fox-owned WFLD-TV’s coverage of the arrest of Governor Arrogant finished first in the ratings among adults 18-49 and second in adults 25-54 with its continuous coverage from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Moreover, they beat archrival WGN-TV at noon in adults 18-49. Also, all-news WBBM-AM’s website surged on Tuesday with page views jumping […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

– Fox O&Os, including WFLD-TV here in Chicago, have renewed Warner Bros.’ TMZ on TV nightly strip through the 2010-11 season. So more celebrity paparazzi junk from producer and alleged lawyer Lionel Hutz – I mean, Harvey Levin. – Check out Battlestar Galactica’s new promo for its’ fourth-season premiere, coming in January. – The first broadcast station sale of Twentieth’s […]

Fox drops Saturday cartoons – for infomercials

Foxhas announced it is trading in Sonic the Hedgehog – for a bunch of people riding around in Hoveround chairs. In a move that ends children’s programming on Fox after 18 years, the network announced it is dropping the 4KidsTV block it had been airing on Saturday mornings. This comes after 4Kids sued Fox for a refund, alleging it owed […]

WLS-TV, ABC dominate Election Night

ABC and its O&O in Chicago (WLS-TV) took home the ratings crown on Election Night, a night where Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president. ABC led all networks on a national basis with 13.6 million viewers. Locally, ABC’s coverage led with WLS-TV leading the 10 p.m. hour (when Obama gave his victory speech) with a 17.6 household […]

Your election night guide

So how local TV and radio plan to cover tomorrow night’s historic election? Like the Super Bowl, of course. Here’s how the Chicago media plan to cover the big night on both the television and radio sides. One interest of note is WGN-TV’s decision to pre-empt new episodes of The CW’s 90210 and Privileged for expanded election coverage. Ouch! WFLD […]

Minneapolis, Cleveland TV stations worry about LPMs

If you think radio stations in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles are worrying about Arbitron’s Portable People Meters – then you haven’t seen anything yet. Television executives in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Cleveland are sweating it out over the next several months as Local People Meters – or LPMs, become the standard of measurement for television ratings measured by Nielsen. […]

More on "Dr. Oz"

In the same Feder column from today, Fox-owned WFLD-TV (as well as WNYW-TV in New York and KTTV in Los Angeles) have purchased Dr. Oz from Sony Pictures Television for next fall. WFLD plans to air the show at 4 p.m. as a lead-in to a planned 5 p.m. newscast that could also launch next fall. Oz would replace syndicated […]

"Dr. Oz" heads to WFLD

It’s a home run by the Wizard! Sony Pictures Television had the heart, the courage, and the brains – to clear Harpo Productions’ new syndicated Dr. Oz in fourteen markets, including Fox-owned WFLD-TV in Chicago. No word yet on a time period, but the program could wind up in a late morning time slot, possibly as a lead-out of The […]

"Mother" sold to WFLD and WPWR

Twentieth Television has sold off-network repeats of How I Met Your Mother to the WFLD/WPWR duopoly in Chicago beginning in fall 2010. The CBS comedy has been on the air since 2005, and has seen its ratings rise this past season as part of the network’s Monday night lineup. WFLD/WPWR has already picked up The Office for next fall. In […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

Some Chicago-related media news: – One coming from Oregon, one going to Oregon: Clear Channel has upped Tony Coles as vice president and operations of the company’s six-station radio cluster here in Chicago. Coles comes via Portland, Ore. where he was regional vice president of programming at Clear Channel’s Northwest cluster. He replaces Darren Davis, who was promoted to senior […]

WMYD to launch new newscast

Detroit-area residents finally now have another news operation. Granite-owned WMYD-TV, a My Network TV affiliate, is launching a new 10 p.m. newscast beginning on Monday titled TV 20 News at 10. The half-hour newscast is going head-to-head with Fox-owned WJBK-TV’s long established 10 p.m. show. This marks the first time there has been a competing newscast at 10 since 2005, […]

WGN signs Mark Suppelsa to take on Katie, Brian, and Charlie

For the first time ever in Chicago, viewers will have a real option to the network evening newscasts. As expected, Tribune-owned WGN-TV has signed former WMAQ-TV and WFLD-TV Mark Suppelsa, renewed the contract of longtime veteran Steve Sanders and is expanding the station’s newscasts. Suppelsa left Fox-owned WFLD in a contract dispute a few months ago and was slated to […]

WFLD scores with weather coverage on Saturday

While the attention over the last few days has been on former WFLD anchor Mark Suppelsa joining WGN-TV, Fox-owned WFLD-TV has some good news: Its’ coverage of Saturday’s wild weather throughout the Chicago area drew good ratings (for a Saturday) and praise from viewers. Tornadoes hit the south and southwest suburbs on Saturday evening, tearing a path from Wilmington to […]

Report: Mark Suppelsa headed to WGN-TV

Mark Suppelsa, the anchor who left Fox-owned WFLD-TV last March, is rumored to join Tribune’s WGN-TV later this summer, replacing Steve Sanders alongside Allison Payne on the station’s 9 p.m. newscast. Suppelsa is technically still under contract to WFLD – the station has a right to match any offer a competitor offers until June 17. WGN is likely to make […]