Local ratings box: WLS-TV returns to dominance at 10

– WLS-TV returns to the top of the late news heap – American Idol continues to slide With the Olympics over and done with, normal viewing patterns have resumed – good news for ABC-owned WLS-TV, which saw its 10 p.m. news dominance temporarily usurped by NBC-owned WMAQ. In March, WLS returned to the top spot at 10 with a 9.0 […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: “Ellen” renewed through 2017

– Good news for fans of Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show: Warner Bros. has renewed the strip through 2017 on more than twenty station groups, including all ten of the NBC-owned stations. Airing on WMAQ in Chicago at 3 p.m., Ellen is the top-rated program among women 25-54 in the time period, besting rival talkers Katie, Dr. Phil, and Maury. […]

Analysis: ABC 7 dominates February sweeps… well, almost

Say with me everybody… ABC-owned WLS-TV (ABC 7) dominated the local news competition during the sweeps – this time is the February “book”, as it has done since 1987 (excluding Olympic years.) According to information obtained by Chicagoland Radio and Media, WLS won almost all local news time slots in households and the key adult 25-54 demo, with one major […]

Don & Roma wade exit WLS-AM

Ready or not, here comes Bruce & Dan Longtime radio morning team (and husband and wife) Don & Roma Wade are stepping down from their post at WLS-AM and are being replaced by interim hosts Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft, and this comes as the Wade’s contract is set to expire at the end of this month. The change is […]

Phyllis Schwartz exits WFLD

It looks like its back to the beach for Phyllis Schwartz. The WFLD vice president and news director exited the station Tuesday after nearly a year. She replaced Carol Fowler in the same capacity on January 6. A former WLS-TV and WMAQ-TV executive, Schwartz returned to Chicago from San Diego where she ran her own consulting company and was previously […]

Confirmed: “Queen Latifah” to CBS 2… and WCIU

As reported here and on other trade sites last week, Queen Latifah’s return to daytime TV snared its first major deal with Sony Pictures Television: CBS’ owned and operated TV stations signed on for the show in sixteen markets. According to an article in Broadcasting & Cable last Monday, Latifah’s show will in fact, be shown on WBBM-TV next fall, […]

A new classic TV channel – with a twist

It’s time to get Cozi. As first scooped by Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder on October 17, NBCUniversal confirmed today it was changing the name of its dot-two digital subchannels from NonStop to CoziTV, adding classic TV shows and movies from the NBCUniversal library and other studios to the mix, while retaining the lifestyle programming NonStop is currently airing, with […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Bob Brenly exits Cubs broadcast booth (updated)

Brenly becomes new Arizona Diamondbacks color analyst The latest Grab Bag is here with a possible new classic TV channel on the way, two primetime network series renewed, and more: – Bob Brenly, who has been the color analyst for Chicago Cubs broadcasts alongside Len Kasper over WGN-TV broadcasts and Comcast SportsNet since 2005 announced he’s leaving the team to […]

Sunday ratings: NFL, Ryder Cup rules

Now that’s more like it. The first Sunday night is in the books as footabll ruled prime-time once again as the New York Giants took on the Philadelphia Eagles in the city of Brotherly Love (or hate.) Meanwhile, NBC also got ratings mileage Sunday afternoon thanks in part to the historic collapse of the U.S. team in the Ryder Cup […]

Sports, tech snafus zap media coverage of teachers’ strike

As Chicago teachers head for the picket line, media coverage of the strike has been filled with some miscues and some frustration from local news stations due to sports overruns.  If you watched ABC 7’s (WLS-TV’s) newscast Sunday night, technical snafus took place as video from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s press conference at the Harold Washington Library often looked choppy and […]

Chicago syndie schedules get dramatic makeover

Local stations, syndicators shuffle the deck As we enter year two in the post-Oprah era, things are finally changing in the syndication marketplace, as five new syndicated talk shows – the most in 17 years – make their debut. As for off-network sitcoms, the pickings are rather slim – just two new entries this year, compared to five in 2011. […]

WBBM-TV restores weekend morning newscasts

WBBM-TV (CBS 2) announced the return of weekend morning newscasts to the station after a three-year hiatus. The announcement was made during a meeting in the CBS-owned station’s newsroom with General Manager Bruno Cohen and News Director Jeff Kierman. Beginning on September 22, WBBM plans to air an hour of local news on Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and from Sundays […]

Going for the ratings gold

Chicago ranks 25th in Olympic ratings When it comes to the Summer Olympics, Chicagoans haven’t really been too excited about the games (perhaps we still have a hangover from losing the 2016 Olympics bid to Rio?) The games of the XXX Olympiad from across the pond in London has drawn an average of 32.8 million viewers in primetime for the […]