Netflix bodyslams competition to grab WWE Raw

Major acquisition is a game changer for streaming In a major move signaling a tremendous shift for streaming – and continued dominance over its studio peers for some time to come, Netflix and the WWE announced the company’s flagship Raw program will be moving to the streamer in January 2025 in a ten-year, $5 billion deal. This means Raw is […]

Monday ratings roundup: Viewers flood “Neighborhood”

ESPN scores with MNF, tiebreaker baseball Note: All numbers are adult 18-49, unless noted CBS premiered two new multi-cam sitcoms Monday night with the heavily promoted The Neighborhood and Happy Together as part of their effort to retool their Monday night lineup. The results were positive for Neighborhood with the Cedric The Entertainer vehicle earning a 1.3 rating/6 share, while […]

Monday night ratings roundup: “Manifest” rocks, “Magnum” tanks

Big Bang, Young Sheldon erode from last year’s premieres (Note: All numbers are in the adult 18-49 demo, unless noted.) The 2018-19 television season began in earnest yesterday and for the major broadcast networks, provided a mixed bag of results. The surprise of the night came from NBC’s new drama Manifest, who premiered with a 2.2 rating/9 share, and drew […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Ron Magers exits in style

WLS-TV (ABC 7) sent Ron Magers off in style Wednesday night as viewers tuned in en masse to see him anchor his final newscast, earning a time-period winning 10.0 rating in live-plus-same day households according to Robert Feder. ABC 7 Also won the May sweeps at 10 p.m., but finished behind NBC-owned WMAQ (NBC 5) at 10 in the 25-54 demo. Another […]

Think Tank Express: “Wrestlemania” highlights on ESPN? Oh, the horror

  SportsCenter’s package on Wrestlemania XXXI shows us even the WWE is now gaining legitimate sports’ respect SportsCenter, the news of record when it comes to sports highlights, showed some of WrestleMania XXXI, the biggest WWE event of the year. The move took a lot of people by surprise – even die-hard wrestling fans who later praised ESPN for showing […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Robin Robinson likely out at WFLD

A bunch of items in this week’s Grab Bag: – Is Robin Robinson on her way out at Fox-owned WFLD? Sure looks like it: According to a report surfacing a little over a week ago at Chicagoland Radio and Media, Robinson is expected to depart when her contract expires later this year. Robinson is the longest-tenured anchor at WFLD, being […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: RIP Kathryn Joosten

Some sad news to start off this edition of notations: Emmy-award winning actress Kathryn Joosten died on Sunday after a long battle with lung cancer at the age of 72. She was best known for her portrayal of presidential secretary Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing, and most recently, the nosy neighbor on Desperate Housewives. Born in Eustus, Fl. in […]

Turner, USA unveil new projects at upfronts

Turner and USA Network unveiled their projects to advertisers during the broadcast networks’ upfront week. Usually, most cable networks hold their upfronts well in advance – BET held their upfront presentation here in Chicago last month. But Turner and USA – like ESPN, felt they have a right to sit at the table with the big boys. Here’s what each […]

"Smackdown" moves to SyFy

In a move which illustrates once again the declining clout of broadcasters – and the growingpower of cable, Vince McMahon and the WWE have announced the departure of Friday Night Smackdown from Fox’s My Network TV and is moving it to NBC Universal-owned cable channel SyFy effective October 1. SyFy smacked down Fox with a $30 million offer to WWE, […]

USA renews "Raw" until 2010

Three more years for WWE Raw on USA Network. So, that means three more years of Vince McMahon and brain-dead wrestling fans screaming “What?” at every opportunity. Ugh. So if David Stern and Gary Bettman can stick around and continue to ruin the NBA and NHL, respectively…