Bears-Cowboys game beats live production of Peter Pan both locally and nationally The Bears haven’t done much this season on the field, but at least they beat an opponent. Unfortunately, it wasn’t on the field. In the battle of train-wreck programming, the Chicago Bears game against the Dallas Cowboys on the NFL Network (and WBBM-Ch. 2 locally) won out over […]
Welcome to NATPE 2014! The 51st annual gathering got underway in Miami Monday, as syndicators, programmers, producers, and content creators converged in Miami for the three-day conference. Here’s what went down on Monday: – During NATPE’s opening keynote speech, Twitter managing brand of global brand strategy Jean-Phillippe Maheu said his social media platform would influence this spring’s TV upfronts, as […]
Simpsons to run on My50; Modern Family penciled in for 6:30 p.m. and 10 Arsenio, Bethenny score on the first day; The Test flunks The 2013-14 syndication season started Monday, as viewers welcomed back Arsenio Hall and sampled Bethenny Frankel’s new show, but snubbed Kirk Fox’s paternity test show. In addition, the final pieces of Chicago’s local fall schedules finally […]
The Fox presentation during TCA was quite feisty as Entertainment President Kevin Reilly touched on a number of subjects from the death of Glee’s Corey Montieth to audience measurement: – Reilly – like other network chiefs – was frustrated about how little respect broadcast network shows get compared to their cable counterparts. He pointed out The Mindy Project was the […]
Last week was a heinous one for the news media as the Boston Marathon Bombing took place – not to mention an explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, which killed fifteen people and injured hundreds. Chicagoans had their own problems to deal with, as heavy rains brought flooding to the area, adding to the workload for already stressed-out […]
The Tribune Co. Unofficially puts its papers on the block; Oscar viewership is up over a year ago; and more Mancow is headed to your TV: – It looks like the Chicago Tribune is up for sale. As first reported by CNBC on Monday, the 166-year old paper and others in the chain are on the block by creditors who […]
It’s finally here! On Thursday, the 43rd annual Comic-Con kicked off Thursday in San Diego. Once held in a basement of a downtown hotel, Comic-Con expanded over the decades and now takes place at the city’s convention center. Certainly, Comic-Con is a far better and more enjoyable experience to cover than some overrated, overblown, overhyped, and over-covered event that took […]
For the first time in a long time, its been an active time here on the blog with a lot of breaking local radio news and the demise of Q101- and its only going to get busier with Comic-Con and the Television Critics Association Press Tour coming up and Fresh 105.9’s musty smell finally going away. Summer vacation? There’s no […]
THIS was the announcement fans of Steve Dahl have been waiting for weeks? Speculation on “the big news” to be announced Monday at 12 Noon ranged from Dahl heading to Merlin Media to host a talk show at WKQX, a return to WLUP, or even a gig at WGN Radio. And when noon hit, this was “the big announcement”: if […]
For the first time ever, the three items in the Winner’s circle this week are all radio items – how about that? (of course its summer, and there’s very little TV news to report on. But still….)Winning Attitude. John Williams. WGN Radio’s John Williams raised more than $25,000 during his Thursday show for the Animal Welfare League to replace air […]
The balcony has officially re-opened – and it’s getting a little bit crowded as PBS’ new Ebert Presents At The Movies is adding another movie critic to its roster. This time it’s Daily Herald movie critic Dann Gire who is joining the Chicago-based movie review show (the Daily Herald is an Arlington Heights-based newspaper which serves the northwest ‘burbs.) Gire […]
With Mayor Richard M. Daley’s decision not to run for a seventh term, it could mean good news for local television and radio outlets in the terms of revenue in the form of increased political advertising. While the rest of us will being running to our nearest electronics store to buy Tivos, the announcement would mean a huge influx of […]
The CW was next up as part of CBS Corporation’s two days at the Television Critics Association Press Tour on Thursday (CW is part-owned by CBS.) CW chief Dawn Ostroff spoke at an executive session with the critics on Thursday. Among what was discussed: – Overnight ratings weren’t relative anymore. Maybe not, since their ratings aren’t that good to begin […]
The semi-annual Television Critics Association Press Tour got underway this week at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in this upscale section of Los Angeles. Many critics complained about the air conditioning in the ballroom and lackluster wi-fi connection, which rivals the poor signal one usually gets at the Harold Washington Library in the Loop. The only difference is the security […]
CBS to launch The Talk to replace As The World Turns Despite anemic ratings, poor reviews, and Twitters unanimously dissing it, Tribune Broadcasting is apparently going ahead with Bill Cunningham’s new talk show, which is now targeted for a Fall 2011 launch. During the four-day test, the program averaged an 1.1 Nielsen household rating in seven markets, including Chicago. While […]
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