Saturday, January 31, 2009

T Dog's Groovy Grab Bag

WFLD relaunches web site; More Howie; NATPE Wrap-up.

- Fox-owned WFLD has relaunched its website (myfoxchicago.com), as part of an effort to revamp its websites in all eighteen markets where it owns stations. WFLD is the second to get a makeover; Fox's WNYW-TV in New York was the first.

WFLD's new website looks more clean and organized than the previous one, which looked quite cluttered.

- NBC has ordered twelve more episodes of Howie Do It, a Candid Camera type program featuring pranks played on unsuspecting citizens, hosted by Howie Mandel. Ratings among adults 18-49 were up 67 percent from its year-ago time period (7 p.m. CT Fridays.)

The program airs on NBC in the U.S. and on Global in Canada, whose parent company (CanWest Global) co-produces the show with other production companies. The program is taped in Toronto, Howie Mandel's hometown.

- NATPE ended this week with a thud (it actually began with a thud), with attendance down 14 percent and only a handful of news items coming out of the convention. Harry Jessell from TV Newsday (registration may be required) and Marc Berman from Mediaweek have the wrap-up (and in the TV Newsday story, check out yours truly's comment below...)

While Marie Osmond, How I Met Your Mother, and a few weeklies made some headlines, there weren't any regarding proposed strips Judge Jeanne Pirro and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Updated 7:08 p.m. 0n 2009-01-31 (corrected liks)

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