Monday, April 06, 2009

T Dog's Four Pack : The Final Four Edition

What's worked the last two weeks - and what didn't - in the world of media with a basketball theme:

Four slam dunks

- March Madness. Ratings for the annual NCAA tourney have been pretty good, outperforming the rest of the competition on the boards with year-to-year increases. And tonight's title game should do well with Michigan St. and North Carolina in the title game.

- Garry Meier signs with WGN-AM. The free agent (which he is often) signs with the legendary station to fill its afternoon slot. Good move.

- Battlestar Galactica. The retirement of one of the all-time sci-fi greats pulled in 2.5 million viewers in it's final game. The word "frak" will be retired up in the rafters at Sci Fi Channel Arena (or is it SyFy? See the "four airballs" section below.)

- The Heineken Scream. Ahhhh!!! Heineken scores a three at the buzzer with this ad, featuring how guys would react if we had a closet full of something (and shoes are so overrated... Except for Jordans and Air Force Ones.) Click here to see the video.

Four airballs.

- Osbournes: Reloaded. Much like a Clippers-Warriors game, it was pretty much lame as advertised, with no buzz (the press practically ignored it) and low ratings. You know your outrageous, envelope-pushing program is a bomb when even the Parents Television Council doesn't care about it.

- WHDH dumps Jay Leno new prime-time show. Boston station thinks it could grab more revenue by airing the same crime, corruption, accidents, and fires other stations are airing at 10pm (and on newscasts throughout the day, in fact.) NBC threatens to yank affiliation and risk ratings by moving it to a little-watched outlet. Who's right here? NBC or WHDH? It's like being a Duke fan and trying to figure out who to root for in a North Carolina-Maryland game.

- SyFy. A missed dunk of a name, changing the cable channel from SciFi to "SyFy", which is B.S. - Beyond Stupid. Evidence New York Knicks management is running this operation.

- Fight Night at the UC. A 4-0 victory by the Vancouver Canucks over the Chicago Blackhawks on March 29 turned into "The Jerry Springer Show" in the third period at the United Center, with fighting, name calling, and even hair-pulling. The only thing missing were the hookers, transvestites, and Springer himself.

And not to mention Ron Artest.

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