Tuesday, February 23, 2010

T Dog's Grab Bag - Jerry Agar, "Undercover Boss", KNBC and more

It's been a little while since yours truly has done a Grab Bag of news and notes - so here's what's going on in the world of media today:

- Was yours truly wrong on Undercover Boss? People are still tuning in, and Ben Grossman of B&C offers up a great defense of the show and reality TV in general (but he is way off the mark when he says Undercover Boss is funnier than The Big Bang Theory.)

- Jerry Agar is returning to his home north of the border: The former WLS-AM and current WGN-AM weekend radio talker has signed on with CFRB-AM in Toronto to host a daily talker in Canada's largest market. The native Canadian will continue doing weekend work for WGN, but Bill Leff is not - he has exited WGN's ChicagoNowRadio Saturday morning show.

- And like a lot of Canadians, they were sobbing on Sunday night after the men's U.S. hockey team beat Canada 5-3. But Canada did win in one category: TV ratings. While the game drew 8.2 million viewers on MSNBC in the States, on CTV, it drew a whopping 10.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched sporting event in Canada's history.

- No more tears and no Johnson & Johnson either: Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Johnson Publishing fail to reach an agreement on a sale of the company to the former basketball star.

- Litton's new Judge Karen's Court and Twentieth's Dont Forget The Lyrics have released updated clearance information for their debuts this fall. While Litton declined to identify stations who bought the show, they did release info on what groups are involved (it's likely Karen will end up on WCIU, since it was the home of her last syndicated effort.) Meanwhile, Twentieth did release an updated station list for Lyrics, which now lists 155 stations at 65 percent clearance. Among new stations joining the lineup include WFXT Boston, WJBK Detroit, KTVI in St. Louis, and WMLW in Milwaukee. In Chicago, Lyrics will air on WPWR-TV.

- As part of its station group's upcoming daytime overhaul, NBC-owned KNBC-TV in Los Angeles has canceled its low-rated midday newscast titled Midday Report, anchored by Kim Baldonado. The show was originally supposed to be bumped for the Olympics and return March 1, but KNBC officials decided to air day-old repeats of Access: Hollywood instead.

This fall, KNBC will air The Nate Berkus Show from Sony and The Real Housewives Of... repeats.

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