The Excellent 10 of 2007 and more

From #10 to #1, the best TV shows of 2007...

10) Chuck (NBC) Computer geek who works at a big-box is also a spy. Great concept.

9) Mad Men (AMC). Realistic look at ad agency business in the 1960's, far more accurate than what you saw on Bewitched. On Mad Men, nobody becomes impotent from spells cast by Endora.

8) Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) - Alright, for those of you who don't think Keith Olbermann is funny and witty - you don't have a sense of humor. Or you are on the right. Same thing...

7) King of the Hill (Fox).

6) Ugly Betty (ABC) Down from #3 last year.

5) Pardon the Interruption (ESPN).

4) The Daily Show (Comedy Central) Come back Jon and hurry!

3) Family Guy (Fox). Last year's #1.

2) South Park (Comedy Central) "Guitar Queer-O"and "ImaginationLand: The Trilogy" - the best episodes on TV this year. Congrats to Matt and Trey on another wonderful season.

1) Simpsons (Fox) Great rebound this year, thanks to The Simpsons Movie and a fall season (its 19th) that's the best its been in years.


HONORABLE MENTION: The Steve Wilkos Show (syndicated - no, I'm not delirious), The Amazing Race (CBS), Power of 10 (CBS), Colbert Report (Comedy Central).

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...

- America's Next Top Model. Last year's #4, this last cycle of this show was not exactly one of the best, with obviously staged catfights, Tyra Banks belittling a contestant for quitting, and picking a winner of the competition who's worked with her before (Tyra must've studied Chicago politics before making that decision.) This program is a step away from becoming another reality show also-ran.

- Heroes. Man. And you thought the Bears were disappointing. What happened? Last year's Cristal is this year's Keystone Light, with inconsistent storylines, poor special effects, two lackluster season finales, and over-dramatic acting. I know what the fans of the show are telling me - if you don't like it, go back to watching Girlfriends (hey, yours truly isn't that desperate.) but anyone who thinks Heroes' season two is better than season one also think the Bears' Rex Grossman was a better quarterback this season than last (there I go again...)

- Ugly Betty. Last year's #3. While the show's quality has remained consistent (unlike Heroes), the ratings for the show have dropped. ABC should have moved Ugly Betty to Wednesdays at 8 (CT) for its second season. The program would play much better there than on Thursdays in the earlier time slot, where it is getting swatted by Survivor and now by that 5th Grader show.

BEST COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: The Chicago Blackhawks. After Bill Wirtz died, the team was taken over by his son Rocky. What did he do? For starters, he put home games on TV, hired John McDonough (formerly of the Cubs) as president of the club, and improved the team's marketing efforts with the focus on two rookies - Patrick Kane and Jonathan Loews. This exciting young team has made hockey in Chicago watchable again. Restore the roar, indeed.

BEST COMMERCIAL: A classy tribute to the late Dick Wilson (a.k.a "Mr. Whipple") from Procter & Gamble, who always reminded us not to squeeze the Charmin. Best tribute since the ads honoring Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and Fred ("Time to make the donuts") from Dunkin' Donuts when they died. A great nod to the past.

BEST PROMOTION: 7-Eleven converting ten of its stores nationwide (including one here on the city's Southwest Side) to Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie.

BEST TEAM: No doubt about this - The New England Patriots with their undefeated season.

BEST MOVE BY A CHICAGO RADIO STATION: WLIT canning Delilah's loser of a syndicated show. Yeehaw! (and getting rid of Whoopi Goldberg's show in the process.)

BEST MEDIA OUTLETS: WGN on the radio side and WLS on the TV side. This has been for how long now?

And that's a wrap for The T Dog Media Blog in 2007. Thanks for stopping by and see you next year!

Say goodbye to Nick GAS, Court TV

The new year brings changes to cable lineups as Court TV becomes TruTV on Tuesday and Nick GAS (which ran out of gas long ago - couldn't no longer afford to fill up the tank, perhaps?) becomes teen-oriented channel The N, split off from pre-school/tot channel Noggin. Effective today, both become 24/7 services.

Both Nick GAS and Court TV join The Tube as digital and/or cable channels going into the graveyard this year.

UPDATE: Because of a technical snafu in switching over to The N, Dish Network customers will continue to get Nick GAS until January 31. The N continues to share the space with Noggin.

updated at 19:13 on 2008-01-03

The Toilet Bowl of 2007

There were a lot of forgettable moments in media in 2007, and we have them right here... First, let's start off with the year's worst TV, from #10 to #1:

10) The O'Reilly Factor (Fox News): This show still sucks.

9) Around the Horn (ESPN) Ditto.

8) Chicago Sports (various channels) What a great year for Chicago Sports! The Cubs imploded in the playoffs, the White Sox didn't even make them, the Bears - fresh off playing in the Super Bowl - stunk up the joint with the play of alleged "quarterback" Rex Grossman, the Bulls' poor play this fall (with the coach getting the ax), and The Beaver - Jay Mariotti. Who needs Cavemen when when you have bad TV like this in Chicago on a regular basis?

7) Bionic Woman (NBC) Bad remake of a bad TV show that was canceled by two TV networks in the 1970's.

6) Online Nation (CW) How many viewers watched this show, you ask? 50? 100? 200? 4? Whatever the number, it was enough to shelve this piece of junk after four weeks.

5) Pirate Master (CBS) A Survivor rip-off that lasted walked the plank after five weeks. Aarrgh, matey!

4) Kid Nation (CBS) See above, except that this show hasn't been canceled yet.

3) Anchorwoman (Fox) One episode was more than enough for this "experiment", which wasn't entertaining given the hell we were put through this past summer with the Amy Jacobson/Craig Stebic fiasco.

2) Cavemen (ABC) In 1964, CBS gave us Linus the Lionhearted, a Saturday Morning cartoon based on a line of Post cereals (including Sugar Bear.) In 2007, ABC gives us a TV show based on an insurance ad. Man, how times haven't changed. The only difference between Linus and Cavemen was Linus actually had talent behind the characters - something Cavemen apparently lacks (and to you smart-asses who said I haven't watched a single episode of Cavemen - I did. So there.)

1) Viva Laughlin (CBS) Two episodes, done in four days. The only surprise here is this show was even worse than Cavemen.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: The Bachelor (ABC), 1st and 10 (ESPN), I Love New York (VH1), John from Cincinnati (HBO), Journeyman (NBC), National Bingo Night (ABC), The Singing Bee (NBC), Temptation (syndicated), WWE Raw (USA).

WORST PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR: Sanjaya from American Idol, who thankfully faded from the spotlight. Now, if only Randy, Paula, and Simon (and this stupid show) can do the same...

WORST COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: Britney Spears. Her performance at the MTV Video Awards was as about as bad as the show itself, and her new album flopped - with two singles from her CD failing to break the top 10 on Mediabase's Pop Chart. Don't worry Britney fans (if any), she still lives on every night in ET/Extra/Access:Hollywood/Insider/TMZ/E! land.

WORST TEAM: The Miami Dolphins. Well, duh?

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: The Aqua Teen Movie promotion in Boston that went awry. Didn't exactly drive people to theaters to see the flick. Hey Aqua Teen guys - stick to the small screen.

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR (Chicago Edition): Hiring 83 year-old Bob Barker to promote Q101's The Morning Fix, with billboards across the area featuring him telling listeners to "get fixed". After six months, it was The Morning Fix that got neutered.

WORST MOVE BY A CABLE NETWORK: From a Toon fanboy perspective: Cartoon Network airing 5 hours of Scooby-Doo a day. And you thought Deal or No Deal was overexposed... Well, at least none of those episodes had Scrappy-Doo in them.

WORST MOVE BY A RADIO STATION: WGCI-FM firing Crazy Howard McGee for the comic stylings of Steve Harvey.

WORST COMMERCIALS: Those unfunny "Epic Movie"/"The Comebacks"/"Meet the Spartans" spots. And you thought the current crop of sitcoms on TV were bad. These movies makes Cavemen look like The Dick Van Dyke Show. Almost. Followed closely by those inane "What would Chicagoans do without their Comcast "spots with the Bears' Brian Urlacher (be a lot happier.)

WORST PLOTS OF THE YEAR: Take your pick: Vince McMahon's "death" on WWE Raw or Mederith Grey's "death" on Grey's Anatomy? Whatever the case, those stunts made those programs even more popular. Somebody, please explain this to me...

WORST REALITY FIASCO: The Pussycat Dolls' reality show, a program featuring the sextuplet (and I use that term loosely) music group that was looking for the next "doll" - a program ignored not only by men, but also by the targeted female audience. Well, the Maxim Magazine babes found her - and she promptly quit.

THE DEVA VU AWARD: To WLS-AM overnighter Nate Clay, who jokingly promised listeners one thousand dollars for anyone who could identify the person who wrote the classic song "Stand By Me" (which was turned into a techno-pop hit this year under the guise of "Beautiful Girls" for Sean Kingston.) Clay was suspended for the incident. In 1988, WLS-AM overnighter Mike McDonald jokingly promised "the keys to a brand-new shiny Porsche" to a listener who could correctly answer a question. He was fired.

THE "JUMP THE SHARK" AWARD: ESPN's widely panned Who's Now segments on SportsCenter. And even worse, PTI's Michael Wilbon actually defended them. Man, oh man Wilbon, you've been hanging around Jim Belushi too much.

THE LAST WORD: This list isn't complete with the writer's strike. With those guys on the picket line and more "reality" programming expected, rest assured there will be plenty of worst programs on this list for 2008 starting with Celebrity Apprentice.

(Editor's Note: I accidentally omitted one show in the dishonorable mention category - ABC's "National Bingo Night" and corrected the spelling of "Journeyman" - T.H. Updated 2008-01-02 at 2:23 p.m.)

Letterman returns on Wedensday - with writers

The first deal the Writer's Guild made since the strike began is for Late Show with David Letterman. The new interim deal covers not only Letterman's show, but Craig Ferguson's as well, since Letterman owns his show and Ferguson's (a main stipulation in the CBS deal when he came to the Tiffany Network in 1993.)

New shows began January 2, as will a lot of other late-night talk show hosts, but without writers.

A thought...

Recently, several individuals who have made contributions to their respective fields - from Donda West to Jimmy Stagg from Roger King to Mark Sullivan to Terry Armour - have passed on. They made them in their own, unique ways.

One person was a very gifted and talented DJ in the 1960's. Another wrote a column for a major newspaper and had the heart and personality to warm the room. Another was a person who turned the syndication business on its head and made it and his company a multi-million dollar venture. One was the mother of a major hip-hop star - and a person who excelled in her own right as a successful educator (at my alma mater, no less) and an author. Another was a singer and songwriter who loved radio and was an all-around good guy.

Yes, we are mourning their deaths. But let's celebrate their lives as well.

This is a reminder to everyone - life is what you make it. You never know when it is going to be taken away from you. Make every minute of your life count. Make contributions. Make a difference. These wonderful people did.

Former WCKG host Terry Armour dies

More sad news: Chicago Tribune columnist and former WCKG co-host Terry Armour has died unexpectedly at the too-young age of 46.

Armour was rushed to the hospital this afternoon after falling ill. He died a short time later.

Armour worked at the Tribune, covering the Bulls' championship run in the 1990's and previously co-hosted a midday talk show with Stan Lawrence on WCKG-FM until two months ago, when the station dropped its FM talk format.

This is the second time in the last 36 hours that a Chicago media personality has died. On Thursday, WILV-FM DJ Mark Sullivan passed away at the age of 40.

Sun-Times: Tribune columnist Terry Armour dies

Feder's Media Awards for 2007

Always a fun read, Rob Feder of the Sun-Times reviews the highlights (Delilah getting canned) - and lowlights (Amy Jacobson at Craig Stebic's house) - and everything else in between - in the year that was in Chicago Media.

WILV's Mark Sullivan dies

Sad news to report: WILV-FM (Love FM) nighttime DJ Mark Sullivan has passed away at the too-young age of 40 from a heart condition. An obituary has been posted on Love FM's website.

WVON program director quits - on the air

It's not every day that somebody quits on-air - it happened once in 1960 when Jack Paar shocked everyone when he quit The Tonight Show - in the middle of the broadcast - after NBC cut out a joke he made regarding the initials W.C. being confused for a water closet instead of a wayside chapel the previous night (hey, it was 1960 after all...)

Yesterday on urban news/talk WVON-AM, program director Coz Carson - filling in for the vacationing Santita Jackson - quit his position as he was signing off. He announced that he was taking a position with a New York City radio station effective January 2.

Carson left the station because of "creative differences" with Melody Spann-Cooper, who is President and CEO of WVON's owner, Midway Broadcasting. Carson was at WVON only six months.

By the way, Jack Paar returned to Tonight a month later, but left again in 1962 - and was replaced by an upcoming star named Johnny Carson.

(Editor's note: To read Coz Carson's side to this story, click on the comments section. - T.H.)

updated 12:52 a.m. on 2007-12-28

Patriots-Giants game to air on three networks

NFL Fans now will get a chance to see history in the making.

The Saturday Night game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants - which was only going to air on the barely-distributed NFL Network - will also air now on NBC and CBS - both of which will simulcast the NFL network feed.

The last time NBC and CBS simulcast a football game together was the first Super Bowl (and was also known for a fight between the NBC and CBS crews - they had to erect a fence to separate them both.)

The game will also air on WWOR in New York and WCVB-TV in Boston (with a simulcast on WCVB's sister station, WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H). Those three stations had the rights to air the game beforehand (yeah, I bet WWOR and WCVB are real happy about this...)

The 15-0 Patriots have a chance to become the first 16-0 team in NFL history and rank as one of the most dominant sports teams in history. The last time any team in professional sports went undefeated was the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went 14-0 and won Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins.

One thought: Did this move by the NFL was related to Senator John Kerry's threat to haul the league onto Capitol Hill for hearings if they didn't make the game available to the broadcast networks?

UPDATE: The game is also being carried in Canada on broadcast network CTV, and cable channels TSN and TSN HD.

"I wanted to be on the news"

That's what the driver of the van said after he crashed it into WLS-TV's studios on Sunday night during the station's newscast. He has been charged with criminal damage to property over $100,000.

Man, that phrase is so 1976. Son, have you ever heard of YouTube?

"Judge Hatchett" to end production

Sony Pictures Television's Judge Hatchett daytime strip will end original production after eight seasons, but instead will pitch "best of" theme weeks to TV stations for next fall.

Hatchett airs locally on Fox-owned WFLD-TV.

Since there are so many episodes produced of Hatchett over the years, Sony says the move makes economical sense - there are well over 1000 episodes in the can.

Sony is actually taking a page from what many syndicators did in the 1990's did with court shows. Warner Bros. ended production on the original version of People's Court (with Judge Joesph Wapner) in 1993 after amassing over 1,000 episodes over twelve seasons, and aired repeats in syndication for several years thereafter (People's Court did resume production in 1997.)

Warner also handled Love Connection (a game show) in the same manner, as did Genesis Entertainment with The Judge and Blair Entertainment with the Judge William Keene version of Divorce Court.

Sony will have a new courtroom this fall with Judge Karen, which has been cleared locally over WCIU-TV.

Minivan crashes into WLS-TV's studios - during a newscast!

A van crashes into WLS-TV's studios - three minutes into the station's 10 p.m. newscast. Notice what the ticker says on the photo to the left. Ironic, isn't it?

Tonight's top story... Is right here at the station! A minivan crashed right into our studio... right when we are on the air!

A minivan crashed into the studios of ABC-owned WLS-TV last night just three minutes into the station's 10 p.m. newscast. Anchor Ravi Baichwal was in the process of handing it off to a reporter for a live shot when the minivan crashed right into WLS' storefront studios on 190 North State Street in Downtown Chicago.

According to the station, it appears that the driver drove into the station's studios on purpose. Chicago Police arrested a 25-year old individual from north suburban Evanston in the incident, and charged him with reckless driving and driving without insurance. No one was injured. Witness standing outside the building said the driver was making a series of U-Turns on State Street before he crashed into the building.

Here is video of WLS' coverage and anchor Ravi Baichwal's reaction to the crash, courtesy of YouTube:




This bring back memories of another weird incident that took place at WLS on a Saturday night in 1990. Chased by Chicago Police, a robber fled into WLS' building and held himself captive there, causing an evacuation and knocking the station off the air for several hours. The robber arrived minutes before the station's newscast was set to begin.

(Note: This post is a combination of two posts on this subject that appeared earlier.)

Bulls fire head coach

Like the Blackhawks did in 1976 to their coach, and what happened to former Bulls coach Tim Floyd in 2001 (he resigned), Bulls coach Scott Skiles gets canned on Christmas Eve in 2007, fast becoming a Christmas tradition in Chicago.

The Bulls, which are quickly becoming the NBC of the NBA, are 9-16, and were blown out in back-to-back games over the weekend.

Interesting to note that both NBC and the NBA were partners in the '90's and since have gone their separate ways, both share the same characteristics - nobody wants to watch them, particularly in the nation's two biggest markets - New York and Chicago, where the teams suck - and they have total boobheads running the joints into the ground.

The 2007 NBA Finals were the lowest rated of all-time and NBC posted record low numbers in the recent November sweeps.

Maybe Scott Skiles should become NBC's next programming chief - after all, he has the credentials - he already knows how to screw up a losing team.

As for the person who is there now - Ben Silverman - I got a new job for him - The Bulls' ballboy.

Fox sells eight TV stations to Oak Hill

News Corp. had made good on its promise to sell eight of its Fox TV stations, and it did to the newly-formed Local TV group headed by private equity firm Oak Hill Partners for $1.1 billion. The proceeds from the sale gives News Corp. the cash it needs to purchase the Wall Street Journal.

In a separate development, Tribune and Oak Hill have agreed to create a third-party management company that will share administrative duties. Randy Michaels, who was CEO of Local TV, was named Thursday as CEO of Tribune Broadcasting and Tribune Interactive.

The eight stations being sold are: WJW-TV in Cleveland, KDVR-TV in Denver, KTVI in St. Louis, WDAF-TV in Kansas City, WITI-TV in Milwaukee, KSTU in Salt Lake City, WBRC-TV in Birmingham, and WGHP-TV in Greensboro-High Point, N.C.

Six of these stations - WJW, KTVI, WDAF, WITI, WBRC, and WGHP - were former affiliates of the Big Three networks that were involved in the New World-Fox affiliation switch in 1994 and 1995. New World Communications sold all but two of its stations to Fox in 1997.

Local TV launched earlier this year when it made a deal to acquire eight former New York Times Co. stations, including WREG-TV (CBS) in Memphis, KFOR-TV (NBC) in Oklahoma City, WNEP-TV (ABC) in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa., and WQAD-TV (ABC) in Moline, IL.

The transaction leaves Fox with 26 stations (for now - the fate of WHBQ in Memphis is still undetermined), including WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV in Chicago.

updated 10:44 p.m. on 2007-12-22

USA dumps "Dead Zone", "4400"

The Dead Zone lives up to its name: it really is dead. USA dropped it and 4400, after four and three-year runs, respectively.

Debmar-Mercury currently distributes The Dead Zone in broadcast syndication.

You Be 'Iiiin'

Urban Contemporary WGCI-FM is launching a new show featuring local hip-hop and R&B artists called Go Ill.

The program premieres this Saturday night at 9 p.m. and run in that time slot every week. It will also feature interviews with the artists behind the music. WGCI has often been criticized for not featuring enough local artists on its station (other than R. Kelly and Jennifer Hudson.)

The program derives its title from the last two letters of Chicago and the first three letters of Illinois. While some people may have a problem with its name, Go Ill is a far better name than say, oh, Cavemen and Anchorwoman.

Stewart, Colbert to return on the air January 7

Good news for fans of the Comedy Central duo. The bad news is, like everybody else, they're returning without their writers. 

It's official: Zell takes over the Tribune

The Sam Zell era officially began this afternoon with the closure of the $8.2 billion deal to take the Tribune Co. private. 

Meet the new board members

Randy Michaels returns to Chicago

Robert Feder in the Sun-Times today has a rather detailed look at the career of Randy Michaels, the guy who saved WFLZ-FM in Tampa by creating "The Power Pig" - and his most infamous radio stunt right here in Chicago - Using "hell" as a marketing slogan in 1991 that practically destroyed former contemporary-hit radio station WYTZ-FM (Z95).

Michaels is being tapped by Sam Zell to run Tribune's broadcast operations of the Tribune Co., in which Zell is taking over today. Zell hired Michaels when he owned Jacor to run its radio division. Michaels became a top executive at Clear Channel Communications when Jacor sold its stations to the media conglomerate.

Brian Holmes (formerly of WFLZ) had a great website (which is now defunct) detailing how Michaels, as a radio consultant from Cincinnati, turned around WFLZ from a middling oldies outlet in 1989 to a CHR powerhouse - one that continues to this day. Among the stunts Michaels would conceive:

- To launch the format, WFLZ "held" one of WRBQ-FM's (Q105) deejays "hostage" - Cleveland Wheeler. Though still an oldies outlet, they were threating to flip to the Top 40 format Q105 had a monopoly on, unless the station paid WFLZ $1 million. It finally flipped to the format on September 25, 1989, re-branding the station as Power 93: The Power Pig and taking WRBQ-FM (Q105) on head-to-head.

- WFLZ began selling "Screw the Q" T-shirts around town from the Pig Van.

- The stunts created buzz in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area and also attracted national attention .

In 1993, WRBQ-FM left the contemporary-hit format forever and flipped to Country (the station is still known as Q105 and is now an oldies outlet.)

WFLZ also was home to two discjockeys with Chicago ties - The Tim and Tom Show, which featured future WLUP-FM executive Tim Dukes, and their replacement on the evening shift -former WBBM-FM personality Bubba The Love Sponge (Todd Clem, who now has a show on Howard Stern's 101 channel on Sirius Satellite Radio.)

The sad part about Michael's Chicago experience was that the "hell" stunt he created for WYTZ to compete with arch rival WBBM was clearly ill-conceived. Here's a marketing lesson for you kids out there - never use anything related to Satan as a marketing tool.