The T Dog Media Blog

at 1:41 PM

It's been two weeks, so a T Dog Media Blog Four Pack is long overdue... with a little bit of a Flintstones twist...

Hanging out with Fred and Barney. Yabba Dabba Doo!

-V103. The most (and only) surprising item in the recently concluded Arbitron PPM November survey is the strong performance of Urban AC WVAZ-FM, who ranked second in 12+ and ranked at or near the top in every major demo, including a strong performance from Steve Harvey's morning show (who made not one, but TWO trips to Chicago recently, including an appearance a Kmart in the West Lawn neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest Side.) WVAZ even re-hired former midday personality Troi Tyler for Sunday nights and other fill-in work. V103 is making all the right moves - and yes, it's still owned by Clear Channel.

TNT cancels Raising The Bar. I've never seen a drama that couldn't live up to its title.

Turner Sports fires Chip Caray. More good news from Turner: The cable network also severed ties with former Cubs broadcaster Chip Caray. Why? This is all you need to know..."Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time. A double play!"

Fox. A first-ever November sweeps victory in adults 18-49 - with an assist from the 2009 World Series Champion New York Yankees - three World Series games aired during the sweeps.

Hanging out with Joe Rockhead

- The Loop.What's the opposite of the success of V103? Try The Loop, or Emmis-owned WLUP-FM (97.9). They fired morning personality Jonathan Brandmeier this past week after four years at the station (in addition to the first fifteen he spent there) and decided to focus more on playing music in morning drive. Like wow, this means they can play Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, and Def Lepperd ten more times per day. Yabba Dabba Don't.

- Monsters and Money In The Morning. So the management at The Church of Tisch think Mike North and Dan Jiggetts can replicate its "success" at Comcast SportsNet. This will be about a successful as the other"experiment" going on at NBC regarding Jay Leno in primetime - both will be gone by September. Hell, WBBM-TV would've been better off hiring Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble to front their morning show.

- Fall Finales. So fans of Glee, V, and FlashForward (um... are there even any FlashForward fans left?) have to wait three to four months to see new episodes? Do we have a second summer season now? And you wonder why network prime-time television is dying.

- Donny Osmond "wins" Dancing With The Stars. Let's see. Donny Osmond wins over a much more deserving Mya. Dancing usually does its best ratings in Chicago. We're know internationally for letting people "vote early and often", and even the dead can vote (which may account for a large amount of Osmond's fan base.) Coincidence? The "Chicago Way" strikes again, where the best candidate doesn't win, but the worst. To yours truly, Mya will always be the winner of the ninth season of Dancing With The Stars (and course, looking so fine doesn't hurt either...)

at 1:38 AM

Big Media only gets bigger

With Comcast's $13.75 billion dollar deal for NBC Universal practically complete, it looks like big media is only going to get bigger - whether we like it or not.

The deal climaxes weeks of speculation, as NBC owner General Electric recently bought out Vivendi's 20 percent share in NBC Universal, paving the way for Comcast Corp. to acquire 51 percent of the struggling broadcast network and its vast array of media properties ranging from local stations in 10 markets (including WMAQ-TV in Chicago) to cable channels to Universal Studios. GE would keep a 49 percent stake in the studio.

Also included in the deal is NBC Universal's TV library, which includes current shows like Heroes, Deal or No Deal, The Office, and The Jerry Springer Show and classic television properties Magnum P.I., The A-Team, Quincy, Coach, Gimme A Break!, and Leave it to Beaver.

Universal itself has gone under numerous ownership changes before NBC and GE bought the film studio in 2004: it was once owned by Matsushita Electric Co. and Seagram.

The theory here is Comcast wants to jump on the Hollywood content bandwagon, though the Philadelphia-based cable operator already owns a handful of cable nets including E!, Style, Versus, and G4. With NBC Universal's purchase, Comcast would also own Bravo, Oxygen, USA, and MSNBC, among others.

Comcast would also own the broadcaster network itself, the ten NBC owned-and-operated stations, NBC Plus, and Universal Sports.

The deal will no doubt raise regulatory flags as the FCC would have to approve the deal, since it involves the transfer of station licenses of the ten O&Os - meaning the process could take up to a year. While some say the Obama administration could frown on the deal, Comcast-NBC would likely pass regulatory muster, despite the FCC having a 3-2 Democratic majority (and if the FCC won't approve it, there's a outside chance Congress could.)

Another concern is Comcast's stance against net neutrality, and NBC's participation in online video service Hulu, which competes with Comcast's on-demand pay service. These concerns has raised the ire of many public interest and consumer groups, in which they fear Comcast - which is the nation's largest cable and ISP provider - would control too much content, especially online. While some Democrats will be sympathetic to the group's concerns, it is not likely to be enough to stop the merger.

NBC Universal Chairman Jeff Zucker would remain with the newly merged company, despite the problems he's had with the broadcast side of the network. Though NBC has faltered under his watch the last few years (especially with the move of Jay Leno to prime-time five nights a week), he's put together a string of successful cablers.

NBC came known to prominence as a pioneering radio broadcaster owned by the one-time largest radio manufacturer, RCA. NBC developed two radio networks - red and blue, with the latter one being divested and became the American Broadcasting Company. RCA later developed an all-electronic television system and developed the first-ever test pattern. Of course, it needed programming to fill the new technology, so it formed the NBC Television Network.

RCA then developed color TV and NBC soon began airing the majority of its programming in color. The peacock network was so successful with the new technology, it was able to lure Walt Disney and his weekly TV series away from ABC in 1961 so be can produce the shows in color (in fact, the title was "Disney's Wonderful World of Color" until 1969. Disney shows would be on NBC until 1981.)

General Electric bought RCA and NBC in 1986, and wound up with more people who had expertise in light bulbs, microwave ovens, and defense contracts than running a TV network. GE was often the target of jokes by one-time employee David Letterman.

With this deal ready to be offically announced Thursday, some are lamenting the huge changes in the industry. Who would have ever thought a cable company would wind up owning a major broadcast network? Cable - the entity at one time people used to only get a clear picture into their homes and when it was able to add channels, they mostly consisted of old movies and bullfights. Many feel with this change, the prestige of free, over-the-air television no longer exists. It would now play a second fiddle to cable. Oh my, how times have changed.

Updated at 7:37 p.m.

at 11:17 PM

In a surprise move, CBS-owned WBBM-TV announced it is dropping its current morning show and has hired Mike North, Dan Jiggetts, and financial analyst Terry Savage to host Monsters and Money In The Morning, beginning on February 1.The program is scheduled to run from 5 to 7 a.m., leading-in to the network's Early Show.

The program once again reunites North and Jiggetts, who recently fronted Monsters In the Morning on Comcast SportsNet, which is ending its run at the end of this month. As you recall, Monsters was produced by North's production company and tied in with ChicagoSportsWebio.com, an Internet sports radio station. But it all became unglued in June when the financier in the web venture (David Hernandez) was arrested for operating a ponzi scheme.

The new show will feature North and Jiggetts discuss sports headlines, with Sun-Times columnist Terry Savage and CNBC host Mike Hegedus discussing financial matters. Susan Carson will handle news headlines and traffic, and Mary Kay Kleist handles the weather.

WBBM-AM (a CBS-owned sister station) is also expected to contribute to the new morning program.

General Manager Bruno Cohen stated the station wanted to target an underserved audience - those who are sports fans and those who want to keep up with their money and finances.

Currently, the station ranks last among households and in key demos in the 5 to 7 a.m. time slot.

Thought: Remember 12 months ago where yours truly said NBC moving Jay Leno to primetime as a weeknight strip was a good idea and predicted the move would work and provide an alternative to scripted dramas at 9pm?

Yeah, look how that turned out. Oh lordy, I'm not making that mistake again....

While Monsters and Money In The Morning seems to look good on paper, it's not likely to work, given North and Jiggetts did not draw an audience on Comcast SportsNet, and it's not likely they will draw one on WBBM-TV either.

But yours truly is interested in seeing how this project is executed, and it may not be as bad as people think. Then again, I said the same thing about Leno's show...

If Monsters and Money In The Morning fails (and it will), you think Channel 2 can hire Leno to front the morning show? We all know he'll be unemployed soon...

at 11:51 PM

Leno hampering NBC affiliates' late news; other November "sweeps" notes

ABC-owned WLS-TV dominated the ratings in households and key demos in the just concluded November "sweeps" period (do we still have those in this LPM era?) but it was the two other network O&Os who made headlines.

NBC-owned WMAQ-TV slipped to third place in households at 10 p.m., behind a surging WBBM-TV, which finished second at 10 p.m.

Under anchor Rob Johnson and an improved news product, the CBS-owned station was up 40 percent from November 2008's numbers. Fueling the rise was the one-night only reunion of former anchors Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson, who drew a 7.3 HH (household) rating on November 13.

Thanks to The Jay Leno Show as its lead-in, WMAQ's 10 p.m. newscast was down from year-ago time period averages.

In the 9 p.m. news race, WGN-TV beat Fox's WFLD, but both finished the month with less-than-impressive numbers. Both stations were down from last year- WGN down 27 percent; WFLD down 8 percent. Booth stations appear to be hurt by the high number of DVR usage in the time period, which is also affecting Leno's show.

Overall, this was a pretty weak survey for late news in Chicago, with everyone except WBBM down from last year.

Meanwhile, "The Leno effect" is hurting NBC stations coast-to-coast: A brief synopsis of Novemeber late-fringe news races from across the country:

Philadelphia: Similar to Chicago: ABC's WPVI sweeps the competition. Again. But CBS-owned KYW-TV shows gains while NBC's WCAU-TV takes it on the chin.

Thought: On a side note, the linked article in this story is the worst I've ever read regarding ratings. We don't need a history lesson regarding WPVI and KYW (who the writer is overly biased toward), and not once the writer mentioned Jay Leno as one of the main reasons WCAU is faltering in late news. This "journalist" even makes Lewis Lazare look good. Oh, Ellen Gray and Gail Schister, where are you?

Dallas-Fort Worth: CBS-owned KTVT wins at 10 p.m., besting Belo's ABC affiliate WFAA in HH - but not in 25-54s, where WFAA rules. NBC-owned KXAS finishes a distant third at 10 p.m. in households, but finished second at 5 and 6 p.m.

Fox-owned KDFW finished second in the 25-54 demo in most other time periods, and finished first at 5 p.m. At 9 p.m., it beat Tribune's KDAF-TV head-to-head in households and 25-54 and both outdrew the 7-to-9 p.m. newscasts on indie KTXA in both categories.

Click here and here for more info.

Thought: WFAA is the weakest of ABC affiliates and O&Os in the nation's ten largest markets and this book proves it. (Dallas-Fort Worth is #5.)

Boston: Hearst's WCVB (ABC) wins at 11 p.m., with CBS-owned WBZ taking second. WHDH (thanks to Leno) finishes third in HH and 25-54's. Fox's WFXT wins at 10 among 25-54s.

Pittsburgh: No sweeping changes, with CBS-owned KDKA finishing first in the Steel City in all news time slots (except at 5 and 6 a.m.) in HH and 25-54's. Hearst's WTAE (ABC) generally finished second in households and demos.

But the station that really took it on the chin was Cox's NBC affiliate, WPXI. Not only the station was off a full rating point in the 25-54 demo at 11 p.m. (thank you Leno), but in the same demo, its 6 p.m. newscast was tied with reruns of Two And A Half Men on Fox affiliate WPGH for third place, while My Name Is Earl reruns on the same channel beat NBC Nightly News at 6:30 p.m. Wait a minute... you mean Everybody Loves to Friend Around With Earl is beating Brian Williams? What is going on?

Orlando: Similar results to Chicago: Cox's ABC affiliate (WFTV) dominates news among 25-54 ahead of WESH (NBC) and WKMG (CBS) - but its WKMG gaining viewers at 11 p.m., finishing second.WESH. In a major upset, indie WRDQ-TV's newscasts (WFTV's sister station) beat Fox-owned WOFL in 25-54s at 10 p.m.weeknights.

The following metered markets' ratings are measured by household only.

Milwaukee: Leno claims another victim: Journal Communications' WTMJ slipped into second-place at 10 p.m., behind Hearst's WISN-TV (ABC), which finished first. CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting) came in third at 10, up from last year, with Fox affiliate WITI bringing up the rear.

Providence: In a stunning upset, CBS affiliate WPRI beat NBC affiliate WJAR in 11 p.m. news in households for the first time in 16 years. WJAR is usually the most dominant station in the Providence-New Bedford market, and has been for the last 50 years. And once again, you can thank Jay Leno for WJAR's loss.

WPRI was up 20 percent at 11, WJAR plunged 35 percent in the same time period. WJAR still won most other locally programmed time periods, including news.

Longtime laggard WLNE-TV (ABC) finished third at 11 p.m. and most other locally programmed time periods, but ratings at 11 were up 27 percent from last year.

Buffalo: And here, Leno's effect was felt here too: NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV slipped to third place in households at 11 p.m., with ABC affiliate WKBW-TV taking second at 11 for the first time in eight years (WGRZ did win at 6 a.m. with its morning newscast.)

CBS affiliate WIVB-TV swept the market's news races (except at 6 a.m.), placing first.

at 11:12 PM

For the second time in as many years, Jonathan Brandmeier is no longer calling The Loop home.

The eclectic morning radio personality and his show was canceled by Emmis-owned WLUP-FM on Monday after four years, with Friday being the last show (Pete McMurray filled in today.) Brandmeier recently signed a one-year contract extension with the Classic Rock outlet, with Emmis management betting economic conditions would improve - but they did not. Now, Brandmeier is out with three months left on its contract.

Also out are most of Brandmeier's staff.

This was Brandmeier's second tour of duty with the station; he was morning personality at WLUP from 1982 to 1994, then moved to a less successful stint in afternoons, where his show was voice-tracked from Los Angeles. In 1997, he jumped to Infinity's WCKG-FM (now CBS-owned WCFS-FM), where he did shows for that station and sister KLSX-FM in L.A. until 2001.

After a four-year absence, Brandmeier returned to Chicago and the morning shift at WLUP in 2005, but was unable to generate the same kind of success he enjoyed in the 1980's and early 1990's. In recent years, his morning show often ranked in the bottom half in the male 25-54 demo.

Some fans have criticized Brandmeier lately for "mailing it in": i.e. starting his show late, taking numerous vacation days, and replaying bits that aired earlier in the broadcast. There has also been reports of tension between Brandmeier and Emmis management - especially if management is running WLUP from St. Louis, where Emmis owns several stations.

As for the future of Brandmeier, there have been reports he has received overtures from Tribune's WGN-AM and Citadel's WLS-AM, so he is likely to remain in town.

He may also focus on some television projects - though his 2008 pilot titled Almost Live for NBC-owned WMAQ-TV was basically a one-and-done. Brandmeier of course, is best known (rather infamously) for Johnny B. On The Loose, a syndicated late-night strip from Viacom which lasted all of five weeks in the summer of 1991 (and a member of the T Dog Media Blog TV Hall of Shame.)

As for the new morning personality, Brandmeier is being replaced by "Byrd", aka John Kempf effective on Tuesday. WLUP GM Marv Nyren said the station plans to have a music-oriented show in morning drive instead of a personality-focused one, which Brandmeier was doing. Kempf was WLUP's morning host in 2004 and 2005 before Brandmeier returned to the station.

Thought: While yours truly never really listened to Brandmeier's show on The Loop (but unfortunately has seen his 1991 TV show - more than once), the man is a local morning institution - back in the '80's he drew hoards of young adults to WLUP and to FM radio in general. But his return in 2005 saw a dramatically different radio landscape - in addition to competition from other radio stations, he also had to face competition from satellite radio, mp3 players, and other alternative options.

Reading comment boards on this story on other sites, I noticed another problem - many posters said Brandmeier was doing the exact same show today as he did in the 1980's -those who grew up listening to him felt this revival was old hat. At the same time, Brandmeier failed to attract the younger audience he was able to do a generation ago.

As for The Loop - which has played rock for 33 years (except in 1994-95 when they mostly went all talk) - they are focusing more on the music. But what kind of mileage are they getting from playing Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Styx all the time? This is the problem with commercial radio - playing all too familiar songs listeners have heard over and over again. Once again, the management at Emmis - which is running its Chicago cluster from St. Louis (shouldn't it be the other way around?), doesn't have a clue what its audience - which is dissipating faster with every release of a PPM report - wants.

Given recent developments, I thought broadcast, over-the-air television had radio beat in the "medium that's dying the fastest award." Leave it to Marv Nyren and Emmis to prove yours truly wrong - at least for this week.

at 5:03 PM

If 2009 were to sum up anything in the media world, it's this word:

Disappointment.

Yes, it has been a disappointing year around here. And what better way to sum all of it up than to give out T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards for the fourth consecutive year. So grab your favorite beverage, relax, and hope 2010 is a whole lot better than this!

And the winners (losers) are:

NBC. Congratulations for making this list for the third consecutive year - thanks to the inept team of Jeff "Doogie" Zucker and Ben "Party All The Time" Silverman, who departed the network months ago. And now, the network is about to become Comcast's bitch. It doesn't get any worst than this.

Fox Chicago News. Nice way of taking advantage of your Fox network lead-ins and squandering it. And what about reporter Tera Williams asking a insensitive question to Mayor Daley during his press conference which caused him to walk out (asking the questions, indeed.) It's Uncle Rupert's Amateur Hour over there at WFLD.

Mayor Daley. And speaking of which, there hasn't been a worst mayor in the City of Chicago - besides Bilandic, that is.

The Jay Leno Show. Wow, who would have thought stripping this at 9 p.m. every weeknight was a good idea? (um...)

The Chicago Bears and Jay Cutler. Would you believe the Bears and this quarterback's play this season would be this bad? With a 4-6 record (as of Nov. 25), forget the playoffs. This Bears season and Cutler were the biggest bombs of 2009, even bigger than Leno.

Jon & Kate. Just hearing their names makes me want to stick my head in a brown paper bag.

Chicago Baseball. And speaking of brown paper bags, this was the fashion of choice to wear over your head if you were attending a Cubs or White Sox game this year.

Secret Girlfriend. A recent T Dog Media Blog Hall of Shame inductee, this inane sitcom's main character is you, the viewer, where you follow two unemployed paint thinner-sniffing idiots around all day and have whining female acquaintances bugging you all the time. If I were you, I'd find better friends than these. This is the worst sitcom of all time - even worse than My Mother, The Car and Chicken Soup and that says a lot.

I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. Another turkey returned to the air courtesy of the current turkeys in the Nielsens, NBC.

Heroes. The third straight Turkey Award because of its mere existence and continued suckage.

FlashForward. What started out as a promising sci-fi series - finding out how everyone in the world "blacked out" for two-and-a-half minutes - has involved into a mess of bad acting, characters who get duller by the week, and very hard-to-follow and slow-as-molasses plots - not to mention the series has lost one-third of its audience since its debut. Wow, it was like if I was talking about the show above this one.

Osbournes Reloaded. This Fox "special" was so bad, it was dropped or delayed by 16 affiliates and trimmed to 35 minutes. There are five remaining episodes left. Really? Another recent T Dog Media Blog Hall of Shame inductee.

Chicago's Olympic Bid. The city spent tons and tons of money on a worthless endeavor which saw Chicago get eliminated in the first round of competition and made our metropolitan area a worldwide laughingstock.

The Beautiful Life. The CW drama lasted only two episodes. Wow, I'm surprised it lasted this long!

The Parents Television Council. I'm giving them an award because I just flat out hate them. Third straight year on this list.

T Dog. Yes... your friend, T Dog, even made this list.... for thinking The Jay Leno Show in prime-time five nights a week would actually work!

Happy Thanksgiving!

at 11:52 PM

...no, Donny Osmond did. But it won't stop yours truly from posting this sexy photo from a Vibe Vixen cover she did in 2007. Giggity.

Though Donny Osmond won, Mya was clearly the best dancer (and clearly better looking.) I know Quagmire would approve!

at 7:11 AM

After 25 years on the air, The Oprah Winfrey Show - one of television's most successful daytime programs - rides into the sunset. Her final show airs on September 9, 2011 as the world gathers around their sets to say so long to one of TV's most successful shows. So in honor, The T Dog Media Blog honors and salutes Oprah Winfrey for her achievements in television and contributing a lot to the City of Chicago.

So, yours truly posted my loving tribute to the Queen of Talk on Marc Berman's PI Feedback Forum, ran by Mediaweek Magazine. Here is most of what I said (to read the tribute, click here and scroll down to the fourth post on the page):

"I remember back in 2005 when the founder of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing (John H. Johnson)- the publisher of African-American-targeted magazines Ebony and Jet, died and Oprah did not attend his funeral - which I thought was very disrespectful. The two magazines covered her a lot and this is the way she pays them back?

Not only that, IMHO, I feel Oprah has not done enough to help African-Americans like myself and other minorities to break into the television and media businesses. She has contributed very little to Chicago's African-American community - to my knowledge, she has not done any interviews with the city's four black radio stations, at least in the last decade or so. Every time I happen to stumble on to her show on TV, I hardly see a minority face in the studio audience. So it wasn't surprising when her announcement was greeted with mostly yawns in the African-American community.

In addition, she hasn't done much to contribute to the local television and radio community either. You think you had a hard time trying to get an interview with Oprah? So has Robert Feder, Maureen Ryan, Phil Rosenthal, Steve Johnson, the late Allan Johnson, and other local TV critics and reporters during her tenure here. One thing that irritated me was when she threw her big party on Michigan Ave. last September, she only did interviews with the syndicated tabloid shows, NOT the local media who have been covering her over the years. She talks all this bullshit about how much she loves Chicago and never really shows it.

I respect and appreciate all Oprah has done for the city I live in, but I wish she did a whole lot more - like acknowledge South Siders like me even existed. She's done nothing for us."

Well.... what did you expect? (After all, THIS IS The T Dog Media Blog.)

While yours truly has appreciated what Oprah Winfrey has done for Chicago's image - and is especially proud of her becoming the first African-American female to successfully helm a talk show and an empire amassing millions, I wished she spent more time in Chicago's African-American community - not to mention helping more minorities break into the media business. It's disappointing to say the least. When was the last time she appeared in the Bud Billiken parade? Or appeared on any black radio station in Chicago?

And on top of that, she has contributed little to the local media community here - whom she has fed off the backs of for years (and no, throwing a few crumbs at the Museum of Broadcast Communications doesn't count.) So it didn't surprise me in the least when she did not attend Johnson Publishing Company founder John H. Johnson's funeral, which was attended by dignitaries such as Tom Joyner, Roland Martin, Dick Gregory, Diahann Carroll, former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Richard Daley. Ms. Winfrey said she was vacationing in Hawaii, but word of his death never reached her. If she was more connected with the local media community here, she would have known sooner.

And don't let Big Media fool you to thinking Ms. Winfrey has universal support in the African-American community - she doesn't. I know many people who have told me personally that they don't like her.

So when you hear and watch these tributes to Oprah Winfrey over the next year or so, think about what I said. Oprah is leaving, but to us in Chicago's African-American community - and the local media community - it was like she was never here.

at 11:48 PM

Welcome to a special edition of T Dog's Four Pack (special because this is a bit serious in tone.) On Thursday, Oprah Winfrey announced she was leaving her syndicated daytime talk show after 25 years and ending the program on September 9, 2011. She is focusing on launching her new cable network with Discovery Communications, which goes live in January 2011.

Her move will drastically alter the television landscape in a generation. So, let's break down the winners and losers:

Winners.

-Oprah Winfrey herself. Of course. The queen of talk leaves on top of the daytime talk heap, going out on her own terms.

- Discovery Communications and Cable TV in general. With Oprah Winfrey on board, Discovery Communications' profile has risen significantly - and so has basic cable's. Landing one of the biggest names in television isn't bad for a form of television whose original claim of fame was Farieie Tale Theater and The New Leave It To Beaver - the shows airing at the time Oprah premiered.

- NATPE. With Oprah out of the picture, NATPE will be in for an attendance boost as stations and syndicators will be looking for the next talk show sensation This means a brighter outlook for the beleaguered television convention, which has slumped in recent years. In addition, Oprah has a second late-night run in many markets - including Chicago, which would mean even better news for syndicators looking to launch late-night projects in 2011.

However, some stations (notably the ABC O&Os) may expand local news instead in those early fringe time slots now occupied by Oprah - rather than depend on expensive syndicated fare.

- Jimmy Kimmel. As far as Chicago is concerned. Oprah's depature from syndication means that Kimmel's late-night show - which has been delayed an hour by WLS-TV (a rarity for an O&O to do) until midnight or later because of a second airing of Oprah's show - will now air at the network-mandated time of 11:05 p.m - assuming Kimmel's show lasts beyond 2011.

A free, extra item: Existing syndicated fare. You get an extra item in the winners' pack: If stations decide not to fill the vacant hour with news or other local programming, they can upgrade existing syndicated programming into the time slot with fare including Ellen, The Doctors, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and several courtroom shows. The move would be great news to Warner Bros. and even CBS Television Distribution, who is losing Oprah.

Losers

- CBS Television Distribution. On the other hand, with stations no longer willing to pay top licensing fees for her show, CBS loses some revenue - and a little oomph in the syndication business. Not only that, contracts will be up soon for the company's two other longtime successes - Wheel of Fortune and Jeporady! in 2012. Will stations walk away from those two older-skewing shows as well? We'll see.

- ABC O&Os and other stations who carry Oprah. Maybe. Without Oprah's strong lead-in, there might be some ratings realignment in several markets - particularly in larger markets where ABC owns stations with the rights to Oprah.

On the other hand, some stations have been successful without Oprah, and since the ABC O&Os are strong - even the loss of her might not affect them too much. This fear was prevalent at Denver's KUSA-TV in 1989 when the then-ABC affiliate lost The Oprah Winfrey Show to then-CBS affiliate (now ABC affiliate) KMGH-TV, which was a distant third in the ratings.

The results? Gannett-owned KUSA (which became an NBC affiliate in 1995 due to a three-way network station swap) saw in news ratings remain constant and is stilll a powerful number one, though the ratings race has tightened. Oprah flopped on KMGH (it was even beaten in the ratings by KUSA's 4 p.m. news at one point) and later moved to KCNC-TV, Denver's CBS O&O.

In Raleigh-Durham, CBS affiliate WRAL-TV - a news and sign-on/sign-off powerhouse - regularly beats Oprah on ABC O&O WTVD at 4 p.m. with a same-day delayed airing of The Young and The Restless.

- The City of Chicago. With The Oprah Winfrey Show ending its run, the city and the businesses who operate in the West Loop near her Harpo Studios stand to lose revenue, especially from tourists who come in from out of town to see her show - not to mention some prestige on the world stage. The city's TV and film industry would also take another major hit. Earlier this year, The Jerry Springer Show and The Steve Wilkos Show exited Chicago to move to Stamford, Conn. to take advantage of tax breaks. Oprah's exit means for the first time since the early 1970's - when Phil Donahue moved his nationally syndicated show from Dayton, Ohio to Chicago - there will be no major syndicated talk shows taped here - leaving us with only courtroom shows Judge Greg Mathis and Judge Jeanne Pirro - which are taped at the same studio at the NBC Tower.

- Broadcast television in general. With Ms. Winfrey leaving free, over-the-air TV for the riches of cable, the prestige of broadcast television also takes a hit. With politicians talking about taking away the broadcast spectrum broadcast television uses for wireless broadband, more and more viewers turning to online streaming and video on-demand, local stations' revenue plummeting, CTV in Canada talking about closing local stations if it doesn't get retransmission content fees from cable operators, and Comcast's impending takeover of NBC, over-the-air television broadcasting may just be even more endangered than radio is. Losing Oprah doesn't help matters much.

at 6:19 PM

Good news for rival syndicators, bad news for ABC O&Os - and the City of Chicago.

Click here for more info.

at 11:05 PM

It's a mid-week edition of T Dog's Four Pack - the winners and losers of the past week: And to describe the contestants, they are split into two groups: Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. If you follow boxing, you already know which one is the winner.(if you don't, click the link.)

Floating like Pacquiao

- WBBM-TV brings back Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson. For one night only on November 13, the CBS-owned station brought back the former duo to 10 p.m. newscast to fill-in for Rob Johnson, who had the night off. The results? A solid second in household and in adults 25-54, behind only WLS-TV and way ahead of WMAQ-TV. Overall, a solid newscast from The Church of Tisch - the one they used to do and what WBBM should be known for, instead of the tabloid crap they put out in the 1990's.

- Lopez Tonight. In its first week, the new TBS late-night talker drew 1.6 million viewers (with 3 million viewers on its first night thrn TBS, TNT, and TruTV) and drew more viewers than Letterman's tired show. Plus, Lopez had the youngest median age of any late-night talker - at 33. As for the show itself, a great production - though George Lopez needs to freshen up his monologue with more topical material.

- Chicago Blackhawks. What's this? A Chicago sports team actually winning some games? They won seven in a row at home.

- Gray Television rips into Leno experiment. The Chief Operating Officer of the station group said The Jay Leno Show in prime-time is not working and is harming his NBC affiliates' late news (WNDU-TV in South Bend and WMTV in Madison, Wis. are some of the NBC stations Gray owns.) Finally, a station group who's telling it like it is and not sugarcoating it - unlike others, who have their lips planted on NBC's ass.

Stung like Miguel Cotto

Aw, this is too easy. You know the losers' lineup for the week: The Bears, Jay Leno, FlashForward, Heroes, etc. Those guys are in the loser's column every other week. So instead of repeating ourselves week after nauseating week, here are four OTHER set of losers:

- Rupert Murdoch. He wants to take all News Corp. material off Google's search engines and wants YOU to pay for the company's content. Hey Rupert - using the Bill Wirtz model hasn't exactly worked - ask the Blackhawks. One upside: maybe he'll blackout Fox Chicago newscasts on home TV.

- WRC-TV's new Daily Connection. Speaking of dumb corporate media decisions, NBC's O&O in Washington, D.C. is using re-purposed material from NBC Universal's properties edited from the company's headquarters in New York - to fill out a 3 p.m. "local" show, according to the New York Observer. Call it "video voicetracking". I didn't know Clear Channel beat Comcast in the race to acquire NBC.

- Bloody Wednesday. Exactly a week ago, Hank, Eastwick, and Dollhouse were all canned in one day. (not decrying the cancellations, just saying they were losers to begin with.)

- Chicago Now on WGN-AM. Robert Feder blasted the Tribsters on his new blog at Vocalo last week, slamming them for airing what amounts to a four-hour infomercial featuring the dopey blogging venture on WGN Saturday mornings, and described it as a waste of time. If you've seen the content on Chicago Now and listened to WGN on weekends... well, it makes sense to me!

at 11:45 PM

It's a syndication edition of T Dog's Grab Bag. Reach in!

Is this a sign Oprah's relationship with CBS Television Distribution is over? Ms. Winfrey's production company is developing a new talk show with designing expert Nate Berkus - and Sony Pictures Television, the company that's syndicating Dr. Oz. with Harpo Productions. Berkus has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show for the last eight years.The strip is expected to launch in fall 2010.

The move to Sony - which until this year, did not have a successful talk show in first-run since the heyday of Ricki Lake (when it was Columbia TriStar Television) - has boosted the independent studio's profile.

Earlier this month, speculation grew on whether or not Ms. Winfrey will continue her talk show with CBS, change syndicators to Sony, or moving the program to her new cable network, which launches next year. Her contract with CBS expires in 2011.

-Debmar-Mercury has renewed The Wendy Williams Show through 2012, on Fox-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Chicago, despite WFLD moving the show from 3 p.m. to 11 a.m. recently.

The self-proclaimed "Queen of All Media" was recently inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame. Ms. Williams' radio gigs included WQHT-FM (Hot 97) and WBLS-FM, both in New York.

- Debmar also cleared TBS sitcom Meet The Browns from Tyler Perry in 70 percent of the country, including Chicago's... you guessed it: WCIU-TV, which already airs Tyler Perry's other sitcom, House of Payne.

Look, be grateful it's Meet the Browns and not Comedy Central's Secret Girlfriend, which hands down, is the worst sitcom in the history of television.

- In what has to be a first (and goes to show you what power a single station group can have on the industry), Judge Karen - a failed first-run courtroom strip from last season - is coming back next season after all - and you can thank - or blame - Sinclair Broadcasting Group.

After Sony canceled the series and Judge David Young last year to focus more on launching newer fare like Dr. Oz., Sinclair convinced the show's agents, which convinced Litton Entertainment to revive the series for first run sydnciation for fall 2010, under the new title Judge Karen's Court. Sinclair is already on board of course, and other station groups are likely to join them.

Locally, Judge Karen aired at 2 p.m. weekdays last fall on WCIU, but moved to 10 a.m. after Sony pulled the plug. The courtroom show also aired on cable network BET.

Sinclair said Judge Karen did well for its 60+ plus station group, even though the show wasn't doing well anywhere else. Sinclair - which owns stations in downstate Springfield and Champaign and two stations in Milwaukee - has often labeled as the poster child of what's wrong in the television business. The station group has been criticized for owning large number of stations and once used its clout to block an episode of Nightline in seven markets in 2003 when it featured a tribute to those killed in the Iraq War. The group in the past has also been criticized for cutting corners on its local newscasts to save money, using a centralized news operations titled NewsCentral to distribute prepackaged news segments.

While the return of Judge Karen Mills-Francis to television is indeed good news to her fans (I know what you're saying... what fans?), you have to wonder about just how much clout - and influence - large station groups like Sinclair have on whether or not a show lives or dies - no matter what the rating is.

at 9:45 PM

In a coup for Fox-owned WFLD-TV, the station landed one of Chicago's most popular news personalities.

Anna Davlantes, who spent nearly a decade at NBC-owned WMAQ until leaving the station earlier this year, has now signed a multi-year deal with WFLD, where she will be handling contributing anchor and reporting duties.

The move is a plus for the struggling station, which has lagged behind practically every other news outlet in the market - even behind a surging WBBM-TV.

She will debut this Monday.

at 11:39 PM

Breaking down the haves - and have-nots - from the past week:

Winners

- V. The new version of the 1983 mini-series and 1984-85 television series drew 14 million viewers and a 4.9 rating in the 18-49 demo for ABC last Tuesday night. Will it hold up? We shall see.

- Fox. Game 6 of the Yankees' World Series clincher drew 21 million viewers. Now if they can only keep them through the rest of the season when Idol's not around.

- Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, and trash TV talk show fans everywhere. No word on if Oprah plans to move her show to her cable network, but no such drama for fans of trash TV: NBC Universal (Jerry Springer, Maury, Steve Wilkos) and CBS Television Distribution (Dr. Phil) locked up their controversial talkers through 2012 and 2014, respectively.

- The Museum of Broadcast Communications ...and radio & TV fans everywhere! MBC founder Bruce DuMont announced at the Radio Hall of Fame dinner Saturday Night that he secured $6 million in funding to complete construction of the new building located at State and Kinzie located in the North Loop. The project was suspended when money allocated for the project was lost in the Blagojevich scandals. Yours truly will be first in line when it opens! (It shouldn't be too hard - I work right across the street.)

Losers

- The Chicago Bears. The loss yesterday to Arizona pretty much says it all.

- FlashForward. Speaking of disappointments, there is a lot of negative reaction on internet message boards regarding this show (lack of character development, slow advancement of the plot, etc.) And this as ratings continue to fall. It seems fans are discovering flaws in the show and its not meeting expectations (see above.) To paraphrase Dennis Green, FlashForward isn't who we thought they were (see above.)

Next week, look for the show to add Lovie Smith to the cast as a FBI agent who somehow bungles the FlashForward investigation. His conclusion to why the world blacked out for nearly three minutes? It was Tommie Harris' fault.

- The Parents Television Council protests Gossip Girl episode Threesome. And no one cares about neither.

- Talk of Christmas Music - while it's 70 degrees outside. Yours truly wore short-sleeve shirts this weekend - who's thinking about Christmas? When the temperature drops by half, we'll talk.

at 1:32 PM

Renewed in 70 percent of the country, including CBS-owned WBBM-TV

If Oprah Winfrey decides to hang up her the mic in syndication after 2011, CBS Television Distribution is going to have an insurance policy.

Dr. Phil, the talk show which spun-off from The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002, has been renewed through 2014 in 70 percent of the country, including the core CBS owned-and-operated station group that carries the show.

WBBM, which snatched Dr. Phil away from rival NBC-owned WMAQ-TV in 2005, is a part of the deal, which also includes the Belo, Gannett, LIN, and Media General station groups. Phil currently airs at 3 p.m. weekdays.

Dr. Phil's renewal came just hours after Tribune renewed NBC Universal's Jerry Springer, Maury, and The Steve Wilkos Show on the majority of its stations through 2012, in addition to five Warner Bros. first-run series, including Judge Mathis and The People's Court. It also came on the same day speculation heated up on whether or not Oprah Winfrey's talk show will leave syndication for her new cable network, slated to open in 2011.

As part of the new deal, the license fee structure for Dr. Phil is changing to make it more affordable for stations to keep the talk show on the air. It also affects the current deal stations have with CBS - it has been restructured so stations would actually be paying lower license fees for the show and when the new deal kicks in, those fees go even lower. This is good news for stations, who are cash-strapped and are not seeing as much ad revenue coming in than they have seen in years past due to the recession. In addition, ratings for Dr. Phil declined significantly over the past half-decade and last year in particular.

These issues were sticking points in whether or not CBS could bring back Dr. Phil - not to mention content problems, in which KPRC-TV in Houston cited as one of the reasons the station dropped the show.

But the show's content hasn't affected ad sales, which continue to attract blue-chip clients. By comparison, NBC Universal's just-renewed trio of talk shows has more questionable content issues and weaker advertiser sales, with national spots clogged with direct-response advertising (but all three remain profitable, due to budget cuts made by NBC U - i.e. moving production to Connecticut.)

But at the same time, the new deal with Dr. Phil came when a report surfaced that Oprah Winfrey was leaving her syndicated talk show in 2011 to focus more on her new cable network partnership with Discovery Communications. A spokesperson for Harpo Productions denied the report, saying no decision has been made on whether or not Ms. Winfrey will continue her talk show in syndication with CBS. But given the source - a very respected Hollywood Insider - Harpo's denial is likely nothing more than spin control.

While Dr. Phil and NBC Universal's trio of trash talkers are sticking around, Broadcasting & Cable's Paige Albiniak pointed out that since 2004 (the year Ricki Lake ended her talk show), ratings for daytime talk have declined 45 percent in households - and even more alarming, down 50 percent in adults 18 to 49. Since Ms. Lake's departure, daytime talk has skewed older - and not helping matters much is the departure of Tyra Banks' talk show from syndication earlier this year to run on The CW. Thanks to the presence of Ricki Lake, daytime talk was aflush with young viewers in the 1990's, with her success spawning clone after clone after endless clone.

Currently, Dr. Phil McGraw's son (Jay McGraw) has his own deal with CBS Television Distribution with sophomore daytime strip The Doctors, and a proposed new strip from his production company (Stage 29 Productions) titled The Lawyers.

Stage 29 Productions is named, of course, after Stage 29 - the soundstage where Dr. Phil shoots his talk show and where Arsenio Hall did his late-night talk show from 1989 to 1994. Since the CBS-Viacom split in 2006, Dr. Phil and The Doctors are the last two CBS-syndicated shows to be taped at Viacom-owned Paramount Studios, with CBS' Entertainment Tonight and The Insider moving to company-owned CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Calif. last year.

at 8:18 PM

No decision on the future of Oprah's show

A report surfaced on Deadline Hollywood Thursday regarding the future of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which may or may not leave broadcast syndication for Oprah Winfrey's new cable network, which is being launched by Discovery Networks.

Oprah distributor CBS Television Distribution said the news caught them off guard.

But a spokesperson from Harpo Productions denies a report that Ms. Winfrey has made up her mind on the show.

But that hasn't stopped rival syndicators from making deals.

Tribune Broadcasting announced it was renewing three of NBC Universal's daytime talk shows - Jerry Springer, Maury, and The Steve Wilkos Show - through 2012.

Even though ratings for all three are treading south of 1.5 and often wind-up on a lot of advertiser hit-lists (thanks to groups like the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association), the programs remain profitable - due to the trio moving production facilities to much cheaper digs in Stamford, Conn. Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos were taped at the NBC Tower in Chicago until last spring.

The move locks up time periods for two more years, keeping rival syndicators out of those slots.

While Maury is on Tribune's WGN-TV locally, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos appear on other outlets, with Jerry on Fox-owned WPWR-TV and Wilkos airing on WCIU-TV. Previously, Wilkos aired on WGN.

So why are the shows being renewed despite so-so numbers? Chalk it up to that NBC Universal philosophy of cheap production + lower ratings = profits - its the excuse they use for the mere existence of The Jay Leno Show.

Meanwhile, Tribune has also renewed five Warner Bros. shows, including Judge Mathis and People's Court - both which appear locally on WCIU.

As for NBC Universal's other talk show (The Martha Stewart Show), there is no word on a renewal for next season - it is the lowest-rated talk show currently on the air, with a recent number of 0.6.

Thought: I may get beat up by this guy, but Steve Wilkos is a no-talent assclown. But since NBC Universal is filled with them, I'm not surprised his show got picked up for two more years. Speaking of no-talent assclowns, does this mean Heroes gets renewed for a fifth season as well?

at 11:13 PM

The T Dog Media Blog has a lot of syndication items in the Grab Bag this week. Let's see what we have:

- Program Partners, which was burned earlier this year by failing to find the funds to launch Marie Osmond's daytime talk show, is turning to Canada once again to launch a syndicated program.

The syndicator acquired Steven and Chris to air as a strip beginning in September 2010. Launched by CBC in 2008, the talk show is hosted by Steven Sabados and Chris Hyndman. The program previously aired on HGTV in the U.S. The last time a Canadian talk show was offered for sale to U.S. syndication was D.L. Taffner's Shirley in 1995, which only managed to clear only a handful of markets. Shirley aired on CTV in the 1990's.

Currently, Program Partners does not have any weekday strips on the air outside of Degrassi: The Next Generation, which does not even air as a strip in many markets, shunned off into weekend blocks on Saturday or Sunday mornings (including Chicago). The last two years saw Program Partners launch Merv Griffin's Crosswords (2007-08) and Family Court with Judge Penny (2008-09) to unsuccessful results.

- Trifecta Entertainment recently announced its intention to launch three new first-run syndicated shows next fall: Judge Heck, an all-barter, first-run courtroom strip featuring Anthony Heckemyer; a weekly E/I series called Mystery Hunters; and a ambitious first-run strip titled Tooned In, which is an entertainment magazine hosted by animated characters. Yes, you heard right (I'm not making this up!)

The plan for Tooned In is, "[To] explore pop culture just like the traditional shows, but with cheeky writing and a US Weekly kind of feel to it,”, according to Trifecta CEO Hank Cohen. The animation is being produced by Film Roman Productions, who animates The Simpsons and in the past animated King of the Hill and Garfield and Friends. (I guess this is the kind of innovation yours truly said was lacking in the syndication business. Will this offbeat strip make it on the air? Let's keep our fingers crossed. Somebody gets it!)

Meanwhile, Trifecta is in the process of selling Bill Kurtis' Cold Case Minutes (which are already airing on CBS-owned WBBM-TV during its 10 p.m. newscasts) to other stations around the country. Cold Case Files repeats are already airing in syndication (locally via WBBM.)

- On to the programs currently airing in syndication - it was not a good week for most shows heading into the first week of the November sweeps period, thanks to the World Series and lower-than-expected PUT (persons using television) levels. All magazine shows dropped, with many (TMZ, Extra) falling below a 2.0 rating. Wheel of Fortune led the syndication pack with a 7.1 rating.

- Fox-owned WFLD has flip-flopped time periods with The Wendy Willams Show and Judge Joe Brown. Retroactive to this Monday, Wendy moves to 11a.m. from 3 p.m., while Brown moves from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The move is in response to the slow ratings start for Wendy, whose show may be more suited for mornings than late afternoons - it has been airing at 3 p.m. since July 13. Wendy's most recent national rating was a 1.2, while Judge Joe Brown scored a 2.1.

at 11:10 PM

In the latest of a slew of off-cable programs hitting the broadcast syndication marketplace, Twentieth Television has cleared FX sitcom It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia for Fall 2011 in 45 percent of the country.

Clearing the show are a wide variety of stations, meaning no over-the-board group deals (which is good.) The clearences include WPSG-TV in Philadelphia, the CBS-owned CW affiliate where the sitcom is based in. Other CBS stations (all CWaffils) clearances include Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Tampa-St. Petersburg, and Sacramento-Stockon.

Locally, the program cleared Fox's duopoly in Chicago (WFLD/WPWR), in addition to other Fox-owned duopolies in Phoenix, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Orlando.

Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting has cleared the show on WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles, in addition to other company-owned stations in Washington D.C., Houston, and Miami.

Meanwhile, two other stations picked up the show - Sunbeam's WLVI in Boston and Adell Broadcasting's WADL in Detroit. The purchase of Sunny is a major step forward for the Motor City independent station, which historically has relied on paid programming and religious fare to fill much of its programming lineup. In recent years, WADL has transformed into more of a general-market independent station.

Recently, Sunny repeats were sold to Comedy Central for Winter 2011. The show stars Danny DeVito in his first role in a TV series since he played Louie DePalma on the Emmy-winning sitcom Taxi, which ran from 1978-83 on ABC and later NBC.

at 1:39 PM

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed nearly three years ago by a family whose mother died from the aftermath of a radio stunt.

The Strange Family was awarded $16.6 million from a jury who felt the radio station - Entercom-owned KDND-FM in Sacramento, known as The End, was neligient in the stunt. The jury only held the station's licensee (Entercom Sacramento) liable, but not the parent company. The jury awarded money to Strange's widow and her three children.

Jennifer Strange participated in the "Hold Your Water For A Wii" contest on January 12, 2007, where she competed with others to see who can drink the most water without urinating and the winner would be awarded the then-hard to get Nintendo Wii video-game system.

When Ms. Strange arrived home that day, she complained of headaches and rushed to the hospital, where she died from water intoxication the very same day. The death sent shockwaves throughout the radio community and put the spotlight on Big Media companies and their indifference for its audience.

Entercom laid the hammer down hard on those running the contest, firing everyone involved for violating the company's guidelines for conducting contests and canceled KDND-FM's morning show, titled The Morning Rave.

While Sacramento Police did not file charges against anyone from the station, the family filed a wrongful death suit, which went to trial last month.

Is it not known whether or not Entercom Sacramento plans to appeal the jury's decision - it is believed to be the largest wrongful death suit settlement in Sacramento history.

Thought: I wrote a Think Tank titled Radio Blew It Again back on January 28, 2007, two weeks after this tragedy occurred. Though yours truly basically tied this to the shortcomings of local government, the message is the same - the problems of the industry needs to be addressed and the reputation the radio business needs to be improved. Stunts like this only further the negative perception people have regarding radio.

While Entrecom fired the people behind the stunt, that was a given. Practicing responsible radio is the only way the medium can improve its image. Unfortunately, there are many who still believe shock jock radio is the only way boost ratings and revenue. And much like your leaders in Chicago government, the suits in Big Media are only looking out for themselves and their wallets and patronage - and not us, the audience.

On Thursday, the jury sent a message to Big Media - a $16.6 million one. Let's hope Big Media learns from this tragic mistake. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the Cheap Channels of the world won't.

at 1:27 AM

A week of shock and awe - literally. A Halloween edition of T Dog's Four Pack:

Treats

- White Collar. USA had a lot of goodies in its bag - to the tune of 5.3 million viewers for the debut of its new Friday night drama White Collar. With the continued success of Dexter on Showtime, being a criminal has never been more appealing on cable TV.

- The League Championship Series. Whether if its the ALCS or the NLCS (and either way, Los Angeles was sent packing), Fox and TBS have a lot to be happy about, as both playoff series were up in the ratings from a year ago.

- Glee. When a series generates buzz like this - including a Gold single from the cast signing an old Journey tune - not to mention solid ratings - in my book, that's a hit.

- The Vampire Diaries. The vampire craze has been beneficial to The CW, with this show performing well week-to-week and stealing buzz from rival FlashForward - which was supposed to be the hot show of the year. Instead, Forward is going backward by performing only marginally better from Ugly Betty last year in the Thursday 8/7 Central time period - and sliding in the ratings every week.

Tricks

- The Chicago Bears. Their performance on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday was indeed scary and frightful, getting blown out 45-10 in the process. If the Bears don't make the playoffs, they will be the biggest flop of the fall season - even bigger than The Jay Leno Show.

- So You Think You Can Dance. Much like what happened to the Bears Sunday in Cincinnati , Dance came into Dancing With The Stars' house on Monday and got stomped on in total viewers, households, and adults 18-49. But both shows were out-danced by a Big Bang Theory repeat. So, who's going as Sheldon for Halloween?

- Apple. Once upon a time, Mac vs. Pc ads were hilarious. But since Microsoft has brought it with Windows 7, those ads don't seem so funny anymore, don't they? (Yours truly isn't letting Microsoft off the hook, either - thumbs down for deciding to sponsor - and then later pulling out of - a Family Guy special - without knowing what content the show contains.)

- Steve Rosenbloom returns to print daily in the Chicago Tribune. Who brought this Jay Mariotti-like loser back from the gutter? This cements the fact that Chicago sports media is a complete, utter joke. Thanks again, Sam Zellhead.

at 11:45 PM

Comcast SportsNet's morning show titled Monsters In The Morning is being dropped after one season on the air.

Hosted by former WSCR-AM co-hosts Mike North and Dan Jigeetts, the duo discussed local sports issues of the day, sort of a local version of ESPN's MIke & Mike in the Morning (which features another WSCR alum, Mike Greenberg.)

CSN and Mike North's production company (Licorice Ltd.) split the commercial time to sell between the two and Licorice absorbed production costs - mainly by finding a sponsor to help underwrite those production costs. Yours truly praised the way this entrepreneurial model was set up - one which could be used in the future for first-run syndication and other platforms.

But the program lost its major sponsor in June when the sponsor went out of business after the owner was arrested and charged in a ponzi scheme. The owner's legal problems also forced the closure of Chicago Sports Webio, an internet-radio sports station and website in which North was a major investor. North was ousted from the venture on June 12.

Ratings for Monsters were very low and with the morning show expensive to produce, a mutual decision was made to end the show was made by Comcast SportsNet and Licorice.

The series ends on December 31, the day the show's contract with Comcast SportsNet expires.

Thought: While this particular experimental model did not work - and it was doomed once we all found the person funding the production was a snake, I still believe this business model still can work -but the risks are higher and you have to watch who you do business with.

at 12:20 AM

For the first time in awhile, it's time for T Dog's Groovy Grab Bag:

- Congratulations to legendary Chicago radio personality Herb Kent on a new world record he set: The Guinness Book Of World Records recently honored him for having the longest career by a deejay in radio history - which spans 65 years! His achievement will be celebrated at the South Shore Cultural Center on December 5, where he will officially receive his award.

Herb Kent, 81, got his start at WBEZ-FM in 1944 at the age of 16 and was known as one of "The Good Guys" at WVON-AM in the 1960's and 1970's. He currently spins "dusties" on Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons at his current home, WVAZ-FM.

- Recycling, media style: Debbie Carpenter, who flamed out as vice president and general manager of Fox-owned WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV in 2006, is back at the duopoly: she's been hired as vice president and chief sales manager for the two stations.

- MGM has picked up the syndicated rights to Discovery Channel's Cash Cab, marking the latest off-cable program to hit the broadcast syndication market. The game show, which features unsuspecting passengers boarding a taxi and are asked questions by a cabbie for a cash prize. The series debuts in syndication next September.

at 11:25 PM

But the Bengals rock the ratings in Cincy

No matter how much Ed Sherman of Chicago Business paints a rosy picture of it, the Chicago Bears' ratings on Sunday were an expected disappointment given the rather unexpected 45-10 blowout of the team by the Cincinnati Bengals.

The game, which started at 3:15 p.m. Central and ran until about 6:20 p.m., averaged a 25.9 household Nielsen rating on Fox-owned WFLD-TV, the lowest of the year for the Bears. Moreover, viewership declined 8% from the start of the game to the finish as it became clear the Bears were not going to win. While it isn't much, it's still a decline.

Despite the number, it still ranks as Chicago's most-watched program of the week, outdrawing every prime-time show including Dancing With The Stars (which says a lot about network prime-time programming these days - the Bears getting blown out is more interesting.)

Meanwhile, the game in Cincinnati did much better, drawing a 39 rating and a 61 on Raycom-owned WXIX-TV, the largest local audience in four years.

As Sherman points out, there are three prime-time Bears games left this season, including a Sunday Night Football on NBC November 22 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Yours truly is leery of this matchup, since every time the Bears play on NBC (they are 0-2 this season on SNF), they perform like the network does - poorly.

Rant: I have had enough of the idiot commenters trying to turn anything involving Fox into a Fox News vs. Obama thread in the comments section in any story NOT involving the cable news channel. This Mike W. person in Sherman's story is a moron and of course he stuck with the game - let's just say he got what he deserved - losers will watch losers.

Just a reminder, anyone who make a comment not pertaining to the subject matter here will have their comment deleted. That means if there is a story on the Fox broadcast network and you want to make it into a Fox News vs. Obama discussion in the comments section, I'll shut up that conversation real quick. Thread hijacking for politics will not be tolerated here.

Thanks for your cooperation.

at 10:13 PM

After months of planning, WCIU finally debuted its new morning venture on Monday titled You & Me In The Morning.

Hosted by WMAQ-TV and WGCI-FM veteran Jeanne Sparrow, You & Me consists of five segments that run between 6 and 9 a.m. during a block of WCIU's syndicated programming. The shorts are lifestyle-oriented, and targeted mostly to a female audience aged 18 to 49 and 25 to 54.

The segments (which can run anywhere from seven to fifteen minutes consist of movie reviews, relationship advice, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and a daily horoscope. There are also headlines from the Sun-Times and video from CNN, though the program plans to steer clear of the mainly "if it leads, it bleeds" focus of local news shows.

WCIU plans to revamp its website in the next few weeks to better focus the You & Me content online. The station also hopes it can put the content on mobile devices.

The efforts are being led by Weigel Broadcasting President Neal Sabin, who wanted his station to have more of a local programming presence on its weekday schedule - not to mention more dollars from advertisers who usually advertise on traditional newscasts. He has hired more than a dozen people to work on the You & Me project, including Dick Tracy, who was hired this past summer as the director of content (and no, he's not the crime fighter of the same name.)

If any segment is sponsored, it will be identified on-air.

Here is WCIU's weekday morning schedule (as listed by TitanTV), which includes You & Me In The Morning. Remember, starting times are approximate:

6:00 a.m-6:08 a.m. You & Me In The Morning
6:08 a.m-6:36 a.m. Half & Half
6:36 a.m-6:52 a.m. You & Me In The Morning
6:52 a.m-7:22 a.m. Everybody Hates Chris (this previously ran at 10:30 p.m.)
7:22 a.m-7:37 a.m. You & Me In The Morning
7:37 a.m-8:07 a.m. The Insider (repeat from the previous evening)
8:07 a.m-8:22 a.m. You & Me In The Morning
8:22 a.m-8:52 a.m. Half & Half (this previously ran at 1:00a.m.)
8:52 a.m-9:00 a.m. You & Me In The Morning

at 9:45 PM

The Chicago Sun-Times has a new lease on life, and you can thank Jim Tyree for it.

The paper was sold for just the fourth time in its 60-year history to Tyree and his group of investors, in a deal worth $5 million, while assuming $21 million in liabilities. In order to make the deal work for Tyree (and the bankruptcy court), the unions had to agree to major concessions.

The Sun-Times has been drifting away for years, filing for Chapter 11 last March after seeing ad revenue and circulation plummet - which has been a problem for almost every major newspaper in the country.

But the Sun-Times has been hit the hardest, thanks to several scandals related to the previous ownership of the paper, which was headed by Conrad Black (who went to prison for his role in the scandals.)

Previous owners included Field Communications and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch.

The paper's circulation had steadily dropped since Murdoch bought the paper in the 1980's and made changes a lot of readers didn't like. When the paper was sold in 1986 due to FCC cross-ownership rules preventing Murdoch from owning the Sun-Times and WFLD-TV (the acquisition was part of a six-station deal from Metromedia to help launch the Fox network), it was bought by Hollinger international, which was controlled indirectly by Black.

The problems of the Sun-Times are illustrated here in a Think Tank I wrote on April 8, 2007 titled "Let's Get Into It."

The paper has made a move to win back readers readers over the past two years by returning its editorial stance to the center and dropping several controversial columnists like Jay Mariotti.

at 11:17 PM

Remember back last December when yours truly wrote how stripping The Jay Leno Show was a creative counter-programming idea?

I think I might want to retract that statement.

Since it debuted September 14, The Jay Leno Show has been a hot topic of debate in television circles across the country - especially in newsrooms, where Leno leads in to late local news on NBC affiliates.

In a story yours truly posted two weeks ago, a TV News Check article took a pulse of several NBC affiliates and O&Os in some large markets about their late local news ratings and found some - including WMAQ-TV in Chicago here - satisfied with the results thus far.

But two articles that have come out since have told a completely different story.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times had an article on Leno and how ratings for the affiliates' local news have declined.

Meanwhile, an article written by Lewis Lazare in the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday pointed out WMAQ is not being helped with its Leno lead-in - in fact, the station has tumbled to third place in the 10 p.m. news race in households (Lazare, for some strange reason, does not use 25-54 adult demo numbers.) This runs somewhat contradictory to what a WMAQ official said in the TV News Check article, saying the station was happy with its late news performance - at least in the 25-54 demos.

Oh, really? Even though WMAQ has a decent adult 25-54 demo and drew a larger number than its sister stations in New York (WNBC) and Los Angeles (KNBC) is doing, its newscasts still trail those of ABC O&O WLS-TV in the same time period. Is WMAQ really happy with where they are at in the ratings here?

Of course, it depends on the strength of the station and the market it is in. In Detroit - WDIV finished first at 11 p.m. over rivals WXYZ-TV (ABC) and WJBK (Fox O&O). WDIV often wins in most local news time periods - not to mention the market's CBS O&O (WWJ-TV) does not have a local news operation.

During Leno's second week on the air, KSL-TV's 10 p.m. newscast tripled his lead-in rating and share. KSL, an NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City owned by Bonneville, has dominated the ratings for the last 40 years - whether if it was affiliated with CBS (prior to 1995) or NBC.

Of course, the effect of the prime-time lead-in can be debatable. Back in the 2003-04 season, ABC was in fourth place in prime-time - but WLS was still ranked number one at 10 p.m. and the rest of the day. In fact, when ABC's prime-time lineup regularly finished in third place in 1986, WLS moved to first place at 10 p.m., defeating market leader WBBM-TV and its been there ever since (locally, ABC's prime-time lineup in 1986 was a strong second place, thanks to the popularity of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune - three shows who have audiences still tuning in to WLS to this very day.)

When CBS was in third place in prime-time in the late 1980's, its affiliates in Minneapolis (WCCO-TV) and New Orleans (WWL-TV) still ranked number one at 10 p.m. and the rest of the broadcast day - including prime-time.

The Tribune's Eric Zorn tackled the lead-in issue this past week.On his blog, he had two polls: First off, he asked whether or not viewers are staying tuned to the channel they are watching at 10 p.m. for news. 86 percent of those said "no" - which is bad news for WBBM-TV, which had trouble holding on to strong CBS 9 p.m. lead-ins.

The second poll asked was "What program do they watch at 10 p.m.?" 42 percent of those said The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - more than three times the response of WLS-TV's newscasts, which were 14 percent. WMAQ had 10 percent of the total; WBBM had only 2 percent.

Late local newscasts' shares have dwindled for years - as viewers have moved away from "the newscasts of record" and finding their news online or on the cable news channels - not to mention the ongoing focus on "it bleeds, it leads" philosophy of local news without any analysis or substance, which has been on display in Chicago television news for years.

As for the Leno experiment, more evidence is piling up that there is some dissatisfaction in the industry regarding this move. NBC said it would actually make more money, even with lower ratings because the production costs of the show would be lower than what five scripted hour-long dramas would. This relied a lot of people in Hollywood, as NBC seems to be more concerned about counting beans than putting quality product on its airwaves (which it hasn't done much of lately.) And as far as The Jay Leno Show is concerned, it is the same shtick he did on The Tonight Show - nothing groundbreaking, nothing creative. The only difference is there is no desk and a couple of segments were moved around - not to mention monologues that are much, much worse. NBC said "some elements" of his the old Tonight Show would be incorporated - it looked like all of them were. Is this NBC's idea of a "variety" show? If it is, they are sorely mistaken.

So yours truly was wrong on Leno working for NBC as creative counter-programing. But a concern I had about NBC delivering numbers to its late news was indeed valid (but a prediction that KSHB-TV's newscasts would improve in Kansas City was also way off-base.)

Is it time to declare the Leno strip a failure? I'd say not yet - we do have the November ratings period ahead of us, and yours truly has to be fair. But with the February period being hampered by the Winter Olympics - in which Leno will not air for two weeks - and the next available period to measure his performance won't be until the May sweeps - the pressure on Leno to improve his numbers will be extraordinary. And if he doesn't show any ratings improvement, yours truly will declare this a failure on December 1.

Interesting to note Leno used Chicago's baseball teams as punchlines after they didn't make the playoffs and when Chicago didn't win the Olympic bid. It will so satisfying to use him as a punchline since his show is being declared a bigger failure than anything Chicago has done - or didn't do this year. Karma is a bitch, isn't it?

I can't wait for December 1.

at 9:44 PM

The longtime media columinst of the Chicago Sun-Times is back with a new gig.

Robert Feder, who took a buyout from the Chicago Sun-Times last year after 28 years with the newspaper, is returning to the Chicago media beat as a blogger/columnist for Vocalo, a news and information website run by Chicago Public Radio.

Feder made the announcement on the website today, saying he is eager to return to the media beat he covered at the Sun-Times for so long. In addition to covering traditional media in Chicago, he'll also cover new media, including the Internet.

Feder's addition to Vocalo comes as the website is expanding its reach and adding other bloggers and columnists to better serve Chicago.

Vocalo can be found on-air at WBEW-FM (89.5 FM). Vocalo was created two years ago by Chicago Public Radio as an interactive gathering place where individuals can share thoughts and ideas.

In other words - its a place where user-generated content rules. Much of the user-generated content is found on the radio station.

Even though Vocalo is run by Chicago Public Radio, it is not marketed as such and does not solicit funding from its audience, a.k.a "pledge drives".

at 12:20 AM

While it was a given the Chicago Bears-Atlanta Falcons game would win Sunday Night's local rating race, one place where it also wound up winning in the ratings was unexpected - in Los Angeles opposite a National League Championship Series playoff game - involving the Dodgers.

The Bears-Falcons game on KNBC-TV in Los Angeles from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time outdrew Game 3 ofthe Los Angeles Dodgers-Philadelphia Phillies playoff game by 15 percent

The Bears-Falcons game had a 8.4 Nielsen household rating; the baseball game had a 7.3. The rating is remarkable, given Los Angeles hasn't had a NFL team since 1994 when both the Rams and Raiders left.

Okay, the Dodgers-Phillies game was over early - with the Dodgers getting blanked 11-0 by the Phillies - and the NLCS was on TBS this year - with reaches fewer homes since it is on basic cable.

The playoff ratings in Los Angeles for the Dodgers - as well as the Angels - have been a concern for Major League Baseball as numbers for the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies have been much higher in their respective home markets.

And those ratings might get worse in L.A., since both the Angels and Dodgers are down 3-1 in their respective playoff series against the Yankees and the Phillies.

The last time the Angels were in the ALCS, they played the Chicago White Sox, which drew a 15.8 rating in Los Angeles - but did a 26.4 rating here in Chicago. The Dodgers' appearance in last year's series against the Phillies drew a weaker 10.7 in L.A., but a 25.9 in Philadelphia.

As for the Bears telecast locally, it did a 33.9 household rating and a 50 share, meaning half of the TV sets were tuned to the game in the Chicago area.

But the Bears are 0-and 2 in Sunday Night Football games on NBC this year, with a Sept. 13 loss to Green Bay. The next SNF appearance for the Bears will be on Novemebr 22, a home game against the Eagles.

I guess NBC's bad luck is rubbing off on the Bears. The team's offense Sunday was about as disastrous as The Jay Leno Show.

Flashback: Remember last year when a reporter for TV ~~Weak~~ Week wrote that last year's World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies was a small-market matchup? Even though Philadelphia is the fourth-largest market with over 2 million people? Well... he's gone and so is TV ~~Weak~~ Week for the most part, now only a website with very little original content.

Sad. But it pays to get your facts straight.

at 10:43 PM

A post I wrote last Tuesday received some negative feedback, as yours truly painted a too-rosy picture of Comcast SportsNet's ratings regarding the Cubs and White Sox - particularly the latter team.

According to an article appearing in Sports Business Journal ranking Major League Baseball's thirty teams in terms of television ratings on games aired by their regional sports networks during the 2009 season, ratings for the Chicago White Sox for the 2009 season on Comcast SportsNet were up 8 percent from a year ago with a 2.2 Nielsen rating.

But those ratings still trailed those of the Cubs, which had a 4.1 rating, but down 16 percent from a year ago.

Some thought my post was too easy on the White Sox.

Give me a break.

My point was to mention Chicago's continued support of its baseball teams, even though both were out of contention by late August and the fact that two contending teams in Los Angeles who made the playoffs - the Angels and the Dodgers - were lower than those for Chicago. However, a few pointed out the Cubs beat the White Sox in the ratings once again and some have accused yours truly of ignoring this particular angle.

Well, big deal. Doesn't everybody know that already? Why should I tell something that's been told before?

Yours truly has addressed the situation regarding the White Sox before in previous posts over the years, here and here. Unfortunately for the team, they have no one to blame for but themselves, thanks to poor decisions made by management and continued inept marketing of the team. Four years removed from a World Series Championship, the White Sox have become nothing but a punchline for late-night jokes, similar to another second-banana team in the vain of the Los Angeles Clippers.

But the spinsters are always looking for something to blame for low ratings - Hawk Harrelson, the poor production of the broadcasts, etc.

What I pointed out is the ratings for White Sox games - and Cubs games for that matter - still outdrew most first-run and off-network syndicated programming in the Chicago market - which says more about the ailing broadcast syndication business than two second-rate baseball teams. I know its comparing apples to oranges, but still... after all, can anyone explain to me why Comics Unleashed, Martha Stewart and Steve Wilkos are still on the air with their bottom-basement ratings? I've seen rating sheets. White Sox baseball have outdrawn Everybody Loves to be a Friend of Earl, or whatever outdated dopey third-rate sitcom junk is airing on Fox-owned WPWR-TV or TBS nowadays.

Sure, Dr. Oz launched successfully this year. as did The Doctors last year. But most new syndicated fare since 2002 - the years hit shows Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Dr. Phil debuted in syndication - have flopped and flopped badly. The syndication business seems to be stuck in 1972 - with no original ideas or creatively whatsoever, with Oz and The Doctors lone exceptions (then again, the Cubs and White Sox seems to be stuck there as well given their recent decisions.) Yeah, we need more court, game, and talk shows like the White Sox needs another mediocre relief pitcher.

And to those of you who say I'm too soft on the teams, you should have read my Twitter page, where yours truly have been bashing the teams all summer long.

Look, this city's baseball fans are quite loyal - on both sides of town - and would rather watch bad baseball than bad television programming anytime (yes, even we have standards!)

But even the White Sox doesn't get credit for that - thanks to those who wants to turn this into another tired Cubs vs. White Sox story - even with both of their seasons over.

In other words, I stand by my story.

And to all of you who complain about the White Sox television broadcasts - there's always Big Brother or reruns of Everybody Loves to Hate Chris Payne & His House of Kids to watch on another channel.

at 11:20 PM

This week's Four Pack contains the baseball playoffs, some dancing, and Rachael Ray - oh my!

Winners

- Postseason baseball. Ratings for the divisional baseball playoffs on TBS were up from last year.... maybe because the Cubs and White Sox weren't in it?

- Rachael Ray. Her talk show is renewed until 2011-12 in 90 percent of the country, including WGN-TV here in Chicago. She's a winner, but for the rest of us....

- No more Jon & Kate. At least on TLC - it looks like society's most hated couple will get a little less exposure, with TLC mercifully pulling the plug on this inane program.

- Chicago radio. Yes, you read right! Many Chicago-area scored ratings increases in September in Arbitron's PPM survey, as schoolkids return from vacation and adults wind down summer activities.

Losers

- Dancing With The Stars. With a less-than-exciting cast (except for Mya and Donny Osmond) and ratings down by double-digits - not to mention negative press coverage, Dancing is this year's Heroes... and speaking of which...

- Heroes. Claire involved in a lesbian kiss. Wow, that'll boost ratings. No, not really.

- Secret Girlfriend. ... and speaking of lesbian kisses, this Comedy Central farce features a point-of-view angle where the viewer is friends with two guys - who are obsessed with boobs, liquor, and sniffing paint thinner all day. Then, their female "friends" comes to you, the viewer - and whine, whine, and whine .It makes the viewer go grab a shot gun and put all these idiots out of their misery. Secret Girlfriend by far, is the worst sitcom of the fall season - and in all of television history, even topping My Mother, The Car and Homeboys in Outer Space for this dubious honor.

- Wednesdays, 8 Eastern/ 7 Central. With all the programs airing on the broadcast networks down tremendously from year-ago time period ratings and shares, the real winners in this time slot are... Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann?

at 11:24 AM

Can't get into Twitter, so yours truly is posting Week Six NFL TV Distribution Maps here on the blog:

Fox: Single Game

CBS: Doubleheader: Game 1, Game 2

Home games involving the Oakland Raiders and the Jacksonville Jaguars are blacked out in their respective markets.

at 11:48 PM

After eight years at the Mandalay Bay Hotel And Report in Las Vegas, NATPE is packing up and headed to South Beach.

The National Association of Television and Programming Executive convention is moving to Miami and the 2011 convention will be held at the Fountainebleu and Eden Rock Hotels. The move is being made to accommodate more foreign buyers and of course, serve domestic buyers as well. The contract with the hotels is for 2011, with an option for 2012.

This year's convention in Las Vegas was not much of a success, with declining attendance - though the lackluster economy was partly to blame. There were also complaints about long walks from the hotel rooms to convention suites.

The 2010 convention is being held in Las Vegas from January 25-27, in a span of three days - as opposed to four in years past.

Thought: While the move to Miami is meant to revitalize the convention and make it more convenient for international buyers to come, NATPE is missing a real opportunity to connect with Hollywood power brokers by not holding the convention in the Los Angeles area.

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