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Apr 2011
Above the Fold | May 2011 | Mar 2011

D-FW ratings have more import than usual on opening night of May "sweeps"

04/29/11 01:29 PM
The Dallas Mavericks' close-out of Portland and opening night of the NFL draft were among the many high-wattage attractions on Day 1 of the May "sweeps" ratings competition. Get all of the major results on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Mavericks advance to Round 2, but DMN columnist who branded them "gutless" no longer seems to have an opinion

04/29/11 10:17 AM
Did the Dallas Mavericks deserve to be branded "gutless" after that Game 4 debacle? Definitely not. But the Dallas Morning News sports columnist who swung the meat ax hasn't had a word to say about the team since -- at least not in print. For shame. Our opinion is here.
Ed Bark

"Ask Uncle Barky" -- and you shall receive

04/28/11 03:24 PM
Our "Ask Uncle Barky" feature makes a triumphant return -- hey, we're getting into self-congratulatory May ratings "sweeps" mode -- with a nice selection of your questions about national and local TV. Oddly enough, you can find it on the "Ask Uncle Barky" page.

Also, CBS correspondent Lara Logan has returned to work and will be on 60 Minutes Sunday to make the first public comments about the February beating and sexual assault she survived while covering February's revolution in Egypt. We have more details and a video excerpt here. And Wednesday's D-FW Nielsen ratings show surprisingly solid ratings for a two-hour repeat of NBC's The Voice, which had gotten off to a strong start on the previous night.
Ed Bark

NBC's The Voice has three Texans in initial "Battle Round" field of 12

04/27/11 06:13 PM
The Voice has NBC programmers making some joyful noises after Tuesday's two-hour premiere drew strong ratings. Three of the first 12 contestants selected by the show's four celebrity judges are from Texas. Get the details on our TV Bulletin Board page.
Ed Bark

Dallas-based WFAA8's Daybreak wakes up with newcomer Ron Corning, but still breaks too many eggs

04/27/11 03:18 PM
WFAA8's Daybreak set sail with its fifth male anchor in less than three years Wednesday. And Ron Corning already seems better than the show itself, which still has some plumbing problems. Our review is here.

Plus, how did NBC's big two-hour premiere of The Voice do Tuesday night? And which D-FW news operation won weather-palooza? Our latest ratings "snapshot" as usual is on the Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

A second bite at Tuesday's D-FW weather-palooza

04/27/11 10:04 AM
After Tuesday's post on weathercaster attire, we revisit all of the program pre-emptions and viewer disgruntlement in a Wednesday missive that also notes Fox4's continuing inability to air HD pictures and weather bugs/crawls at the same. It's all on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page. Also, apologies for our server being down for a while earlier this morning.
Ed Bark

NBC5's Finfrock still keeping his shirt on -- and his coat, too!

04/26/11 07:03 PM
Severe weather in parts of the North Texas viewing area again brought all of the main weathercasters into constant view Tuesday afternoon and evening. NBC5's David Finfrock, as you'll see on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page, stood out in more ways than one.
Ed Bark

Couric leaving CBS -- and ramping up the drama by the way she made it official

04/26/11 03:19 PM
As long rumored, Katie Couric will be leaving the CBS Evening News anchor chair when he contract with the network expires on June 4th. But the way in which she announced the news has not charmed her soon-to-be ex-employer. Get all the details on our Network News & Reviews page.

Plus, Monday's D-FW Nielsen ratings highlight the Dallas Mavericks' big Game 5 playoff win against Portland. But were the Mavs a big enough draw to beat Dancing with the Stars? Yes and no.
Ed Bark

Making a case for the Mavs (so sue me)

04/25/11 10:10 AM
Saturday's fourth quarter catastrophe has made the Dallas Mavericks easy targets again. One Dallas newspaper columnist is calling them "gutless." Your friendly content provider disagrees while also having the temerity to question three key officiating calls down the home stretch of Game 4 in Portland. Our counter-attack is here.
Ed Bark

WFAA8's Campos on the mend again while CW33's Crome ending long term as sports anchor-reporter

04/25/11 08:15 AM
WFAA8 anchor Gloria Campos had back surgery on Good Friday and will be off the air for at least this week and perhaps longer. And CW33 sports anchor-reporter Dave Crome is the latest to leave the station after surviving much longer than most. The details on Campos are here and the Crome story is here.
Ed Bark

Reporter Sophia Reza leaving Fox4

04/22/11 04:51 PM
Reporter Sophia Reza has resigned from Dallas-based Fox4 to join her husband in Seattle after he took a new job. Further details are on the Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Fox4 meteorologist Ron Jackson loses Cedar Hill home in Good Friday fire

04/22/11 03:48 PM
A fire of still undetermined origin has gutted the Cedar Hill home of longtime Fox4 meteorologist Ron Jackson. He provided more details, including the sad loss of some pets, on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Dan, Dan, he's their man (Fox4's Dan Godwin may not be the station's leading man, but he's survived as an all-purpose go-to guy)

04/22/11 01:23 PM
Fox4's Dan Godwin is one of the D-FW television market's consummate utility men. This week he sucked it up and took two live rides in the front seat of the newly refurbished Texas Giant rollercoaster. We give him a few props here.
Ed Bark

Hooray for the return of HBO's Treme (prounced Tre-MAY)

04/22/11 12:00 PM
review is here.

Plus, the Dallas Mavericks' Game 3 playoff loss at Portland threw its overall audience for a loss, too. At least compared to Game 2. Get all the details on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Long ago, in pre-Snooki times, PBS birthed the first full-blown "reality" series

04/21/11 05:09 PM
PBS' 1973 An American Family, a 12-hour fly-on-the-wall look at the fractious Louds of Santa Barbara, can be (dis)credited with birthing the still exploding "reality" TV movement. The new HBO movie Cinema Verite recreates those times with the star power of Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini. Our review is here.

Plus, Wednesday's D-FW Nielsen ratings show high times for Fox/Fox4 and some pluck for the local Peacock.
Ed Bark

Watson vs. Obama: a fuller view after the national stir

04/20/11 07:03 PM
WFAA8 reporter Brad Watson's interview with President Obama quickly made national waves. But did Dallas viewers get the full picture? WFAA8's posting of the raw footage definitely merits a second look, which we do here while Watson and station management decline to explain further.

Plus, Tuesday's D-FW Nielsen ratings are another big blow to TXA21's homegrown Dallas Mavericks telecast, which was buried by TNT's nationally aired presentation. And Dallas-based KERA13 cancels the Friday night TV version of the locally produced Think.
Ed Bark

NBC again plans to ride 'em Cowboys on new Sunday Night Football schedule

04/19/11 07:26 PM
The Peacock's 2011 Sunday Night Football scheduled is newly announced, and the Dallas Cowboys are the only losing team from last season with the maximum three games. In fact, just one other losing team has even one SNF game. The details are on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Rangers keep rolling in ratings

04/19/11 06:04 PM
Monday's concluding hour of the Texas Rangers' home win over the Angels beat both a new episode of Hawaii Five-0 and a Babs Walters royal wedding special. Get all the details, plus other notable Nielsen numbers, on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Plus, we have a link to a Denver TV reporter's one-on-one interviews with President Obama so that you can compare it to the much-commented on sit-down between the president and WFAA8's Brad Watson.
Ed Bark

Toe to toe: WFAA8's Brad Watson squares off with the president, who doesn't much like his style

04/19/11 11:59 AM
President Obama granted a brief audience Monday to four local TV stations from around the country. Dallas-based WFAA8 was one of them, and reporter Brad Watson wasn't about to ride off into namby pamby land. Our review of their at times clenched encounter is here, where you also can have a look at Jane Slater's first day on the air as WFAA8's new "traffic anchor."
Ed Bark

Louis-Dreyfus segues to Cadillac of cable networks to play nation's No. 2 politico

04/18/11 12:38 PM
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose mega-stardom in Seinfeld led to the less fertile New Adventures of Old Christine, will move to HBO for her latest comedy series. The details are on our TV Bulletin Board page, where you also can get the specs on a new cockamamie reality competition series coming soon to NBC.
Ed Bark

Mavs also man up in D-FW ratings

04/18/11 11:55 AM
The Dallas Mavericks' gut check Game 1 playoff win over Portland (all the more impressive after both the Spurs and Lakers lost their home openers) amassed the team's biggest audience this season Saturday night.

Still, there's a cloud hanging over Mavs owner Mark Cuban's decision to "freshen" the local telecasts by dumping veteran analyst Bob Ortegel late in the season. Get all the details on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.

Plus, on my home away from home, locatetv.com, there's a play-around review of Monday night's made-for-TV William & Kate movie on Lifetime.
Ed Bark

Reporter Jane Slater switching D-FW stations -- from CBS11 to WFAA8

04/15/11 01:35 PM
Reporter Jane Slater, who's been freelancing for CBS11, is joining forces with rival WFAA8 -- beginning Monday. More details are on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

David Hasselhoff journeys to small Texas town to meet -- wait for it -- David Hasselhoff

04/15/11 12:56 PM
There are a million and one ideas for reality TV series out there. Here's another one that made the cut: Celeb meets same-named commoner and walks a mile in his/her shoes. Which means that there's more than one David Hasselhoff out there -- and he lives in Texas. Details are on the Network News & Reviews page.
Ed Bark

Tough times for three new comedies but not for the start of Will Ferrell's four-episode arc on The Office

04/15/11 12:02 PM
The D-FW Nielsen ratings for Wednesday and Thursday show minimal returns for NBC's The Paul Reiser Show, ABC's Happy Endings and Fox's Breaking In. But that Will Ferrell dude knows how to pack 'em in. Wednesday's numbers are here, and Thursday's are here.
Ed Bark

Can the Mavs man up?

04/15/11 09:15 AM
Expectations remain low, at least among most prognosticators, as the Dallas Mavericks prepare to take their season-long reality show to a much more cutthroat playoff proving ground Saturday night. Will they finally show some grit and gristle? Our assessment, plus a dig at Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich, is on the Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Turn on the lights: NBC's FNL beginning its final broadcast network run

04/14/11 06:53 PM
Austin's finest -- and the only long-running TV series without abundant Texas stereotypes -- begins its final 13-episode run on NBC Friday night. That would be Friday Night Lights. And our appreciation is here.
Ed Bark

Two daytime soaps going down, just four more remaining

04/14/11 03:14 PM
ABC brought the hammer down on All My Children and One Life to Live Thursday, and will be supplanting them with two new food and lifestyle hours. All the details are on our TV Bulletin Board page.
Ed Bark

HBO's Game of Thrones unfolds like a game of chess (when it should be checkers)

04/14/11 02:18 PM
HBO's first entry into the fantasy realm launches Sunday with Game of Thrones. Adapted from the George R. R. Martin series of books, it's looking like a slog instead of a splash. Our review is here.
Ed Bark

Hey, isn't that? . . . NBC's The Paul Reiser Show re-introduces him as himself

04/13/11 10:15 AM
On-air promos for The Paul Reiser Show cast him as a true believer that you've probably forgotten all about him. Instead he promotes Will Ferrell's guest arc on The Office. So is the former Mad About You star's new sitcom forgettable -- or maybe a keeper? Well, it's definitely derivative. Our review is here.
Ed Bark

Evolution of humankind -- from "The Bro/manzier" on Seinfeld to a "bra for the booty" on Good Morning Texas

04/12/11 06:38 PM
Tired of having a pancake-flat behind? WFAA8's Good Morning Texas recently aired a pre-paid, in-studio segment about a line of products that can have butts bubbling up in no time. Meanwhile, Western Civilization took another kidney punch, and this time might not fully recover. See exactly what we're talking about on the ever-eventful Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

Some looks back at heir apparent Scott Pelley

04/12/11 11:00 AM
Former KXAS/WFAA reporter Scott Pelley is widely perceived as the frontrunner to replace Katie Couric as anchor of the CBS Evening News. On our Back Channels page, we revisit the way he was in interviews tied to his 1997 promotion to chief White House correspondent and his battlefield exploits during the early stages of the Iraq war.
Ed Bark

ABC's Happy Endings is a comedy that deserves more happy returns

04/11/11 06:47 PM
We're in the final month before the broadcast networks officially announce what they'll be adding, subtracting and keeping for next fall. ABC's new Happy Endings is a sitcom-come-lately, but nonetheless a surprisingly amusing one. Our review is here.
Ed Bark

NBC's LOLA re-arms by offing one of its own

04/11/11 12:19 PM
As NBC's on-air promos show, a re-tooled Law & Order: L.A. (LOLA) does not bode well for Skeet Ulrich's detective character. But will Monday's two-hour makeover be a gainful proposition on a network that keeps shooting itself in the foot? Our review is here.
Ed Bark

Buyers beware: Auction Hunters stars invade Garland, TX

04/07/11 06:38 PM
The stars of Spike TV's Auction Hunters hit the skids, er, the sheds, in Garland, TX Thursday morning. They didn't end up buying anything, but talked a good game. Our first-hand account is on the Network News & Reviews page.
Ed Bark

NBC5's Grant Stinchfield opts for entirely new line of work

04/07/11 01:29 PM
Veteran NBC5 reporter Grant Stinchfield is making a big U-turn in careers after deciding that the local TV news business has gotten too chancy. Get his candid assessment -- and what he'll be doing next -- on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.

Plus, Wednesday's D-FW Nielsen ratings also are in the house.
Ed Bark

Showtime trumpets the real-life "working stiffs" of Gigolos

04/06/11 02:50 PM
Laughable, pathetic but certainly not inhibited, the new "reality" series Gigolos shows the members of its members' only club during the course of one sexual assignment after another. Our review is up and running here.
Ed Bark

Cougar town throwdown on CBS11's morning eye-opener

04/06/11 04:10 AM
It got a little dicey Monday during the CBS11 early morning news, with radio personality Jody Dean using the term "hoochie" to describe the attire of one of the show's frisky co-anchors. New low? See how it all unfolded on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.
Ed Bark

It can't get any worse for NBC, can it? (It just did)

04/05/11 02:29 PM
In what amounts to a seismic shift, NBC now is the first Big Four broadcast network to trail Univision nationally in the key target audience of 18-to-49-year-old viewers. And it's happened twice in the past three ratings weeks. Unclebarky.com takes a closer look at these telltale Nielsen numbers on the Network News & Reviews page.
Ed Bark

NCAA's rim-clanging "Big Dance" finale vs. ABC's Dancing as usual

04/05/11 01:14 PM
Monday night's D-FW Nielsens were a battle for bragging rights between CBS' mis-firing NCAA hoops championship game and the usual histrionics on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. We've got the final scores right here.
Ed Bark

Wild about Harry? Smith would be best choice to succeed Couric

04/05/11 12:10 PM
Dutiful Harry Smith has done everything that's been asked of him during his long career at CBS News. Now they should ask him to succeed Katie Couric as anchor of the Evening News. We make his case here.
Ed Bark

Dallas Morning News millionaires club further pads wallets; worker bees can only buzz about it

04/04/11 06:55 PM
The top executives at the A.H. Belo-owned Dallas Morning News hit the jackpot again last year while their employees have been without raises for several years and counting. Get the details and our take here in a story that was first reported by the CBS television affiliate in Providence, R.I., where Belo also owns a newspaper.
Ed Bark

Beware of Fox's Breaking In entering your living room

04/04/11 05:41 PM
Fox wastes a coveted post-American Idol slot on a big dud Wednesday night. Our review of Breaking In, which at least was fun to write, is here.
Ed Bark

WFAA8 pointedly points out what it has and rivals don't -- a trophy case full of Peabodys

04/04/11 12:10 PM
WFAA8's seventh prestigious Peabody award win last week has spurred a quick promo in which the Dallas-based station finds its rivals wanting. You can see it on our Dallas-Fort Worth TV page, where the latest local Nielsen "snapshot" shows WFAA8 without any ratings wins for the third straight weekday.
Ed Bark

Poke at the Pope: Showtime's The Borgias depicts the Holy Father as The Godfather

04/03/11 02:01 PM
The Tudors gave Showtime a four-season run through the iniquities of King Henry VIII. The network follows up Sunday night with The Borgias, which depicts the wretched excesses of Pope Alexander VI, beginning in the year after li'l Hank was born. Our review is here.

Also, reports from Detroit say that Charlie Sheen bombed big time on opening night of his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour. He's due in Dallas on April 27th, but will he make it this far? And if so, who's idiotic enough to go see him -- even if you already have a ticket?

Plus, our earlier posted reviews of two other big Sunday night attractions have reverted to the March 2011 archives. You can find AMC's The Killing here and ReelzChannel's The Kennedys here.

Not quite done yet. Thursday's D-FW Nielsen ratings are here, with all of our previous coverage of early morning local TV intrigues now in the March 2011 archives on the Dallas-Fort Worth TV page.

Furthermore, here's another friendly reminder that unclebarky.com will always be a free of charge website. But if you want to help out at no extra cost, please make your amazon.com purchases after first clicking through any of the ads on unclebarky.com pages. Your friendly content provider will then get 4 percent of any purchase. Our other ads are click-ons. So if anything really interests you, at least take a look. It all adds a little fuel to this market's only independent, home-grown television website. And I thank you.
Ed Bark