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Clifford "T.I." Harris. CREDIT: Curtis Compton/ ccompton@ajc.com

It’s another reality TV program for Atlanta rapper T.I.

In 2009, MTV aired “The Road to Redemption,” where T.I. spent his time encouraging kids to avoid his fate before he entered prison for felony gun charges.

Two years later, he has exited an Arkansas prison after 10 months for violating the aforementioned gun conviction parole and has reality cameras following him around for MTV’s sister station VH1.

T.I.’s untitled show is set to air Dec. 5 at 10 p.m. for ten half-hour episodes.

His wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle was on BET’s “Tiny & Toya” show for two seasons before she left, leaving Toya Carter to do her own reality program solo.

In recent years, VH1 has been adding more …

Continue reading Atlanta rap star T.I. gets his second reality show »

Atlanta has the fewest households with TVs in at least five years, according to Nielsen. PHOTO CREDIT: Associated Press

More than 100,000 households disappeared from metro Atlanta’s population which owns TVs this past year, according to the latest Nielsen estimates. This caused the city to lose a spot in the Nielsen rankings to No. 9, falling behind Washington D.C. for the first time since 2006-07.

In 2011-12, metro Atlanta had 2,292,640 TV households, according to Nielsen. That’s the fewest in at least five years.

Eight out of the top 10 markets lost TV households. Only Los Angeles (No. 2) and Houston (No. 10) gained TV households.

The one-year drop in Atlanta was 4.8 percent, the sharpest fall in the top 10 markets.

A year earlier, all markets in the top 10 saw growth in TV households.

More people are dumping TVs in favor of using the Web and mobile devices for TV entertainment.  Plus, with the faltering economy, there are fewer households overall as people are living with …

Continue reading Atlanta loses more than 100,000 households with TVs, according to Nielsen »

Sillhouettes closed out "America's Got Talent" Tuesday night. CREDIT: NBC

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We are now close to the finals and these semi-final acts are all pretty darn good. Tonight, there wasn’t a true dog in the bunch. It’s going to be interesting to see who makes the final five to add on to last week’s five.

My guess of the top five are: Landon Swank, because he pulled off a great magic trick; Anna Graceman, because she is a cute kid who can sing; Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., because he has heart and croons Sinatra …

Continue reading ‘America’s Got Talent’ recap, semifinals part 2: going out with a bang! »

Atlanta-based Weather Channel had a  record-breaking deluge of viewers the past few days thanks to Hurricane Irene, which tortured the East Coast up into New England over the weekend.

At its peak, according to the New York Times, the station generated more than 4 million viewers on Saturday as the hurricane hit land in North Carolina. That’s the most viewers at any one moment in the network’s long history. It also had its best ever day on Saturday in ratings.

TVNewser provided Saturday’s figures for the Weather Channel vs. the other news networks.

Here are the numbers for Total Day viewing on Saturday (6am-2am)

Network
Total Viewers
A25-54

Weather Channel
2.77M
1.16M

Fox News
1.70M
530K

CNN
1.66M
632K

MSNBC
624K
220K

On Sunday, Fox News full day beat the Weather Channel 1.37 million to 1.29 million. CNN had 1.24 million viewers.

Continue reading Irene helps Weather Channel to record-breaking surge in ratings »

Andy Dean Litinsky got his start on radio at AM 750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB. He can now be heard from 1 to 4 a.m. weekdays. CREDIT: publicity photo

Earlier this year, Pete Spriggs, program director for AM 750 and 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB, gave a young, promising conservative talk show host Andy Dean a two-hour slot on Sundays to work on his craft.

Spriggs said he figured in a year or two, Dean would build enough experience to get a weekday gig somewhere.

It happened a lot faster than that. Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates shows such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, scooped Dean up last month and gave him an afternoon syndicated slot which debuted August 8 on 35 stations nationwide. The show is called “America Now” and you can listen to his show on his website www.americanowradio.com.

Spriggs didn’t have much in the way of openings on the weekdays but is placing him at 1 to 4 a.m. locally starting tonight.

Dean, Spriggs said, has this “Muhammad Ali” act where he dubs …

Continue reading Meet Andy Dean, new host on AM750 and 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB »

David Archer joins the Zone full time with Mike Bell starting August 29, 2011.

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David Archer (right) officially replaced David Pollack today on the afternoon show on 790/The Zone with Mike Bell at 3 p.m.

Bell, in an interview earlier this month, wouldn’t reveal who it would be but said he was much more stylistically similar to Archer than Pollack.

It didn’t take long for sports talk radio observers to figure out it was Archer. Archer, who does play by play for Falcons radio with Wes Durham, has been a regular fill in for Pollack. (Pollack is now working full time with ESPN.) Bell lobbied for Archer to take Pollack’s place and succeeded.

Bell on the air today said the contractual deal for Archer with the Zone dragged on a bit longer than he had expected.

Andrew Saltzman, president of the Zone, …

Continue reading David Archer replacing David Pollack on 790/The Zone, joining Mike Bell »

HLN host Nancy Grace arrives at the Orange County Courthouse for the trial of Casey Anthony, May 24, 2011, in Orlando. (Credit: AP Photo/Joe Burbank)

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This past spring, Atlanta was home to the ultimate “Dancing With the Stars” winner Hines Ward.

Could Atlanta resident and HLN host Nancy Grace make it a two-fer?

TMZ reports that Grace has begun rehearsing in Atlanta for the show. ABC will officially announce the cast tonight during “Bachelor Pad” and we’ll update this item with the entire cast list then.

UPDATE at 9:50 p.m. EST: The entire cast for season 13 is Rob Kardashian, Nancy Grace, Chaz Bono, J.R. Martinez (actor), Hope Solo (soccer), Elisabeta Canalis (George Clooney’s ex) Ricki Lake, Ron Artest, Kristin …

Continue reading TMZ reports: Atlanta’s Nancy Grace joining ‘Dancing With the Stars’ »

Do you want to see irascible, tart-tongued TV chef Gordon Ramsay up close and personal? He’ll be in town the week of Sept. 5 to try to fix two restaurants for his Fox show “Kitchen Nightmares.”

He’ll first stop by Michon’s in College Park, which has been around for 21 years, according to its website, and features seafood and smoked meats.

Ramsay and the show producers will be shooting at Michon’s Sept. 5 to 8. The reservation email address is collegeparkrest@gmail.com

He will then travel to Park’s Edge in Inman Park, which provides contemporary cuisine.

The show will be at Park’s Edge from Sept. 9 to 12. The reservation email is inmanparkrest@gmail.com

On the surface, Park’s Edge does not appear to be a restaurant that needs help, based on reviews.

One of our Food & More bloggers Jenny Turknett in January visited Park’s Edge and liked the food. So did 80 percent of reviewers on UrbanSpoon.com.

Here’s how the restaurant itself markets itself:

The menu offers an enticing array …

Continue reading Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ coming to Atlanta »

I stopped by Crash Clark’s birthday party at Steamhouse Lounge in Midtown Saturday evening to say hey to Steve Craig, in town from New York City. Craig, who recently lost his gig at New York City’s WRXP-FM when the station switched to a news format, is doing some sub work with Dave FM, including Mara Davis’ shift today and tomorrow.

Crash is the traffic guy on Dave FM’s Jimmy and Yvonne morning show and Ryan Cameron’s afternoon show on V-103.

Here are some pics I took before leaving for the Kevin Nealon show at the Punchine:

Crash Clark with CJ Simpson and Ryan Cameron. Ryan helped C.J. at Hot 107.9 many years ago get her start in radio. She's now doing syndicated work with Murph Dawg on stations such as Greenville, S.C.'s Hot 98.1 but not on any Atlanta stations since the Beat ended last year.

Crash with Fat Kid (AKA Jeremy Powell), who is Dave FM's morning show producer, who returned to work July 11 after two months. He's recovering from injuries sustained when Jimmy Baron …

Continue reading Crashing Crash Clark’s birthday party »

Several 9/11-themed programs are set this week, most notably TLC’s Sunday evening “Heroes of the 88th Floor.” Two unheralded heroes get deserved airtime and if you don’t get teary, you’re not human.

And you know it’s the end of the summer is near with “Royal Pains” on USA Wednesday ending its seasonal run, along with “Hot In Cleveland” on TV Land finishing season two an hour later. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Atlanta-shot “Sunday Best” on BET crowns its winner.

MONDAY

“Basketball Wives L.A.” 8 p.m. VH1 (new series) — VH1 is hoping to turn “Basketball Wives” into its own little “Real Housewives” franchise.
“Eureka” 8 p.m. Syfy — Sen. Wen conducts final evaluations of the Astraeus candidate.
“The Closer” 9 p.m. TNT — Squad members are deposed in regard to the lawsuit.
“HGTV Design Star” 9 p.m. HGTV — Nate Berkus guests.
“Hoarders” 9 p.m. A&E (fourth season finale) — A look at how five hoarders have done since season three.
“Warehouse 13” 9 …

Continue reading TV best bets with season finales of ‘Royal Pains,’ ‘Hot in Cleveland,’ ‘Sunday Best’ »