Audacy Insights Ranks Top NFL Fandoms

Buffalo ranks as the U.S. market with the most avid NFL fans, leading Audacy Insight’s new NFL Attention Index with a score of 135, ahead of New Orleans at 120 and Cincinnati at 119.

Dallas-Fort Worth and Kansas City tied at 115. Baltimore, Milwaukee and the Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York market each scored 113, followed by Philadelphia at 111 and Columbus, Ohio, at 110. The index measures fandom across avidity, engagement and performance to gauge the time, energy and attention fans give the NFL and how that attention can translate for advertisers.

Nearly one-quarter of highly engaged NFL fans spend at least six hours a week on sports content beyond watching games, including 15% who spend six to 10 hours and 7% who spend 11 hours or more. Forty-seven percent follow news about their favorite teams at least weekly. On game days, 43% watch pre- or post-game television or streaming programming, 24% follow social media at the same time, 14% use a second screen or multiple screens, and 16% tailgate.

Disney Claims FCC Holding a “Guillotine” Over Its Head

Disney asked a federal judge on Tuesday to block the FCC from reviewing the broadcast licenses of the eight local television stations it owns and operates, calling the early review and possible revocation an existential threat and an unlawful violation of its First Amendment rights.

Lawyers for the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, made the request in U.S. District Court in Washington. The F.C.C., led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the agency has not yet decided the licenses’ fate and that Disney has not shown irreparable harm. Its lawyers relied largely on procedural grounds, saying judicial review was premature.

Disney attorney Beth Wilkinson asked the court to block the Trump administration’s early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses, likening it to the execution method used on Marie Antoinette. ABC has to “sit with our head on the guillotine and wonder if anything we say is going to make that come down.”

FCC Ordered To Respond To WTXF-29 License Renewal Challenge

The FCC has been ordered to respond to a writ of mandamus from the Media and Democracy Project seeking to force action on the group’s challenge to the license renewal of Fox Television Stations’ WTXF-29 in Philadelphia. The Commission has 30 days from Tuesday to answer the filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The petition asks the court to compel the full FCC to rule on MAD’s Application for Review of a Media Bureau decision that dismissed the group’s Petition to Deny the station’s renewal. It does not ask the court to decide whether WTXF should keep its license. MAD wants a final Commission order so it can seek judicial review of the merits.

TV Emmys Are Going to a Streamer

Amazon’s Prime Video will become the new home of the Emmy Awards beginning in 2027 under a six-year deal with the Television Academy, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Prime Video will hold global rights and plans to keep the ceremony available free outside its paywall, so viewers will not need an Amazon Prime subscription to watch.

Fox News Channel Observes 30-Year Anniversary

Fox News is marking its 30th anniversary with a ratings lead over rival cable news networks that has never been wider.

Jay Wallace, the network’s president and executive editor, credits that durability to consistent ownership and strategy. Wallace has been with Fox News since its launch, alongside CEO Suzanne Scott.

“We’ve had a pretty consistent model for 30 years,” Wallace said. He credited the Murdoch family’s stewardship with giving the network room to develop new products and pursue challenging stories.

Fox News’ lead over cable news rivals reached its widest point last year, according to Nielsen, and the network appears positioned to keep that margin this year, depending on the midterms.

Last year, Fox News averaged 1.69 million total-day viewers, compared with 551,000 for MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, and 432,000 for CNN. In prime time, the gap was larger: Fox News averaged 2.65 million viewers, compared with 915,000 for MS NOW and 573,000 for CNN.

Through Sept. 29, Fox News was ahead of CNN and MS NOW combined this year in both total-day and prime-time viewership.

That dominance does not extend by the same margin to the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers target. In 2025, Fox News averaged 180,000 viewers in that group across the total day and 278,000 in prime time, according to Nielsen. Both figures led CNN and MS NOW, though Fox News has posted substantially larger advantages in the demographic in previous years.

A key part of the network’s business durability has been an emphasis on products and talent that match the lifestyle and values of its core audience. That approach has allowed the brand to outlast major stars even after they leave.

Wallace dismissed the idea that Fox News is preoccupied with competing against former stars such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly. He said an increasingly fragmented media market gives both the network and independent personalities room to find their own audiences.

TV Ratings: 60-Minutes Audience Reaches 10.2M

CBS News’ “60 Minutes” drew 10.2 million viewers Sunday, its largest audience of the new season and a narrow gain over the comparable broadcast a year earlier, according to final Nielsen ratings.

The episode edged the 10.15 million viewers who watched the matching installment last season. It also marked a rebound from the season’s first two broadcasts. The Sept. 13 premiere drew 7.935 million viewers in final Nielsen Big Data + Panel ratings, down 21% from the 10.03 million who watched last year’s opener. The second episode drew nearly 6.8 million, slightly ahead of 6.45 million for the comparable show last season.

That second broadcast, which featured a heavily promoted interview with Patrick Clancy, also improved year over year in the key adults 25-to-54 demographic, drawing 1.1 million viewers compared with 917,000 a year earlier.

The ratings are being closely watched in the first full season under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who hired Nick Bilton as the program’s executive producer in May as the network cut veteran staff. 

Weiss’ own future at CBS News remains unsettled. The Post reported last week that Skydance CEO David Ellison is weighing possible changes to her role after the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Those changes could include narrowing her focus to editorial matters rather than the broader management duties she received when she became editor-in-chief last year, sources close to the situation told The Post. 

Skydance Now a Major Player In Sports Media

Paramount closed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, creating Skydance and instantly making the combined company a major force in sports media.

The deal gives Skydance rights across nearly every major professional sport and league except the NBA, a portfolio rivaled in breadth mainly by ESPN. CBS Sports parent Paramount and TNT Sports parent Warner Bros. Discovery are now one company expected to reshape both sports media and Hollywood.

Ellison, Kreiz Host First Skydance Employee Town Hall

Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz told employees Tuesday that the newly merged company will make “difficult decisions,” invest aggressively in storytelling and use technology to compete with the world’s largest tech firms, in the first town hall since the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal closed.

• Ellison said the merger, three years in the making, was not about getting bigger but about building a company that can compete with the largest technology firms for attention.
• He said the combined company will make “difficult decisions,” invest aggressively in storytelling, embrace new technology and reject managing decline.
• Ellison reaffirmed support for movies, television, theatrical exhibition, journalism, live sports and shared cultural experiences, citing the studios, franchises, libraries, talent and scale now under one roof.
• Kreiz set three goals: become the premier Hollywood content engine, accelerate streaming growth with better content, technology and fan experience, and optimize the profitable linear TV business anchored by CBS.
• He said Skydance will lean on creative relationships, production capacity and intellectual property, build a more technologically capable company, and use its scale and global reach.
• Kreiz urged employees to operate as one team, challenge conventions and develop new businesses, products, games and experiences, with success measured by execution in a competitive market.

R.I.P.: Freddie Jackson, Grammy Winning Singer

Freddie Jackson, the Grammy-nominated R&B singer known for the 1980s hits “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)” and “You Are My Lady,” died Monday at 70, three days after his birthday.

His family confirmed the death in a statement posted on his official Instagram account. No cause was given. Arrangements will be announced in the coming days.

Good Morning: The Pulse Has Your Briefing for Wed. Oct 7

Radio Broadcasting

Radio Moves The Needle: Buffalo ranks as the U.S. market with the most avid NFL fans, leading Audacy Insight’s new NFL Attention Index with a score of 135, ahead of New Orleans at 120 and Cincinnati at 119. MORE

GM Named for WPSU: WHYY has named Fred Vigeant general manager of news/talk WPSU (91.5) and PBS affiliate WPSU-TV in State College, Pa., after acquiring the Penn State-owned public media operation. MORE

Board Appointments Made: The NAB has named Erik Hellum first vice chair of the Radio Board executive committee and appointed Dave Santrella to the Radio Board of Directors. MORE

NFL Ratings: Prime Video's TNF Is Off To Great Start

Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” package is off to its best start in three seasons, averaging 17.44 million viewers through three games — 9% ahead of the same point last year, with a Dallas Cowboys game still to come this week.

Steelers-Browns in Week 4 drew 16.59 million viewers, 19% more than Seahawks-Cardinals in the same window a year ago. The game aired against the decisive Game 3 of the Phillies-Braves National League Wild Card series, which drew 6.1 million viewers on NBC — the best Game 3 of any Wild Card or Division Series since Mets-Dodgers on Fox in the 2006 NLDS. A night earlier, Red Sox-Yankees posted the best Game 2 of any Wild Card or Division Series since 2007, with 7.4 million viewers in prime time on NBC.

PA Radio: Fred Vigeant Named GM For WPSU-FM/TV

WHYY has named Fred Vigeant general manager of news/talk WPSU (91.5) and PBS affiliate WPSU-TV in State College, Pa., effective Oct. 26, after acquiring the Penn State-owned public media operation.

Vigeant will oversee the stations’ radio, television and digital services for central and northern Pennsylvania. He joins from WITF-FM/WITF-TV in Harrisburg, where he has been vice president and chief audience officer since 2022, overseeing programming, production and audience research. 

NAB Unveils New Radio Appointments

The National Association of Broadcasters has named Erik Hellum first vice chair of the Radio Board executive committee and appointed Dave Santrella to the NAB Radio Board of Directors, effective immediately.

The Sunshine Protection Act Stalls In U-S Senate

President Donald Trump publicly pressured Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., over the weekend to stop blocking year-round daylight saving time, sharing his personal phone number in a Truth Social post. “Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote, urging Arkansans to press their senator for what he called a bipartisan win. Cotton refused, saying Congress has enacted permanent daylight saving time before and repealed it after winter sunrises arrived absurdly late.

Radio History: Oct 7

 ➦In 1939…The radio soap drama Kate Hopkins, Angel of Mercy debuted CBS Radio.  It remained on-the-air until April 3, 1942.  The show's initial premise was that after Kate Hopkins' husband died in a fire, she became a visiting nurse to support herself and her young son in the mythical American town of Forest Falls.

➦In 1940…"Portia Faces Life" debuted on the CBS Radio Network after starting in syndication seven months earlier. The program starred veteran radio actress Lucille Wall, who had been on Your Family and Mine and other radio dramas since the mid-1920s.

Stations airing the series included WNAC in Boston, WLS in Chicago, KRLD in Dallas, KGW in Portland, Oregon and KFI in Los Angeles, according to newspaper advertisements.

Portia Faces Life continued on CBS until April 25, 1941. Three days later, it moved to NBC where it continued until March 31, 1944. It then returned to CBS as a summer series from April 3 to September 29, 1944. Heard on NBC from October 3, 1944 to June 29, 1951, the series continued until 1953, according to scripter Mona Kent who wrote every episode.  General Foods remained the sponsor through all 13 years of the radio series.

➦In 1952...“Bob Horn’s Bandstand” aired for the first time on WFIL-TV Philadelphia.  Dick Clark joined in 1955 as a substitute-host, and took over permanently in July ’56.   The program went network on ABC-TV as “American Bandstand” this same date in 1957.