Reality television finds a home at Cook County Jail
All of a sudden, everybody’s trying to break in to Cook County Jail. For the second time in as many months, a cable network television series is originating from the Chicago complex described in a press release as “the largest single-site jail facility in the United States.” (Occupancy: nearly 10,000.)
At 9 p.m. on Jan. 1, MSNBC will premiere “The Squeeze,” a new crime series that follows the work of the Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department and explores the gang culture inside and outside of Cook County Jail. (Judging by its weekend and late-night lineups, MSNBC obviously has a thing for prison reality shows.) It’s the first of three one-hour episodes produced by 20 West Productions, the new documentary unit of Charlie Besser’s Chicago-based Intersport Inc. The company derives the name from its address at 20 W. Kinzie.
If the concept sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because the Discovery Channel beat MSNBC to the punch with “Cook County Jail,” an acclaimed three-part documentary series by Towers Productions, that focused on dangers inside the jail ranging from gang violence to mental illness among inmates. That series debuted Nov. 19. Several of 20 West’s key staffers are expatriates from Towers, the gold standard of the business. In 2007, Towers also produced MSNBC’s first Chicago documentary project, an episode of the series “Runaways.”
Both of the jail series were shot under the shrewd statesmanship of Steve Patterson, a former Sun-Times reporter who became director of communications for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and practically transformed his boss into a national media folk hero.
Click here for the link to a video clip and an interview with Steven Carroll, series producer of “The Squeeze,” from “Eight Forty-Eight” on Chicago Public Radio WBEZ-FM (91.5).
Elsewhere on the media beat:
- Despite assurances from NextMedia Group that its bankruptcy filing Monday would have no impact on day-to-day operations, Inside Radio reports the company likely will be forced to sell two of its nine stations in the Chicago area. The change in control of the company is expected to trigger FCC enforcement of its ownership limits. Until now, NextMedia’s seven FMs and two AMs had been grandfathered in over the limit. (The legal cap is five FMs.)
- Signing off Tuesday after 12 years as a daily contributor to news/talk WLS-AM (890), Ron Magers told afternoon host Roe Conn he was “sad to go away,” adding: “These are tough times in radio. You’ll survive them. You’re a very talented guy, and you’ve got talented people around you. You’ll work your way out of this thing.” Magers’ contract was not renewed by financially troubled parent company Citadel Broadcasting. He continues as primary news anchor at top-rated ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.
- Changes are coming in the New Year to “Eight Forty-Eight,” the weekday morning newsmagazine show on Chicago Public Radio WBEZ-FM (91.5), currently co-hosted by Richard Steele and Alison Cuddy. Plans are in the works to name one full-time permanent host. In conjunction with the revamping, “Eight Forty-Eight” will be on hiatus the week of Jan. 4. Full disclosure: Chicago Public Radio is the parent company of Vocalo.org — and my employer.
- Chicago broadcast legend Clark Weber, one of radio’s all-time class acts, will recite his traditional “A Cup of Christmas Tea” as part of a lineup of holiday specials Thursday and Friday on CRIS Radio, the audio reading service of the Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired. Other highlights include the Chicago Actors Studio’s “A Christmas Carol” and Bill Jurek’s “A Country Christmas.” Listen live at www.chicagolighthouse.org.
- From Denver comes a special holiday message from beloved former WLS talk show host Jay Marvin, who’s still in rehab after undergoing major surgery in August. (A life-threatening, massive infection attacked his spinal column. And that was just for starters.) “Please tell all the many people in Chicago who have not forgotten me and have hung through my illness with me: ‘Happy Holidays,’ ” Marvin wrote. “Hope to be better in the New Year.”
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12 2009
blogs.vocalo.org
MSNBC’s docs have brought ratings to their previously nonexistent weekend linuep (WEEKENDS WITH MAURY & CONNIE ANYONE?). Even if 99% are crime docs, they work. I can sure tell you Rob you wouldn’t want to be in prison with any of those hardened criminals. By the way, the criminals are hardened in several ways as some have even mentioned to the camera operators!
what about me?
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/blogshakalaka
today i do anagrams with jay cutler’s name, and i may or may not update “news without hd makeup,” but you can watch yesterday’s news. (i am, after all, yesterday’s news.)
um, as for today’s post, let’s see now. oh, yes. i once worked with msnbc anchor tamron hall. and that was like prison.
NextMedia is awful, and it’s about time the karma train stopped at Caton Farm Road in Crest Hill. There are quite a few people over there that deserve what they are getting and it is way overdue. Merry Xmas losers!
You have got to get up pretty early in the morning to ask about Bruce Wolf.
Reminds me of the time he sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley….
I was going to sponsor a Ultimate Fighting Event at the UC between Tamron Hall and Bruce Wolf — but Bruce backed out when Tamron became a 4-1 favorite to knock him out.
Seriously, I will pay someone how to teach Bruce Wolfe how to appropriately use social media. Better yet, I’ll ask Santa.
what about john blough and kitty marks?
yes, wasn’t your favorite part when i told pat hughes that i had “shpilkes” (yiddish for nervousness), and pat said, “bruce, what exactly are shmilkes?” i guess you had to be there.
ultimate fighting is pattycake compared with what went on at fox news in the morning.
i’m still waiting for the gentleman who so accurately remembered the details of jerry springer’s commentaries on channel 5 to inform us of the validity of the alleged spiking by channel 5 reporter paul hogan of a story that could have aborted carol moseley braun’s senatorial career. and if that spiking did occur, what did ron magers know about it and when did he know it? kind of interesting if true, no?
‘An acclaimed three-part documentary series by Towers Productions, that focused on dangers inside the jail ranging from gang violence to mental illness among inmates’ – accliamed by who? The show performed extremely poorly in the ratings. Having seen the first two shows I can see why. No storytelling, reliant on Avid generated edit effects and the derivative narrative of on-going jail violence. I am expecting more and better from the MSNBC show.
ROBERT FEDER RESPONDS: As far as I’m concerned, Paul, ratings have nothing to do with critical acclaim. You may disagree, but here’s the link to what I consider a positive review by the Reader:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/11/19/three-part-discovery-channel-series-on-the-cook-county-jail-begins-tonight
Towers Productions the ‘Gold Standard’? Please. Having suffered the indignity of working there for six months I can tell you they are not. I don’t think there is a producer in the company over 26 years of age. Towers productions exist to make low budget facsimiles of previously aired shows. The Cook County Jail series was no different … looking like a poor episode of ‘Lock Up’ with tourettes. If you are going to blog Mr. Feder, let’s leave the promotion of companies to their own press people please. And as a Chicago resident, I too hope for a better documentary from MSNBC.