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  1. The problem with Scripps stations like Fox 4 Ft Myers removing all talent (minus weather) from newscasts its that they're axing some of tv's last stand--personality. In the era of information overload where you can get news from anywhere, WHO is giving you the news definitely draws an audience. I used to tease my mom for always turning in to a specific channel to see a specific weather man when all stations give the same forecast. But that's what gives tv stations and talent power---the ability to command an audience.
    11 points
  2. Please keep the wishcasting for a sale to Hearst in the Speculation board, please. Most of the groups seem to have reported less-than-impressive recent business results. This isn't a Scripps problem. Returning newscasts to "traditional" shows vs. Scrippscast isn't going to drastically change how people consume media, nor will it change the political landscape to drive up political advertising.
    10 points
  3. The more I think about Dana getting demoted, the more it annoys me. I get if there are budget cuts to make, but to make her a fill-in anchor is such a classless move when she’s nearing the end of her career. If you want her off evenings, fine. However, why not just make her the official noon anchor at this point instead of having it rotate between Chris and Mary. Give that newscast some stability, similar to how ABC 7 has Sandra Bookman on at noon. Lighten their workload, give Dana her own newscast, and then if she has to fill in for the evening newscast it doesn’t appear as insulting, because we know she’s already there in the studio for the noon newscast. Just a thought. Or, they could also have her and Cindy do 9am and Noon so there could be some conversation, similar to how ABC 7 does their 10am show. Dana, Cindy, and John is a great pairing in my eyes at least. Plus it pairs up to two longest-tenured anchors, and they’re friends, so the chemistry is already there.
    9 points
  4. *Byron Allen has entered the chat*
    8 points
  5. During the bridge collapse I found myself looking at Hearst's WBAL or turning to DC stations like WRC & WTTG because of the quality issues with the other three stations in Baltimore (CBS O&O, Scripps, Sinclair). It's crazy how much Scripps has fallen in such a short time that we could put them in the same sentence as Sinclair. Again, just looking at WPTV in the last 4-5 years is evidence. Scripps is quickly becoming a cheaper version what CBS O&Os often are --- coorperate and lacking local flavor.
    7 points
  6. The number of women in the NFL fanbase has been growing since long before a certain female superstar started dating a certain Chiefs player. Not to mention there are women on NFL coaching staffs and front offices.
    7 points
  7. That’s because it is hyperbole. The world is not frozen in time and there is not one single way to do things. Sometimes things are done for variety, sometimes because something is temporarily unavailable, sometimes because in the judgement of those tasked with making the decision, something wasn’t working. We’re not talking about an assembly line where doing things to precise specifications every time is a matter of quality and safety. It’s perfectly fine to draw from several options.
    7 points
  8. Y'all are going to be very disappointed when Scrippscasts become the industry norm, not the exception. If there's one thing local television enjoys, it's xeroxing the heck out of each other.
    7 points
  9. This is honestly devastating news to hear. I know linear television is in decline, but this is how you start turning off those viewers who you do have left. I’ve recently been thinking about how the NYC TV news market has evolved over the last three decades. What I thought was interesting is that WCBS went from being the most unstable operation to the most stable (at least in terms of the anchor desk). Not a single weekday change occurred from when Chris replaced Rob in mornings in 2013 until 2019 when Alex Denis left and John Elliott was moved to weekends. Even then, until John came back to weekdays, the stability was incredible— with the only anchor change being to add Dick at 6 and bring Cindy back to weekdays. (Speaking exclusively about WCBS weekdays— weekends and WLNY went through a lot of evolutions during this period.) The problem with the WCBS operation is not the anchors— the anchors are familiar faces now. It is the massive churn of reporters. Part of the reason why WABC thrives is because their reporters don’t spend a few years at the station on the way to something else. Dana is the soul of WCBS. The station neglected and diminished her for the last decade, but she has been the constant. Maurice and Kristine are great anchors, I cannot take that away from them. They do not come off as people who really like each other much (Kristine would much rather be back next to Wragge), but they are good anchors. But we don’t need more of them. Dick has been a solid contributor since he joined WCBS. He also deserves a prominent role at the station. For a while now I’ve wondered why WCBS is wasting talent that they have. I think Cindy is probably the single best anchor they have— she has a way of striking the right tone that Chris and Mary just don’t. Why does she only do 30 minutes on linear daily? Why does she not coanchor the noon newscast — a newscast that was hers for 15 years— with her friend Dana? I also think Natalie Duddridge is under-utilized (she has grown significantly the last few years and is a very good fill in anchor). At the same time, I think Doug Williams is overrated (he lacks the charisma of his father and is awkward with reporters and coanchors). Regardless, he won’t be at WCBS for long, just like his father wasn’t. I also, contrary to many in this forum, find Alice to be bland and boring and I also think Jessica is fine on weekends but could never be a weekday talent. Let’s also acknowledge the industry might be moving in the direction of less anchors doing more newscasts, but this city isn’t. WCBS is returning to a period of four weekday anchors (plus Cindy at 9, but since she is underutilized, it is essentially four)— reminiscent of 2003 when Cindy/Michael did AM/noon and Dana/Ernie did 4:30-6:30 and 11. Back then, the station produced 5 hours of daily news; currently the station produces 8 + the half hour Atlanta newscast. Meanwhile, PIX just expanded to a fourth evening anchor, WNYW just moved a morning anchor to have a third in the evening, and depending on how you count, WABC has more than seven anchors for 7.5 hours of daily newscasts. Dana has been on the weekday anchor desk since 1992? 1993? More than 30 years. She has been on from 6-6:30 at WCBS for more than 25 continuous years— since I believe 1999 (for a few years post-massacre she was moved to 5pm). And this is a horrible and cruel way to work her out the door. “Fill in anchor.” Yeah, we will see her do that a half dozen times before her contract isn’t renewed and she is pushed out of the station. Just want to put a few stats out there before I close: Dana is the longest ever anchor at WCBS (nearly 34 years total, 30+ years weekday — Jim Jensen spent 31 years at the station and was a weekday anchor for 29) Kristine is the longest serving 11pm anchor at WCBS (Kristine is currently at 16+ years; Michele had about 14.) Kristine and Maurice are the longest ever anchor pair at WCBS (13 years; previously Jensen and Rolland Smith spent 12 years together) But you know, this was always the most likely outcome at this station. Look at the way they treated other station icons like Jim Jensen and Michele Marsh. I genuinely thought Johnny/Sarah were an improvement over Peter/David. Doesn’t look that way now. It is a cruel business, but it doesn’t have to be like this.
    7 points
  10. WMAR is already back to their regular schedule and Scrippscast like features on their livestream (including of the Key bridge story...not the time for this at all!) as WBAL and WJZ haven't left the live air since 2am, and WBFF is doing the best it can. This is about as much of an indictment on how bad Scripps has become and their generational neglect of WMAR as a whole.
    6 points
  11. Overall a solid new look for 6ABC, watching the broadcast right now. And wow, the "Action News" format is very apparent with the new package. The pace of the newscast is notably quicker than the big sister up north. I never fully watched an Action News broadcast before. But overall, it's a solid product. Glad they kept the music theme too! At this point is KABC the only station now left to get the update? Seems like most of the O&Os have converted now at this point.
    6 points
  12. WPVI hasn’t debuted the new look in full yet, but they debuted their version of the open today. (h/t @24994J) RPReplay_Final1710131284.mov
    6 points
  13. To piggyback on this: I assume that all of the posters here are men, just as I am. Y'all/We aren't even in the main demographic age-wise or gender-wise for The Young and the Restless or The Talk, and most of you probably don't watch either show. I don't watch either, either. So, to say that Y&R and/or The Talk should be cut in half or altogether canceled outright is short-sighted and silly. Especially as both shows still make money for the network even if viewership levels aren't what they were at each show's peak. With that said, I will be surprised if this proposed soap makes it beyond the developmental stage, let alone to CBS. And if it does, it's a prime candidate for streaming. (I was going to say BET, but who knows if it'll be owned by Paramount Global a year from now.)
    6 points
  14. this is why think reporters should get a *separate* friends only social media where they can post almost whatever they want. Keep your public profile clean and brand related. EDIT: and block your job from seeing your IG story, maybe even block them totally if you can.
    6 points
  15. I truly appreciate that you care about visual presentation standards. But I don't see the lack of a high camera or the shift to chromakey as the lowering of the bar for local news. Endless "local" newscasts filled with national stories from network news services, repurposed packages from ownership sister stations, and copious time spent on television talking about "what people are talking about online". Local newscasts with a shrinking amount of actual community news. That's lowering the bar for news. Not a few tweaks to how a newscast is shot.
    6 points
  16. The cost is one part of it - but the other elephant in the room is staffing the endless newscasts most stations are doing. Recruiting producers was a challenge before the pandemic hit four years ago, and the brain drain there has only gotten worse. The Scrippscast model doesn't solve the retention problem - but it is one way to function in an environment where there aren't enough people willing to do the job. (and hopefully, lighten the load and reduce the misery for the ones stations have left)
    6 points
  17. I don’t mean to offend you, but this is a nothingburger. Changes happen on the fly during a newscast all the time. There are instances where stories are cut due to time constraints. There’s absolutely nothing to get worked up about here when these are things that very few people will actually notice. So they shot the set from a different angle…big deal.
    6 points
  18. So sorry to hear the news about Dana Tyler and Dick Brennan, especially Dana, given her tenure at the anchor desk. She survived a lot of format and management changes over the years and has been an evening anchor for over 30 years! Also, how boring to have Maurice and Kristine at 6. It was weird to have Dana and Dick there only for a half hour at 6, but better than the same anchors from 5-6:30. Bad decision in my opinion.
    6 points
  19. This. Houston is a great example where the CBS affiliate historically struggled behind ABC and NBC stations until Oprah bolstered them into a competitive and then (although brief) a market leader. WFAA's lead in Dallas started to slip when Oprah ended her show. Outside of that, it was always puzzling to me why CBS News and CBS stations generally performed so badly despite having the dominating entertainment division.
    6 points
  20. It has a lot to do with lead-ins. WCBS had Judge Judy at 4 and the 5:00 was doing well. Then they lost Judge Judy and immediately fell. They picked up the show again and shot back up to #2. WABC had Oprah at 4 and those viewers made them #1 at 5. The winning allowed the station to remain stable in terms of talent and presentation. When Oprah ended her show and WABC replaced it with a newscast, viewers were already so accustomed to Eyewitness News that they largely stayed with them. Syndicated and network lead-ins are huge, along with stability (which is often a chicken-or-the-egg-type thing with winning).
    6 points
  21. They have two reporters on site, and perhaps they are reporting for other affiliates. Regardless, it is a story with major implications for the economy, and we're not that far away that sending a couple of reporters to provide coverage is an issue. They can take the national stuff, but there's value in having a recognized part of the team there early on.
    5 points
  22. Love that WNBC is dipping into the archives for Chuck! Take your daughter to work day (Mid 90s) Chuck and Sue dancing (1980s)
    5 points
  23. WAVE is launching GrayONE an hour from now at 11/10c. They've been running promos teasing of it over the last week(s). As an aside, can we change the name of this thread to "The GrayONE-ification Thread" or something similar?
    5 points
  24. Caught a promo earlier today celebrating Chuck Scarborough anchoring the news on WNBC for 50 years. Seems NBC4 has a lot planned next week. More info is on the station’s website: nbcnewyork.com/chuck
    5 points
  25. Certainly not the issue at all as they've done their best to improve the signal as far as they can get it and their facility is very modern. The problem is everyone else has had plenty of time to establish themselves and NBC Boston is pretty much a bodged-together combo of NECN and Telemundo NE with the addition of some other talent. Like in Milwaukee or Atlanta post-94, it's going to take an entire generation of talent to cycle out before they can consider themselves competitive, and where some stations were able to get a big syndicated show to lighten the load off news, that certainly isn't happening at all in 2024.
    5 points
  26. You know it's Atlanta, but you said Detroit.
    5 points
  27. A recent interview in Newsday featured Katiy Tong: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/kaity-tong-wpix-qhg4zhj3 She reflected on her time at WABC (where there were protests in 1991 when she was dropped as anchor) and WPIX (where she reminisced about her time with Jim Watkins). She also mentioned that her recovery has not been easy. Hoping for the best for her.
    5 points
  28. FWIW, WBNS dropped “Eyewitness News” around 2007, when its newscasts went HD. More obvious is the exodus of well-known and experienced talent from these stations, plus a decline in production values.
    5 points
  29. Welcome to TEGNA -- They've screwed a slew of legacy stations over, including WTHR and WBNS to name a few...
    5 points
  30. Our inside source says it'll be a few weeks before the ticker and set screens get switched over. Heck, the new opens are temporary, since they're still the winter ones.
    5 points
  31. THIS JUST IN: WPVI (6abc Philadelphia) has officially SWITCHED and it looks GREAT!!
    5 points
  32. NextTV gave us more: So this isn’t meant to air exclusively in the morning hours like Live with Kelly & Mark is and Daily Buzz was. It will also premiere sometime this summer, before the preseason kicks off.
    5 points
  33. On the one hand, I’ll admit there are worse ways to make cuts than by producing a Scrippscast. Given that Sinclair has resorted to shutting down entire newsrooms and pumping in a questionable product from DC, it’s not so bad by comparison. Better to have a station continue to cover local stories with less than ideal resources/production than to have a local newsroom shut down entirely. However, I still don’t think that this is good for broadcast journalism. IMO, a lot of these Scrippscasts (for example, see WTXL) look hastily put together, and it seems as though they do the bare minimum to cover local stories. The national content often has little to no relevance to the viewer in that market. I’m not totally against the idea of reducing the role of the anchor to save costs, but unless that money is going into more robust local journalism and providing greater context to local issues, it’s a bit disingenuous for Scripps to frame this as a positive evolution in local news. It’s just cost cutting. It certainly seems like this is the future of local news, but we don’t have to like it.
    5 points
  34. So instead of using it as a learning opportunity for everyone in the newsroom, let’s fire/cancel the guy? I fail to see how that helps anyone. It’s far more productive to heed the lesson from this experience so that people avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future. Not to mention, this cluster f goes beyond one person. If I’m not mistaken, scripts are supposed to be written, edited, and reviewed before going to air. Something went seriously wrong with that process if no one caught that phrasing before hitting air, and work should be done to correct that process. Unless this was done with malicious intent (which by all accounts, it wasn’t), they don’t need to go on a pink slip crusade.
    5 points
  35. The mets and traffic reporters probably simply thought the visual quality of presenting in front of a screen was poor and went back to the chroma key. You have to line up the map a certain way so a county line isn't confused with a screen seam (though here it's seamless) and they probably just did not think the presentation in front of a screen with blur rather than a key with known PQ worked long-term. Certainly no cause for concern.
    5 points
  36. Why would they need to? If you found this video on their website you could surely find the supposed multiple on-air apologies in the newscasts as well. Sounds like the station and staff worked to correct a wrong... Poor word choices, yes. Learning opportunity, Certainly! Career-ending move? No.
    5 points
  37. Its a few things. The ABC's have always been better run operations. WCBS has been a shuffle of management in addition to talent. And yes, pay. WCBS starts GA reporters at around 150-170K. WABC 180K-200K.
    5 points
  38. I was just wondering if this was a part of paramount global cuts? I know their cutting and firing people all across the organization. They should have let Dana bow out gracefully than throwing a bone and give her. Any changes that needed to be made would be the morning team. Chris and Mary are bland. Yes they are good anchors but bland for a morning news team.
    5 points
  39. So this must be part of the 'big changes' Andrea teased the bosses were making. Such a shame to move Dana (and Dick too) off that desk, these bosses ought to be ashamed of themeselves. This seems reminiscent of when Bill Carey re-assigned Kaity and Jim, or when Sue Simmons was forced out at WNBC. Terrible moves this week overall. I think these changes will alienate lots of WCBS viewers. But I would think if they are making these changes, ratings must not be good.
    5 points
  40. We can revisit this road forever but why the NBC brass broke up an iconic pairing? To this day I still don't know. I dont think it was ratings so it "must be the money" to quote Nelly lol. Its pretty telling that none of his anchor pairings after Sue (as great as Shiba and Sibila were) lasted long. Hopefully Natalie lasts long. As much as I love Chuck's straight non emotional/non editorial news persona, Sue's peronality made the pairing complete and livened him at times. She (and Roz Abrahms & Brenda Blackmon) should still be working today, if at least on the weekends. Back to Chuck, wishing him good health and I hope he takes the job to the end.
    4 points
  41. Last night during the 5 pm hour, they showed one of Chuck's long form reports (I miss those, it is what made News4 special in the 80s) where he reported on the B17 bombers, and found a person who flew with his dad, then allowed them to have a reunion. A touching story of the life of WW2 bombers and their post war lives. I assume we will see more of that tonight as well. They also seem to be making a concerted effort of including Sue Simmons, either mentioning her, stories with her and pieces of Chuck's interview with her. No matter how messy her departure was, you can never take away the great Chuck & Sue pairing and was a big part of Chuck's success & longevity.
    4 points
  42. It's too bad Sue is not there with him to celebrate, but that is the nature of the business. We'll see if Chuck makes the record for 57 years! Also here is a recent interview with Sue from Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/sue-simmons-chuck-scarborough-wnbc-ppsgedjt
    4 points
  43. I might be in the minority, but I think it looks cool, especially if it's a play on the New York City flag colors. It elevates it from plain white and dull.
    4 points
  44. People have explained multiple times why KTTV/KCOP shouldn't and wouldn't do all-day news. They're not looking to compete, they're merely filling airtime, in the current bleak syndication landscape.
    4 points
  45. I really miss Sade. Hope she’s recovering well from her knee surgery.
    4 points
  46. This has Weigel, the CBS indies and the Fox Plus stations written all over it, along with Scripps just going by a raw eyeball of where it would air in NFL markets (Green Bay it'll likely be WACY for sure, likely KMCI for Kansas City, WCIU for Chicago and WMLW for Milwaukee).
    4 points
  47. Agreed. In hearing from reporters, constant turnover usually equals unimpressive pay, a toxic work environment, or burnout from being overworked. WABC appears to have the most reporters with a 20+ year tenure. They must have great pay and a decent working culture.
    4 points
  48. My thoughts exactly. Instead of having Mary & Chris who start work pre 4:30am doing the noon, they could have used Cindy Hsu or Dick & Dana, all of whom get only 30 minutes of airtime.
    4 points
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