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It's not a ripoff if Rey Rodriguez is the one making looks for and outside Nexstar.

It's just the nature of the way everything began changing in 2015. Politics became so absurd and dominated discussions of everyday people. It would have been impossible for comedians to avoid it. Plus, comedy and satire are often the best ways to expose hypocrisy, and there has been a dramatic increase of that in American life. Ignoring politics when doing a daily monologue would seem pretty out-of-touch with reality.

I always felt like all the late night talk shows tried to mimic "Weekend Update" or "The Daily Show" during the Trump-era. They still do to an extent. It's kind of why I appreciate hosts like Corden or Fallon who didn't try to be like that.

You nailed it. It always has some "freedom fries" fake right wing outrage feel to it. I'm a right winger, but I don't like schlocky TV, nor do I like being jerked around with obvious propaganda and phony outrage.

That's why I can't get into Seth Myers, don't really watch Colbert except for some interviews, and pretty much skip Kimmel's monolouge.

It was good ending to a great show. I wish it were mentioned more that the franchise and not just Corden's incranation is ending. Would be cool if Craig Killborn and Craig Ferguson made an appearence. I also wish there was some mention of Tom Snyder. Dare I say this was the best late night show of the current crop, and it may have been even bigger at 11:35pm.

I noticed the changes in the city label fonts on the radar map. WBBM is about to switch to the new graphics package.

The problem with late-night talk shows is that they have all been largely using the same exact formula for decades, a formula that Johnny Carson largely set in motion: A live announcer to introduce the program, announce the guests and cue the host to enter. A live in-studio audience. An in-house band. A desk for the host with adjacent couches or chairs for the guests. Maybe it includes an old-timey microphone! A monologue by the host, varying in length depending on the host. A second segment (either after the monologue or the first commercial break) with an extended series of comedy bits. Could be live in-studio or via tape. The guests come out one-by-one for extended interviews and (depending on the host) softball questions. A stand-up act or musical number by a guest band or singer to conclude the program. Even as James Corden used Graham Norton's setup of having the guests come on all at once, he still used a house band and had a monologue. CraigyFerg didn't have a house band--or much of anything--but he still did a monologue (many of which were deeply compelling and riveting), interviewed guests and had a robot as his announcer. While Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and (especially) Seth Myers are exceptionally political, they all follow the formulas to some degree. But at least you can tell one Jimmy apart from the other Jimmy.

I know KTIV is the ratings leader there, and I believe KCAU is well ahead of KMEG/KPTM as well.

I can think of at least 12-15 more markets where Sinclair runs a last-place news operation that I could easily see cut.

They don't have to ignore politics or Trump, BUT Kimmel --and Colbert--making Trump the focus of 85% their monolouge every night for the last 8 years even after the Donald left office is excessive and obsessive. There has to be a source of material other than one man on planet earth. Plus there are several world leaders and organizations doing harm in addition to Trump, that don't get as much coverage/ridicule. And that's what sucks. Broken record but I like Fallon because he makes a few Trump or political jokes then moves on. It's not the main focus of his show. As for his chummyness toward Trump that's a whole different discussion but I don't think Fallon derserved backlash over it. Everyone has their own style of show and comedy but every show making fun of the same thing and having the same stances on the same issues becomes redundant.

It's like those dumb "Brand Power" ads...the segments don't feel natural, don't match the tone intended, and are usually just a signal to roll around the channels for a bit while some guy in suburban Maryland tries and fails to appeal to someone who just wants to know the local news, not some minor thing on the other side of the country they don't care about.

The other problem with those must runs is that they are not produced in such a way where they flow seamlessly with the rest of the newscast. It's very jarring, like you almost changed channels.

I gave up on all of them after everyone monologues became nothing but political commentaries; but after his part in screwing over Conan (and the shady way he got Tonight in the first place) forget Leno.

And this is how Springer responded in his first--and next to last--commentary on WMAQ:

The graphics are from Linear Drift tho'

On the local level, some of the Sinclair stations pump out some really excellent journalism. WSYX has taken a more harder edge "On Your Side" advocacy approach and other stations are very critical of corruption, wasted tax dollars, and being "a voice for the voiceless". On the corporate end, yes some of their products are very lacking. It's like you're taking a middle market newscast and simulcasting it to whatever market can't afford to put one of their own anymore. It's basically all the "must runs" that put Sinclair on the map as everyone's most hated company they've never heard of. And I really believe there is something going on with Sinclair. Especially tied to the Diamond Sports bankruptcy. Every time the judge forces them to make a payment of some kind, another round of layoffs begins in some market they can barely keep the lights on to begin with.

Definitely better than what they had before. I do appreciate when bits of local flavor are added to a set. And by that, I mean something local you recognize at quick glance. Not the "we put stone on this wall because our community has stones." To me, these local touches give a hint of personality that help prevent a set from being so sterile. In WCIV's case, I appreciate the Cooper River Bridge and Rainbow Row being included in the Low Country Live area. I wish they had done something similar on the duratrans behind the desk. But this is certainly a nice upgrade for the ABC4 team.

WBBM is gearing up.

I agree, let's give some breathing room and see how it goes. There's hardly any rush to bring someone new in. I rather have them take their time and find the best replacement who would enhance the program.

CBS & their excessively long brandings. "WCCO News & CBS Minnesota". Interestingly enough, the multiple ABC 7 Eyewitness News stations have worked for ABC though.

WPMI deserves better than this, especially better station owners than Sinclair!

And in Chicago flag colors... Was NBC ahead of its time? I kind of hope so, honestly.

One reason I stayed up and watched The Late Late Show is not because of Corden and Furgeson, but because of one host I admired for a long time. And his name was the late, great Tom Snyder.

I have many of these from that timeframe (including WPTV”s “We’re not about to change”) - I’ll try and report them - will probably Setup a separate account… My favorite one is with Jay Leno, where he goes something like: “ NBC is moving to Channel 4. Past the video games on 3 and before the goofy station on 5.” Of course he probably had no idea that 5 was also an NBC station in the area… (My parents didn’t have cable at the time and 5 came in clearly at their place). Jim

This is going to be the year that many 3rd and 4th rate stations are going to be dropping news and not just Sinclair, it’s going to be Scripps, Nexstar and the other big groups. In Milwaukee WTMJ and CBS58 are only averaging 5,000 viewers in the demo at 10, WISN and WITI is about 14,000-15,000. When I came to Milwaukee in 2000 WTMJ had a 15 rating and wisn was about 10, viewership taste has change thought out the years but Milwaukee has always had one of the higher viewership of local news in the country. This is a business first, many of these 3rd or 4th rate stations are only breaking even at best and likely losing money on news. There is no company that’s going to come to buy and bunch of money losing operations with almost no viewers. The stations that have dropped local news so far had no viewers in the first place, basically no one will notice.

Nexstar Ripoff really

Jerry Springer died today at age 79. His impact on television was undeniable.

Some updates on looks in Atlanta TV. WANF got a new main screen graphic, replacing the shot of Atlanta based on the time of day to a loop of a red display of the graphics package. WAGA is on their secondary set again, have been since Sunday. This is the first time in almost a year since the set updates, wonder what's going on. WSB has slightly updated their "WSBTonight" graphics, adding gradients, and using a new "WSBTonight" graphic on the vertical video screen that normally displays a "Servere Weather Team 2". I hope this means that they might be getting prepared to launch the graphics everywhere else but I don't it, the 75th anniversary intro graphic looks better than their hodgepodge!

There’s too many CBS 2’s. 4 to be exact in the O&O station group. Hence why they want to give each market a unique and local feel with the call letters since channels don’t mean anything these days with streaming. This leaves WCBS the only one that kept the CBS 2 in its branding. Chicago is going the call letter route like KDKA, and KCBS focusing on KCAL instead.