NBC 5 Chicago

I have been a fan of Skilling since I was young. He is a true legend in Chicago. I will miss his weather reports. Good news is he doesn't plan to go away completely and is not leaving Chicago. Here is Skilling's sign off. Here is Micah's interview with Skilling. Beautifully done.

Ok I thought it was just me! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think they added texturized elements. Diamonds, lines, and the stars are all 3D. It's noticeable in their set in the background and on the desk also in the L3. But they're still keeping with the same red, white, and blue theme. Its a subtle change. They also used a drone over the river in Des Moines which showed augmented reality graphics. Similar to what NBC/MSNBC does with Rockefeller Center during election coverage. It is more noticeable in the NY studio that Anderson uses. Seen here on this video on cnn.com.

Here is the info. Summary below. Quite the changes: 4:30AM-7AM - Anthony Ponce and Anita Blanton will anchor 7AM-10AM - Brian Jackson and Natalie Bomke Jake Hamilton will still contribute to the morning show. Syliva Perez will anchor Noon and First at 4. Terrence Lee will anchor First at Four with Sylvia Perez then contribute to the live desk at 5pm and 9pm. Tia Ewing will maintain her role as live desk reporter on First at Four.

Yes.

Pamela Brown is also pregnant. There could be a delay due to her upcoming leave.

I just saw a promo on CNN for their new CNN Saturday that debuts tomorrow: 8AM - First of all with Victor Blackwell 9AM - Smerconish 10AM - The Chris Wallace Show 11AM - The Amanpour Hour

It has been since I believe around the summer that the music was changed on the Local on the 8s to the jazzier themes. (I actually like them.) The squeeze bar seems redundant when you have the bar at the bottom with basically the same information. Yes it may have expanded capabilities but you have double information. At least it seems like that for the national feed. I have YouTubeTV . It shows current conditions for select cities with the radar at the bottom and cycles through tonight's forecast for those cities. I was hoping with them doing the retro8s hour and devoting a whole hour to it that they would maybe focus more on one of TWC's main identities and bring more frequent local on the 8s back. However, like me, more and more people are starting to cut the cord and are streaming. Getting the local weather on streaming isn't possible yet so I could see them phasing it out overall. In a couple of weeks (11/12) the current graphics and everything will be 10 years old. Yes, they have made tweaks but the overall package and icons will be 10 years old. They've aged well however a refresh would be great.

They're celebrating every day at 10pm with a new segment. Here is a little more information on how they're celebrating their 75th anniversary: This link shows each segment each day this week and you can vote on the top memorable story which they will show in a segment called Flashback Friday through December. Also a list of first for the television station which I found interesting. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/wmaq-tv-chicago-celebrates-its-75th-anniversary/3246257/ Here is an archive of video of their top stories they've covered: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/75th-anniversary-archive/3242571/

I think WTVJ's is a miss compared to their previous set. It's a very large and nice set but I think it is just bland overall like WNBC's. WMAQ, WRC, WCAU, KXAS and maybe even WBTS have the better sets within the group. There is more character and elements to their sets. KNBC's is starting to age but still held up well and had some character. We'll see if they get something similar to WMAQ and WRC and not the way of WTVJ and WNBC.

I guess weather isn't dead at NewsNation...

TWC had several of their weekday meteorologists in covering the storm over the weekend. Why can't FOX Weather? It's not like they didn't know it was coming. I understand if they had previous obligations and all but they need to do better to cover these big events on weekends. Especially a historic one like Hilary.

I don't see why the would now. With the small update today its basically back to what they had before. Even the transitions for the reporters names is the same minus the black bar. They no longer swipe with each one. The main header squeezes to the top to introduce the name then comes back down like it was before with the black bar. I like this hybrid of the two styles the most.

They just ran a new promo for the new Primetime line up. They didn't have a date so I would assume tonight starts the new primetime lineup.

The peacock without the white border blends in too much with the graphics. Specifically the purple and blue feathers. To me it can be hard to see. The peacock stand out more with the white border.

Molly McCollum is back from maternity leave. She was doing the weather updates on Pattrn today. Not sure if she was on prior to today. Also, I've noticed they stopped playing their production music on the Local on the 8s that they've had since 2013. They've instead started playing more jazz music. I think this started around the time when they brought back the Retro 8s hour.

Here is a still for the promo of Kaitlin's new show. CNN Philippines also has a show called The Source. It seems like the US version will be similar to that of its sister in the Philippines.

I've also noticed that CNN Tonight has been split up in recent weeks. The 10pm is hosted by Abby Phillip and Alisyn Camerota hosts the 11pm hour.

Correction: Only Stefan Holt anchored the 5 and 10pm. Allison was off. Stefan said at the end of the 10pm that he would be there for Sunday. Allison may join him this time as NASCAR will be broadcast on NBC. I'm assuming they are treating this as any other big sports event that airs on the weekend and they'll have the main anchors on.

CNN covered Russia/Putin excessively over the weekend and the first part of the day yesterday. CNN Obtained the Trump tape and broke the news exclusively and ran with it throughout primetime. If MSNBC (don't think FNC would) have obtained the tape they too would be running it exclusively.

After 3 months since it was announced, it looks like Nexstar independents and the rest of the CW's and MyNetworkTV that have not been added yet will finally be added to YouTubTV this week.

So WLS, WTVD, and WPVI rolled out the weather graphics ahead of the package but the others could just roll out everything all at once at any time. It'll be a waiting game just like the CBS package.

Found this on another site. I would honestly prefer this as the open. Its less busy and cleaner. This is just a still and I have no clue where this came from but it looks better than the current open.

This was on another site that I cannot link to. I would honestly prefer this as the open. Its less busy and cleaner. This is just a still and I have no clue where this came from but it looks better than the current open.

I was really hoping to see the talent opens return to WLS. I love the graphical elements however the opens seem a little busy. Also not a fan of the new open mash-up music.

Looks like we're a go with the new graphics at 4pm on WLS. Sounded like an updated higher paced music track as well for the open. This is a swipe effect.