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The weekend weather anchors split that 3pm shift. One works like M-W, and the other takes Th-F, or something like that. I believe they do the same thing at 11am, too, and it's a pretty normal thing at many other stations.

Not only did Ravi come in to anchor the late news, tonight, but he said farewell to that team, at the end of the program. He was off, last weekend, ahead of his first weekday shifts.

Alan backed up Ron 9 times out of 10, and not Cheryl, so I'd bet my life savings that you don't see an all-male pairing. That said, Ravi just punched his ticket to being Rob's undisputed fill-in, just as Judy is for Cheryl. Either way, glad to see Ravi apparently get this slot. I was hoping for this move, even if I had predicted the guys in the other's role.

She did GMA this past weekend.

Okay, since I heard my name... Branded in promos as Nonstop News (which is an extension of the brand they use for the last 10, commercial-free minutes of the 4:30-7am block), the 7-9am hours just use regular newscast branding and graphics. The main difference from the pre-7 and post-9 hours is the anchor arrangement. Most of what I've observed is anchor/reporter Chris Tye going solo from the newsroom, though I've seen morning co-anchor Audrina Bigos doing the shift, as well. That anchor also does the :25 & :55 network updates. Despite its news wheel-type format, both hours are live, with regular weather hits (no apparent traffic reports). I can't say I noticed live reports from the field reporters, but it's not just stuffed will AP stories and filler. Each hour features a recorded sportscast and some of their longer-form stories from the previous evening. Going back to the anchor roles, it's not entirely clear if this is Tye's main shift, though I haven't seen him anchor Sunday nights in several weeks, and it's clear the OTA morning team is not fronting it. That said, Brad Edwards was out with an injury a little while back, and I'm not sure if he's back to his Streaming with Brad shift, or if he'll eventually be the face of this 7-9am period. Meanwhile, Ed Curran was doing the weather. Ed and Robb Ellis split the 11am duties, but morning met Laura Bannon was off, this morning, and she appears on the bookending newscasts, so like the anchor position, the weather role isn't entirely clear, either.

I feel like he comes around to be a cackling mascot for certain segments more often than filling in for Ginger.

[Cough cough] It's happening.

In 10 days, coincidentally.

For the first time in 4 decades, a male weekend anchor is getting promoted to weekdays. As has been the arrangement for the last few weeks, Rob Elgas gets the 10pm news (he also anchored election night), while Ravi Baichwal has been named co-anchor at 5 and 6pm. I would've given Ravi the 10, but I'm glad they're keeping the tradition of mixing and matching teams, and he'll likely serve in the almost-contributor role that Rob has filled since Cheryl moved to the main chair.

WJZ, not WJW, and KDKA hasn't used the Westinghouse 2 in 20 years.

Not quite. That Cristina Alexander was on on Saturday night, and Anthony was back, in for Ryan Field, on Sunday.

Phil Schwarz's first/main farewell was tonight, though he'll be hanging around til Wednesday. Expect him to forecast at 7pm, on at least one of these 3 nights. https://abc7chicago.com/when-is-phil-schwarz-retiring-abc-7-chicago-retirement-abc7/12886259/

I'm not doing a screenshot, but the Cubs' Marquee is continuing with last year's scoreboard, with the clock alternating with the pitch count on the tab with the pitcher's name. Nice and simple.

Oh good, now a certain user here can stop posting thrice-weekly threads asking if a new set is coming soon. Those will be replaced with thrice-weekly requests for progress updates.

If you want to get technical about it, Greg handed off his clicker to Jaisol ahead of the full 9am forecast so you could make the case that his last day on the show was her official first. He was a lame duck, a man without a show, for the final 15 minutes. He'll be doing GMA next weekend, so that's why they bid farewell today.

I respect the hell out of your opinions and insight, but that's not fair, and you know it. The average observer sees new mic flags, new graphics, and hell, even new jackets, caps, etc. That looks "permanent" enough, no? It's not the duty of said observer to prove that the station will pivot again, so soon. To me, phasing out KCAL in 2023 would be silly, and lasting into 2025 would have made this a permanent change, in my view, as it will have lasted way longer than less significant/more "permanent" rebrands. Let's see what happens in 2024, at the earliest.

This thread went insanely off the rails today, but honestly, THIS is likely the only real reason reason. Could it set them up for other coverage opportunities down the road (figuratively AND literally)? Sure. Is it a simpler, more straight-forward branding route than Dallas-Ft. Worth or DFW? Absolutely. Really, this doesn't feel much deeper than wanting to be a singular, instantly-identifiable source for news in TEXAS.

IF that is a leak, it's...not as bad as I expected. Feels about the same size as the outgoing model, unless it is full-width, which means it would take up the bottom quarter of the screen...which I guess isn't an impossibility.

Jesus. I swear, some people here just say things with no intention of learning from what other have to say/already said.

Unlike the good old days, when they didn't care about money.

Independent based on what??? Where/why are you getting the impression that WDIV is in a bad place with NBC? People are leaving stations all over the country, in droves. Yes, some operations are getting hit harder than others, but this is a problem for the whole industry.

?

Please. Don't. Do. That.

Honestly, I think it's totally reasonable to think that CBS might take affiliations in-house, if/when they dump the CW from any or all of the stations in this discussion. However, some here are relying way too much on certain factors to support or reject the idea, to the point where the same points just keep circling around. So, until we know for sure what CBS plans to do with their CW stations (beyond the initial FTVLive posting that I first brought to everyone's attention), how about we put this topic on the back burner? Agreed? Good. (Besides, there's a speculation thread already dedicated to this, so THIS thread wouldn't be clogged up with hypotheticals.)

Deanno is on from 7am. That was his spot, as announced several weeks ago, pre-show launch. They're not going from a bunch of placeholders to another placeholder.