Greggo

An update on KPRC: Their online listings show Dr. Phil slides ahead an hour to 2p on 9/12, taking over the DOOL slot. NBC News Daily will air at 1p, where Dr. Phil had been airing since locally produced Houston Life moved to 3p.

CMG headquarters is on Peachtree Dunwoody Road. Even after the Apollo deal, they are still based in Atlanta.

Like atlnews2, I love how they say they’re the hometown station owned by a company based in Atlanta. Guess they forgot about WSB

The station’s morning news anchors posted on social media today that they were having to move belongings out of the newsroom because “changes are coming to our news set.” The studio set they have now dates back to when KEYE was owned by CBS. (CBS sold them in 2007.) Over the past 15 years or so it has been updated several times but the bones are still the same. It’s easily the oldest and least modern set in the market. Curious to see what Sinclair has in store. The space is cramped. There’s a weather center that’s never seen on camera anymore that could be relocated elsewhere in the building. And there’s also a small corner devoted to their lifestyle show that could be moved or eliminated. They already do a good chunk of the lifestyle show in the employee breakroom, where their kitchen set is located (yes, really) and on the station’s patio. Also worth noting … crosstown rival KXAN is currently on a temp set while the one they had (which was only like 3 years old) is being replaced.

I think most affiliates would prefer to do an hour at 9/10 and keep the 35-minute show at 10/11. Several Fox stations already do this. (In fact, WAGA goes from 10 to midnight.) If someone is watching ABC or CBS prime and prefers the late news on the NBC station they’d have to make a tough choice. Same goes for if they watch local news on the CBS or ABC station and then like to switch over to Fallon. Another tough choice. Also, re: the list above … KABB and WOAI may be a duopoly but KABB produces its own 9p news with its own anchor team on its own set. The two already compete against each other in the mornings so this wouldn’t be anything new.

As previously reported by another poster here, KVUE/Austin has picked up Tamron, which hadn’t been airing in Austin since it was dropped by KEYE. (Even though her hometown, Luling, is in the Austin DMA.) Interestingly, it won’t be airing in Ellen’s spot at 4p. Instead, they’ve stuck it at 2p. Daily Blast Live, which had been at 2p, moves to 3p and Inside Edition/Extra move from 3p to 4p. Not a great lead-in to the 5p news, IMHO. I foresee a drop in ratings.

Kelly airs at 3p on KRIV with a second run overnight on KTXH. Moving to the Dr. Phil spot on KPRC (1p) would be a demotion. Also, KPRC has indicated they are looking at expanding Houston Life in the near future so, if that happens, the 2p hour currently occupied by Days and soon NBC News would slide to 1p. Houston Life would expand into the 2p hour, leaving no room for syndication, whatever it might be.

WGCL also stole another investigator from WXIA a few weeks back: Andy Pierrotti. Looks like Gray isn’t messing around when it comes to making CBS 46 a contender.

I’m sure affiliates are loving the fact they are getting this news (officially) just a month before the new season starts, long after 22-23 syndie deals were locked up. I don’t see many large market, non O&O NBC stations sticking with the new, replacement newscast longterm.

Wow. How early are these newscasts being recorded? Karen recently moved to a “family friendly” shift, doing the 11a and 4p newscasts for KTVT. The whole point was to be able to have dinner with her kids. (She did evenings for years, before moving to mornings.) So they must be recording these in the middle of the afternoon. Like 2p or 3p.

KPRC within the past few days has started airing a second run of Houston Life at 1:05a instead of a second run of Dr. Phil. I really, really hope they replace the 12:30p one-day-delayed repeat of ET with something else. You’re already airing 90 minutes of midday news. Why not just go for a full two hours?!? Tamron hasn’t resurfaced in Austin as of yet, which is weird because her hometown, Luling, is in the Austin DMA. Maybe KVUE will pick it up to replace Ellen.

KTXA previously tried airing news from 7p to 9p under the name TXA 21 News. The numbers weren’t great and it was yanked. If they couldn’t get decent ratings in that slot, with zero competition, there is no way they will be able to pull a respectable audience at 9p up against juggernaut KDFW Fox 4. KDAF CW 33 already learned that lesson under Tribune leadership … although I suspect Nexstar will relaunch a newscast in that 9p slot at some point since that is their home market.

KXAN/Austin is expanding its 430p newscast to a full hour this week. Jennifer Sanders will anchor, in addition to adding the noon news to her duties following Friday’s departure of Amanda Dugan. First-run Jeopardy and Daytime Jeopardy will air at 3p and 330p. (First-run Jeopardy had been airing at 4p on KXAN.) Dr. Phil, which had been airing at 3p, slides to 2p, and displaced Rachael Ray gets bumped to 3p on sister station KBVO (MyTV). Daytime Jeopardy had been airing at 530p on sister station KNVA (CW) and is being replaced by a 4th run of Family Feud. Family Feud will now air for 2 straight hours on KNVA: 5p to 7p.

Interesting news about the news in Dallas: The Spectrum News 1 North Texas feed will be simulcast over the air on Weigel’s KAZD. This will air around the clock, 7 days a week — except for a break on the weekends to show E/I programming. The financial arrangement isn’t entirely clear — is Spectrum paying Weigel or is Weigel paying Spectrum? I can’t see this getting many viewers, but who knows?!? https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/6/28/moving-from-cable-to-broadcast

KPRC in Houston recently posted a help wanted ad for their lifestyle show, “Houston Life,” that said it would expand in 2023. It’s already an hour, so it stands to reason it could soon be 2. 2 hours strikes me as a lot for a station the size of WALA.

I would have to go digging but they actually had a temp set not that long ago where they were essentially delivering the news in front of a black blanket. I couldn’t believe it. This was either under LIN or MG management. So this actually is a big improvement, if you can believe it.

This is the temp set. The lighting on some of the shots is horrid. Weather and sports are purely green screen. They said on air the studio — which is really small — will be doubled in size. Not really sure how they’ll do that. Having been in the building before, things are really cramped. In fact, several employees are in a building across the street. They were at a couple points in recent years looking to build a whole new facility … but clearly that’s not going to happen. Main anchor said during the 6p news the project will take “a few months.” Any bets on them get the infamous Nexstar corner set? And, yes, I agree they don’t need a new set. In Austin, KEYE is the station that desperately needs a new set. That thing has been around for about a decade now, with a few tweaks along the way. It has an outdated weather center that hasn’t been seen on the air in several years. And they had to cover up the skyline duratrans with a backlit blue checkerboard pattern because the skyline has changed so much.

They’ve been paying rent on it so I guess they finally decided they should put it to some sort of use instead of just flushing money down the drain. It was up for sublease for about five years and they had no takers. If they did a somewhat standard 20-year lease, they’re stuck there for about six more years.

Who is that VO guy?!? Awful!

Current 4p anchor Keith Garvin has been named main anchor at KPRC/Houston. He’s been with KPRC for 10 years and knows the market well. Keith will shift to the 5p, 6p and 10p shows, replacing Kris Gutierrez, who abruptly left a few months ago. No official word on who will take over at 4p, but I suspect current 11a and noon anchor Andy Cerota will add that show to his duties instead of reporting for the afternoon newscasts, like he does now. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/06/08/keith-garvin-named-anchor-of-kprc-2s-evening-and-late-newscasts/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=kprc2&fbclid=IwAR34kdsOEU0lwe-giDjxXQw1UE5th_-JOwP0KPiHbdztrZaVk53XSkAZGNs&fs=e&s=cl

It appears those rumors from FTV and others about Sinclair moving KFDM/Beaumont to WOAI/San Antonio aren’t true. KFDM broke ground on a new building today, which will replace the current one, which has been condemned by the state as part of a freeway expansion project. KFDM is moving to the opposite side of town from where they are now. Building will open next year. https://www.facebook.com/79318758755/posts/pfbid02mSyNoF7zsEBMuX4VfAiEWTQVYNbpF29BtFuJzzRUqiQMzsEuamjvAX2dfgWTRGWVl/

The smooshed CBS4 logo behind the desk looks awful. If you’re gonna spend all that money, come on!

Considering it came right after the end of May sweeps, it may very well have been related to ratings.

So I guess this means KDVR’s morning show will come from the newsroom, like last time, since KWGN is also on at that time.

“Top Story” repeats took the place of overnight reruns of “Today with Hoda and Jenna” that NBC was offering stations. Not every station was carrying the “Today” reruns, but many were. Some stations aren’t running “Top Story” either, including KPRC in Houston, which airs a 2nd run of “Dr. Phil” instead. (The first run airs at 1p.)