Jess

Also what I honestly bet they go with. “CBS” for every non-news show, network or otherwise. Maybe the legacy calls for the cities that look like they’re going to keep that branding element, but for most of them, just “CBS”.

At least for today they will be reairing the 9am hour of Good Day at 2pm. Just made the announcement at the top of that hour, and the time/temp was taken off of the bug to accomodate.

Repetition is pretty high, but it's not a canned loop at least. All of the blocks have different content, and some have different top stories. So it's a mix. That being said I felt exhausted by the end of it all, so yeah. They must be getting fierce competition from WPHL (and this is probably the answer to the question of whether Nexstar goes in-house with their news - they clearly have a good thing going) Here's a compilation of the new format. Judge for yourself.

I don’t have functioning capture right now, but I actually remembered I had a license for Bandicam and set it up in time to get it. I’ve been recording the last hour.

The 10pm news seems to have been dramatically reformatted. I’m catching up on the livestream. it’s now titled “10 at 10”. the ENTIRE newscast now seems to be formatted into 10 minute blocks. Jason Martinez did the first 10 minutes, then traded off to Shaina Humphries for another ten minute block. Jason’s on a third block as I type this. Each block starts with a “Rundown”, complete with large Gannett 1.0-style graphic on right side. Weather is now two 1 minute hits in each “block”. More frequent commercial breaks of just 60 seconds, including before the seven day forecast. Each block is slightly different. Shaina’s block seemed to have more national stories. The first two started with the same lead - John Dougherty’s guilty verdict. This third cycle started with a supply chain story. Wow. And I don’t think it’s a good wow either.

The one thing I've long had a problem with on 3 is them using way too few anchor pairs for a schedule that newscast heavy. I mean, Ukee and Jessica do the 5, 6, 10, and 11 - that's a lot and it would be nice to give one or two of those slots to another pairing.

I heard a choir of angels singing “HALLELUJAH” when you said that.

I just plain wonder if, regardless of approach, launching a news channel right now is a good idea. I'm starting to get the feeling that, after the last four years in general and the past year in particular, people are just completely and totally burned out on news. I know I am - I used to watch a lot of local and cable news up until the pandemic, and then made a conscious decision to stop watching. And I've long considered myself a hard core news junkie. The problem for Nexstar, of course, is that I don't think there was any other viable option. Sports is kind of in a weird spot right now, still mostly cable but on the verge of making a significant streaming push. Discovery kinda has the factual and unscripted stuff locked down. True Crime is saturated between HLN/Oxygen/ID and OTA options like Scripps' Court TV networks. And prestige scripting... forget about it, the streamers have that on lock down now. Additionally, this might have been the most newsworthy six months of our lifetimes, between the pandemic, the ongoing racial unrest, the election, the chaos after the election, 1/6, Biden taking office, and probably a ton of other things I can't think of. And they have utterly failed to capitalize. The audience is either unaware - unlikely because Nexstar's stations are pushing this relentlessly - or more likely, utterly disinterested in this offering. At minimum, something needs to change... and it might just be getting close to the time to cut losses.

Also wanted to note: the use of "COUNT ON IT" has increased fairly dramatically in the last few weeks or so. It's now part of the reporter outcue. .......I'm never gonna be able to change my forum description, am I?

https://www.nexttv.com/features/city-of-brotherly-love-gets-phil-of-local-content This is buried in the last few paragraphs, but it's a really big deal. We like to slag on this station so much that I can kinda just abbreviate it to "LOLKYW", but I was stunned to find that KYW is doing... actually not that badly at 11pm. In fact, they're #2 in households. They're still #3 in the demo, but at .2 ratings points behind WCAU it's not like they're dead. Tonight or this week I plan on checking their 11pm out to see how they're doing. I want to see what's going on there and if there's a spark there... honestly, watch out. Ukee Washington is one of the best talents to ever perform in this market and if he finally has a GOOD product behind him, they could catch on.

That one actually doubled as the CBS Morning News set for a time...

It’s permanent. Just saw a Facebook post hyping the new newscast.

Just listened to my first WCAU weather report on KYW Newsradio (that felt weird to type)... They apparently have to tag out with "Count on It".... ...I'm completely dead.

Ratner isn't sounding very good these days either, sadly. I can't think of anyone who would fit that style... maybe they'll go in a complete other direction and nab Chapin like their northern sister did? Chapin WPVI opens would be something. (Although it would have been better if it were his more robotic early 90s delivery...)

Is CVD still doing the opens? They’re easing off on using him it seems. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just give him only the opens like they were doing with Jeff Kaye towards the end.

I wouldn’t describe Roger Grimsby as “less flashy” than Beutel. In fact the reason Beutel was hired in the first place was because Roger was too dominant a personality. He needed a straight man.

I think this looks absolutely fantastic. The logo, the graphics, everything looks really really fresh. While I can't speak to the content this is the sort of thing I really want to see more of in broadcast graphic design.

They went live today. Looks like a Nexstar-esque set but these graphics definitely look different from the normal stuff. It actually gives off the vibe of the pre-standardization WBZ look. I like.

I haven't popped in on these threads in awhile, so I'm just seeing about the new GM. I wonder if this had anything to do with the way they covered the police shootings the other day. Their coverage was really good - they seemed to be more on top of developments than some of the other stations (particularly PVI, who was awful IMO), they had some great live shots, and they just pretty much nailed it IMO. If this is a sign of things to come with the new leadership it's highly encouraging for the station, I think.

Whoa. Wow. Shocked is all I can say.

I dunno. Seems fine to me. WPVI had a rather classic promo some years back focusing on their microphones. This is kind of the same thing.

That’s INSANE. In THAT market particularly you can’t just not do traffic. I’m gobsmacked.

The Chew was more popular than a lot of people gave it credit for. My dad loved the show and was sad when they took it off, to the point of hating Strahan. I personally wish they’d just do an hour of game shows but that’s just me.

Doing some more uploading from DVDs.

Interesting news today: Fox 29 is moving their locally produced game show, The ClassH-Room, to 6:30pm weeknights starting March 4. Episode here if you want to see: Either the show is doing really well at noon, or it’s a cheaper alternative to Page Six TV. Either way it’s actually nice to see. It’s good to see a local station produce more than dozens of hours of news.