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The CBS 3 Eyewitness News Thread


Jess

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From philly.com:

 

CBS3 kills midday show

It appears that the window for entertainment-type news shows is shrinking in this town.

If you were looking forward to watching Channel 3's noon newscast yesterday, you may have noticed something missing - no more "Talk Philly" on CBS3.

The station's now-defunct hybrid newscast/talk show had a good run. The program's last appearance was Thursday, when Pat Ciarrocchi interviewed the founder of a DIY beauty-product line.

 

So now, instead of seeing Ciarrocchi and Ukee Washington on their high-top stools in the "Talk Philly" studio, they're now behind the anchor desk for Eyewitness News at noon. I'm told CBS3 still plans to incorporate some of the arts and lifestyle segments that were featured during the noontime program, but there will be a much greater emphasis on news from here on.

 

Also new as of yesterday: The station has dropped its 7 to 9 a.m. newscast on the CW Philly. A CBS3 spokeswoman told me they have decided to move more resources to the early morning time slot - from 4:30 to 7 a.m. This, I'm told, frees up the staff members who were doing four-plus hours of straight anchoring and enables them to get out of the studio more often for reporting.

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Well "Live from the Couch" didn't last too long here in New York. It's pretty hard to start a new kind of show that is successful when there are already established morning news shows on the main stations. It's "too much work" for people to change to a higher channel sometimes, like 57, when you can just change to 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.. At least that's the way I look at it.

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Wow, what a blow to Kathy Orr! I never watch CBS3 for news, and by that I literally mean, never, but Kathy Orr has been a fixture in Philly for a while. And wasn't it a huge deal that they lured her from channel 10?

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Wow, what a blow to Kathy Orr! I never watch CBS3 for news, and by that I literally mean, never, but Kathy Orr has been a fixture in Philly for a while. And wasn't it a huge deal that they lured her from channel 10?

 

She was part of their big rebirth with Marc Howard back in '03

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I think letting Kathy go is a HUGE mistake. Chris, although he seems nice, comes off as dry. Beasley seems like he's been phoning it in for years, just reading from the teleprompter.

 

Oh boy, Dianna Rocco is anchoring the 10. I hope they don't think that's the answer. Kate is doing weather.

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I think letting Kathy go is a HUGE mistake. Chris, although he seems nice, comes off as dry. Beasley seems like he's been phoning it in for years, just reading from the teleprompter.

 

Oh boy, Dianna Rocco is anchoring the 10. I hope they don't think that's the answer. Kate is doing weather.

 

Ugh I can't deal with the Roccobot again.

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It boggles my mind how bosses think mass firings like this are a good idea. In these large markets, this kind of BS seems to fly only on the ratings-starved CBS-owned stations. This notion that if the personalities go away, the problems will go with them is very one-dimensional, and really only alienates the viewers that are still around. Look at the infamous 1996 WCBS "massacre". More than a half-dozen anchors and reporters were unceremoniously dumped between newscasts, leading to more than a decade of rotating anchor chairs and formats, and general instability that didn't give viewers anything to adjust to. (Terrible grammar, I know. It's late.) Many say that the flagship STILL hasn't recovered. Similar dismantling took place at Chicago sister WBBM in 2008, and like with WCBS before, the already poor ratings only became pathetic.

 

I'm no expert on these sorts of things, and I understand TV is a different kind of animal, but I do think there has to be superior ways of conducting such dismissals. Let them say goodbye on the air, drop an anchor every few months, I don't know, but pulling the rug out only tells me that this station's bosses don't care for their employees, and to a certain extent, their viewers, and is willing to give a big "screw you" to both, just to say they made their mark and that they tried.

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It boggles my mind how bosses think mass firings like this are a good idea. In these large markets, this kind of BS seems to fly only on the ratings-starved CBS-owned stations. This notion that if the personalities go away, the problems will go with them is very one-dimensional, and really only alienates the viewers that are still around. Look at the infamous 1996 WCBS "massacre". More than a half-dozen anchors and reporters were unceremoniously dumped between newscasts, leading to more than a decade of rotating anchor chairs and formats, and general instability that didn't give viewers anything to adjust to. (Terrible grammar, I know. It's late.) Many say that the flagship STILL hasn't recovered. Similar dismantling took place at Chicago sister WBBM in 2008, and like with WCBS before, the already poor ratings only became pathetic.

 

I'm no expert on these sorts of things, and I understand TV is a different kind of animal, but I do think there has to be superior ways of conducting such dismissals. Let them say goodbye on the air, drop an anchor every few months, I don't know, but pulling the rug out only tells me that this station's bosses don't care for their employees, and to a certain extent, their viewers, and is willing to give a big "screw you" to both, just to say they made their mark and that they tried.

 

It always seemed to me like the message was "who let you near a TV station, specifically this one?". The WCBS massacre is kind of infamous though for just the sheer ruthlessness in which it was carried out. Those folks didn't even get to be fired at the end of the day..
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As long as they're cleaning house, can they get rid of Jim Donovan?

 

As for replacements, I think the weather department is fine as is. The Sports department should look to CSN or ESPN for a potential replacement. The female anchor department seems to be doing just fine. The male anchor department is lacking!! They could use three or four of them, and a big name lead anchor would be nice.

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I don't live in Philly, however I often vacation in South Jersey and when I would watch TV in the hotel I would often turn to CBS3, just because that is usually what was on. From what I saw Orr and Reece were very popular and well known, often on location. (I even met Orr in Wildwood when she did Orr at the Shore, and she seemed nice). As with any case however, I don't get why management comes in and cleans house right away, especially with the more popular people. I looked into this and people are NOT happy at all. I'm not sure if it was there before this but it seems CBS Philly removed the "post to page" section from facebook.

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Ukee's moving to nighttime and other changes. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillygossip/292945081.html

 

 

 

More changes at CBS3, which on Tuesday let go of three of its biggest on-air names: anchor Chris May, chief meteorologist Kathy Orr and sports director Beasley Reece.

Starting July 13, longtime morning anchor Ukee Washington will replace May as co-anchor, with Jessica Dean, of the 5, 6, and 11 p.m. newscasts on CBS3 and the 10 p.m. newscast on CW57, a station spokeswoman said Wednesday.

 

Kate Bilo will replace Kathy Orr as chief meteorologists on those newscasts, with Katie Fehlinger taking over Bilo’s duties on the noon show.

Meteorologist Carol Erickson, who has been with the station on and off since 1978, was offered a new contract but has decided to leave to, in her words, “focus on my commitment to animal welfare in the region.”

 

No word on replacement for Reece.

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