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Georgie56

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6 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

As far as the discontinuing of the original version of the regional "Across America" segments back in November, I have to wonder if it was the O&Os that complained about having to produce these pre-recorded hits twice a day, or if it was a corporate decision where the folks in New York didn't see the value of the segment. If it was pushback from the O&Os, then I would wonder if there would be issues with getting them to participate in any other type of localized forecasts. Heck, even when "Across America" was fully-fledged on Fox Weather, there were only like 10 O&Os that participated, with WTXF in Philly being the only one in the northeast that would participate. In the southeast, only the two Florida O&Os participated.

 

If I recall correctly, the ONLY FOX O&Os I saw participate in that segment where KSAZ, WOFL, WTVT, KMSP, WTXF, KTBC, KDFW, KRIV, KCPQ, and WITI.

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21 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

If I recall correctly, the ONLY FOX O&Os I saw participate in that segment where KSAZ, WOFL, WTVT, KMSP, WTXF, KTBC, KDFW, KRIV, KCPQ, and WITI.

Yep, that's right - those are the only O&Os that participated in that segment.

 

On the studio side of things, another change took place last week starting March 1st. Wasn't sure if it's permanent, but it appears to actually be permanent-ish. The 4pm-7pm ET show Fox Weather Across America has been relocated into a smaller studio previously used by Fox Business up until January 2023.

 

Last week, they were doing stand up segments in there...

FoxWX_20230301-10.thumb.png.326f16fc25f739eeec4129a68a3338d9.png

 

But as of this week, they seem to mainly be doing sit-down segments at the anchor desk. The Microsoft Surface tablets on the desk are being used as telestrators for the maps.

 

FoxWX_20230310-6.thumb.png.d846124b72b085d5e5e03d5ebf24838c.pngFoxWX_20230310-7.thumb.png.65e60c3bfa817637809a7202b419af45.png

 

As for why they moved a whole three-hour show out of the main studio? I can only venture to guess it's because the producers of Fox Weather Now wanted all of the cameras and monitors that would normally be set up for Across America to not clutter the studio during their show.

 

FoxWX_20230309-9.thumb.png.4a1725f7a8aab0f769d33a9d48a63d3e.png

 

Before Across America was moved out of Studio W, this whole area between the Expert Desk and video wall was full of cameras and monitors facing the main anchor desk. Now it seems like they're clearing out the studio of all excess cameras and monitors every single day just for Fox Weather Now (Brigit Mahoney pictured hosting, as Ian Oliver is out this week).

 

Seems like the powers that be deemed having the studio clear of the camera and monitors was worth moving the entire 4pm-7pm Across America to a different studio. This means that during the PM hours, only the 3pm-4pm ET Fox Weather Now and the 7pm-10pm ET Fox Weather Live originate from the main Studio W. Seems like a massive waste.

 

 

Comparison shot of what the studio looked like during America's Weather Now previously. I thought it kinda looked cool with the cameras and monitors for the main anchor desk being in place, but I guess they thought differently.

From a February edition of the show:

FoxWX_20230215-11.thumb.png.ab1b31de89d916ea6c3074ec9bf58a4d.png

 

Edited by Spring Rubber
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There was definitely a push initially that every O&O would contribute some kind of content on a regular basis to Fox Weather. Obviously that didn't happen with everyone. As I see it, a big reason for that is that all the O&Os have so much live news to worry about themselves and barely enough meteorologists locally to fill all of it, so I doubt a lot of the local mets wanted yet another thing dumped onto their workload with nothing for them in return.

 

What has happened, however, is that Fox Weather will request live shots from O&O reporters who are on weather live shots, and O&Os are also able to request live shots from Fox Weather correspondents.

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1 hour ago, H-Town TV Fan said:

I wonder where Steve Bender has been. He hasn't been present these past few weeks.

He tweeted a few weeks ago that he started paternity leave...

 

 

They must have some amazing paternity leave benefits there, even to the point that they can be deferred some number of months after the child's birth. IIRC, the baby was born back in like Nov/Dec. He took like three weeks of paternity leave back then, came back and worked the final few weeks of Dec, all of Jan, and the first half of Feb, and now resumed his paternity leave. Think this is his fourth week off now on this segment of his paternity leave. Wonder how many weeks they get total.

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Something seems to be up at Fox Weather yet again. So far, all shows today have been using the small studio K as a temp set, and the 9am-12pm ET show Weather Command has instead been branded Fox Weather Live today. Amy and Ian appear to still be hosting, albeit with no third co-host. It's unclear if the Weather Command show has already been cancelled or if they're just not branding the show the normal way because they're not in their main studio.

 

 

FoxWX_20230320-6.png

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Today the 9am hour is branded “FOX Weather First” and co-hosted by Brigit Mahoney and Kendall Smith…. 
 

I wonder if Amy’s show was deemed too political? She was appearing as co-host on Outnumbered on FNC… mixing weather with politics doesn’t work! 
 

Ian and Brigit were great together as co-hosts - bring them together again for the 9-12 block’

Edited by Jman7885
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Today was super weird. The whole morning used Studio K as a temp set again. They returned to the main Studio W at 3pm ET with Fox Weather Now. I didn't have much time to watch while working, but I didn't notice anything different about the set from a quick glance.

 

The schedule today was (times EDT):

6am-9am - Fox Weather First w/Kendall Smith and Britta Merwin

9am-10am - Fox Weather First w/Kendall Smith and Brigit Mahoney

10am-11am - Fox Weather Live w/Brigit Mahoney and Kendall Smith (yes, they changed the show title this hour and also swapped their positions at the desk in reverse this hour)

11am-12pm - Fox Weather Live w/Amy Freeze and Ian Oliver

12pm-3pm - America's Weather Center w/Kiyana Lewis and Kelly Costa

3pm-4pm - Fox Weather Now w/Ian Oliver

4pm-6pm - Fox Weather Across America w/Marissa Torres and Brigit Mahoney

6pm-7pm - Fox Weather Across America w/Stephen Morgan and Brigit Mahoney

7pm-10pm - Fox Weather Live w/Stephen Morgan and Marissa Torres

10pm-1am - Fox Weather @ Night w/Kiyana Lewis (pre-recorded, as always)

 

So yeah, just a total mess today. Ian and Amy only did one hour together this morning. Kinda feels like they were in a meeting or rehearsal or something else important enough to keep them off the air for the 9am-11am portion of the schedule. Staffing was so short today that Brigit might as well have pitched a cot there - working a split morning/evening shift. They basically went the whole day with almost every meteorologist either working outside their normal shift or working a double shift.

 

Given that the network did return to the main studio halfway through the day, tomorrow should tell us if the Weather Command branding is alive or dead.

 

(Edited with the rest of today's schedule, plus the fact that I forgot Kiyana Lewis filled in for Michael Estime today.)

Edited by Spring Rubber
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Weather Command is back on the air today from the main studio W. It seems like for whatever reason, they simply would not do the show under that title while they were on the temp set.

 

As for why they were on the temp set, I guess either lighting upgrades, or something was physically broken? Nothing appears to be changed with the studio that's visible on-air.

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45 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

Weather Command is back on the air today from the main studio W. It seems like for whatever reason, they simply would not do the show under that title while they were on the temp set.

 

As for why they were on the temp set, I guess either lighting upgrades, or something was physically broken? Nothing appears to be changed with the studio that's visible on-air.

They could have been taping specials in that space. That's what happens with The Weather Channel when they do that. They'll move programming to The Lab. 

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3 hours ago, Jman7885 said:

Just odd that the personalities made no mention of it… 

Eh, you know how it goes... the less they make mention of it, the less they figure the viewer will even be aware.

 

I did notice this morning that Amy was doing more dynamic stand-up segments, instead of being confined to the desk like she usually is. She first got up from the desk while on the air, walked to the video wall to present her own stand-up weather segment; then she walked over to the Expert Desk to talk to Ian, and then she walked over to the touchscreen to talk to Britta. I have a feeling that the reason why Amy and Ian were only on-air for one hour (instead of three) yesterday is because they spent most of the day meeting and rehearsing these ideas to make the show feel more dynamic.

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The on-air staffing shortages are starting to show. It appears that sometime within the past few weeks, Katie Garner has departed from Fox Weather. The link to her bio has been removed from https://www.foxweather.com/personalities - based on the web archive Wayback Machine, her bio was still linked there on March 15th, but now she's gone.

 

Steve Bender is still on paternity leave, and Brigit Mahoney was also out of the office the second half of last week. 

 

As a result, they had to work through Friday night's severe outbreak with only 4 on-air mets after 3pm ET. The way they handled it was to have Ian Oliver bookend the coverage by hosting 3pm-6pm ET and then again from 1am ET through the rest of the overnight. Meanwhile, from 6pm-1am ET, they rotated between Kendall Smith, Stephen Morgan, and Marissa Torres in mixed shifts. For example, they started that block of coverage with Kendall and Stephen, then switched to Marissa and Stephen a few hours in, and then switched to Marissa and Kendall a few hours later. Ian did the 1am ET hour from the main studio with a fully-produced show. They sent the control room/production staff home at 2am ET, so Ian moved to the update desk where they can do live break-in coverage that's controlled by the meteorologist. From 2am ET onward, they alternated between automated weather maps and live break-ins hosted and controlled by Ian at the update desk.

 

On Saturday, they extended live coverage until 6pm ET. Craig and Jane hosted the usual 6am-10am ET shift, while the normal second shift crew of Michael and Kiyana moved later to the 2pm-6pm ET shift. The gap was bridged from 10am-2pm ET with a combination of Michael and Stephen hosting in the studio and Amy Freeze hosting from home.

 

As of the 2am ET update from the SPC, the severe threat for today 3/26 has been upgraded to an Enhanced Risk with a 10% hatched tornado risk for this afternoon and evening. With such short notice, I'm unsure if both Fox Weather and TWC will be able to staff coverage for this evening.

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7 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

As of the 2am ET update from the SPC, the severe threat for today 3/26 has been upgraded to an Enhanced Risk with a 10% hatched tornado risk for this afternoon and evening. With such short notice, I'm unsure if both Fox Weather and TWC will be able to staff coverage for this evening.

 

Now with a Moderate risk being issued:

 

TWC is live this afternoon and I suspect all evening until 1am EDT. 

Fox Weather is live as well with Michael & Kiyana.

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3 hours ago, H-Town TV Fan said:

Apparently, there was no Fox Weather Across America today, and Fox Weather @Night is on early, at 9:00pm EST/8:00pm CST.

Yeah, they ran a super modified schedule today. Ian Oliver was out today and yesterday. They ran a normal schedule yesterday with Brigit Mahoney filling in for him on both Weather Command and Fox Weather Now. Meanwhile, Kiyana Lewis and Kendall Smith hosted Across America.

 

Today, on the other hand, Kelly Costa (in NYC instead of Orlando) filled in for Ian on Weather Command; meanwhile, the standard format of Fox Weather Now was scrapped in favor of a two-anchor, 3-hour version of Fox Weather Now hosted by Kiyana Lewis and Brigit Mahoney at the main anchor desk from 3pm-6pm ET. Fox Weather Live followed, also bumped up by one hour, airing from 6pm-9pm ET.

 

Because Fox Weather Now doesn't normally use the main anchor desk, we don't typically get to see the video wall backdrop for the show. Looks like they basically just used the same background that was previously used for America's Weather Center when it used to be housed in the main studio, just with the show title changed.

 

FoxWX_20230328-4.thumb.png.6273bf0e44a6cfcc25ee8c667f469dc2.png

 

Given that this was a two anchor show from the anchor desk, with the same hosts that would normally appear on Across America, it's strange that they decided to go with the Fox Weather Now branding today instead.

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Wednesday 3/29, Fox Weather stayed with the modified schedule yet again. Even though Ian was back from his time off, he didn't appear on Weather Command. Instead, Kelly Costa filled in for him on that show yet again. They stayed with the 3-hour edition of Fox Weather Now from 3pm-6pm ET, where Ian and Brigit were reunited to host the entire 3-hour block together. Across America again did not air in favor of an early start and end to Fox Weather Live from 6pm-9pm ET, and an early start to Fox Weather @ Night at 9pm ET.

 

FoxWX_20230329-14.thumb.png.76ffedf1868b6da9642e35fd4d67a763.png

 

Today 3/30, Ian is back on Weather Command, so maybe they're going to return to a normal schedule today.

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1 hour ago, Spring Rubber said:

Wednesday 3/29, Fox Weather stayed with the modified schedule yet again. Even though Ian was back from his time off, he didn't appear on Weather Command. Instead, Kelly Costa filled in for him on that show yet again. They stayed with the 3-hour edition of Fox Weather Now from 3pm-6pm ET, where Ian and Brigit were reunited to host the entire 3-hour block together. Across America again did not air in favor of an early start and end to Fox Weather Live from 6pm-9pm ET, and an early start to Fox Weather @ Night at 9pm ET.

 

FoxWX_20230329-14.thumb.png.76ffedf1868b6da9642e35fd4d67a763.png

 

Today 3/30, Ian is back on Weather Command, so maybe they're going to return to a normal schedule today.

I always liked Ian and Brigit together. Was Stephen Morgan off yesterday or was he paired with someone else?

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1 hour ago, Jman7885 said:

I always liked Ian and Brigit together. Was Stephen Morgan off yesterday or was he paired with someone else?

Stephen is still on his prolonged Fox Weather Live nighttime assignment until whenever Steve Bender comes back from paternity leave. That's been Stephen's standard assignment during the entire paternity leave, so in the meantime, Brigit's co-anchor on any given day is "whoever is available to cover the timeslot". Yesterday, Marissa Torres was off, so Kiyana Lewis worked with Stephen on Fox Weather Live.

 

As of today, I see that Ian is also back hosting the one-hour solo edition of Fox Weather Now at 3pm ET, so it looks like Across America with Brigit and (whoever is available) will probably return to the schedule.

 

Huge severe weather event in the forecast tomorrow, so it looks like today's regular schedule will last for today only, and I'm sure the whole schedule will be extended tomorrow to cover the severe outbreak.

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On 3/26/2023 at 6:44 AM, Spring Rubber said:

The on-air staffing shortages are starting to show. It appears that sometime within the past few weeks, Katie Garner has departed from Fox Weather. The link to her bio has been removed from https://www.foxweather.com/personalities - based on the web archive Wayback Machine, her bio was still linked there on March 15th, but now she's gone.

 

Yeah... she gone. Her LinkedIn profile pretty much confirms that.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-garner-05604894/

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