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Only inevitable we'd get a Bally knockoff at some point.

Depending on the market and how much news the station does, even a team of 5 can get stretched thin. Having a sixth can greatly reduce workload and allow for special projects. Yes, they're adding students from Mississippi State as part of their team. Two of them are juniors and one in grad school (which is highly unusual to have a meteorology master working in broadcast). WCBI also does this to a far smaller degree. There's only 3, maybe 4, there.

Well, the one thing people watch local news for more than anything these days is for the weather. Even with that in mind, 7 or 8 mets on staff seems like overkill; but then again I'm not the one hunkered down in the weather center during a EF5.

Didn't MSNBC see ratings imporvement in 2015 when Andy Lack lessened the opinionated programming and ran with more (albeit biased) news. Seems backward that they would move in the opposite direction. I guess they're trying to be the leftist answer to Fox News but it hasn't worked for them when they stray too far off from news. I loved the olden days when Alex Witt took up like 5 hours on wekends with "MSNBC News Live". Back when they were partnered with msn.

Im surprised they wont just cancel her already. As far as I've read Hot Bench was a decent preformer in the ratings, yet they moved it to experiment with Drew Barrymore.

It was revealed a few months ago that Drew Barrymore will be reformatted into two half-hour segments to make room for the 9AM newscasts on CBS O&Os. The first airing would be a lead out from those 9AM newscasts, while the second airing would air later in the day or on duopoly stations.

I do like the corporate, polished look of the WCBS news. I like Maurice Dubois and Kristine Johnson together. I find it very professional. I like WABC Eyewitness News too, but I find the blue lower third a little too big. I prefer the Chicago ABC 7 look. Thinner and sleeker. One thing that bugs me from the WNBC News is the see through table. A desk would be nicer. I am not a fan of seeing the anchors' knees when they are sitting.

A couple of things stood out to me in NBC's announcement regarding NBC News Daily. First, the network said, "NBC News will provide signature world-class reporting and breaking news coverage in a first-of-its kind, live in most markets mid-day news offering." It was the "live in most markets" comment that stood out to me. Well, today The Los Angeles Times gave me more by stating, "The anchors for the program will depend on the time zone, as the newscast will be live across the country, using the hours shown on the NBC News Now stream. Stations will get the team of Morgan Radford and Vicky Nguyen or Kate Snow and Aaron Gilchrist." So essentially the network will simply broadcast an hour of NBC News Now. Or I guess you could say NBC News Now will stream four hours of NBC News Daily. In any event, it is using one crew to create a program simultaneously for the NBC broadcast network and the NBC News Now stream. And thus, the economics of this programming decision makes sense. NBC gets lower production costs and probably similar ratings. Meanwhile, you move production-cost heavy "Days" over to Peacock where you have two revenue streams: subscriptions and advertising. The other thing that I was curious about was "the option for NBC stations to add local news.” TV Newser reported that, "NBC stations do have the option of adding local news instead of this new national news offering." I'm hearing that statement is not accurate. NBC is not relinquishing the time slot back to affiliates. It is the ability for stations to add local news into the national show, not cover up the national broadcast with a local newscast. Think of it like the five-minute station breaks during the Today Show (7:25, 7:55, etc.) where local stations do news and weather.

6:00 is an understandably preferable slot as it's not too early or late of a shift and it's the lead in to the evening news. I like how strong of a role Bill Ritter still plays (despite some of his on air commentary) given that once anchors reach a particular age their role slows down. I actually had no idea Ritter was was in his 70s until he started graying. To bring it back to WNBC, I hope to see Chuck at 6 for as long as possible!

Bill Ritter does the 5, 6 and 11pm. He actually added the 5pm to his schedule just 3 years ago when Diana Williams retired. He’s done the 11pm since 1999 and the 6pm since 2001. Bill Beutel was a phased retirement plan. Stepped down from 11pm in 1999, stepped down from 6pm in 2001 and then fully retired in 2003. With Chuck, yes, it seems like they’re just letting him hang on to the 6pm until he’s ready to call it quits on his own terms.

Chuck and Sue were WNBC; and NYC Broadcast Legends. Ever since that duo was broken up; WNBC hasn’t been the same. Some say it’s Karma, But they just haven’t found the right anchor teams with that unmatched chemistry that Chuck, Sue, Len, Al Roker later (Janice Huff) had that made them #1.

The difference I remember hearing, when compared to Chuck, is that Sue wasn't as willing to do more than just the 11, whether it was adding a show, filling in, or other programming. Chuck was willing, as he was still doing 2 shows.

A lot of different stories and pieces of information out there in this. What we do know is she was initially offered a buyout in 2008 and refused. Sometime after that, she signed a new three year deal set to expire in 2012 and it was made clear then that it would be the last contract WNBC would offer her. She hoped WNBC would change their mind along the way but in the final year if the contract when no renewal talks were offered, she began telling close friends it was her last year at NBC. She was being paid upwards of $2 million a year (some estimates say $5 million) and, in her final year, was anchoring just one 30 minute broadcast. Some reports say she seemed to have lost interest in the job, started phoning it in and NBC execs were not thrilled. Other reports say it’s just a classic case of a woman not being able to age gracefully on television. As we can see, her coanchor of the same age is still with the station in a high profile role.

Sheba and Sibila were pretty decent anchors, and I though Sheba was good with Tom Llamas, but Sue Simmons didnt need to go. Sue should still be with Chuck weeknights at 6 (and maybe even 7) up to this day. Chuck has not had a stable partner to this day. Add to that anchor lineup these days is pretty scattered with Natalie and David individually anchoring 14 different newscasts. Out of curiosity, why was just Sue axed and not Chuck aswell? I remember Sue kept saying in her last broadcast "I hope to find employment elsewhere", which made it clear she did not want to go. Overall that was a major NY broadcasting blunder along with eighty-sixing Jim & Kaity on PIX weeknights.

For the first time since I believe October, Good Day Philadelphia is back in the streetside studio. They had been using the main studio since then.

No. She never seemed comfortable at the station.

Is there any reason to bring her back? Letting Sue go was a mistake.

Try to replace Sue Simmons working with Chuck at 11 - lotsa luck! Absolutely no chemistry!!!!!!

The thought crossed my mind early this morning when I saw it. Anyone remember the circumstances under which she left?

Godspeed Johnny Beckman... Atlanta's legendary weatherman. WSB, WXIA, and WGNX (WGCL) were lucky to have a meteorologist like Johnny. JB, say hi to another weather legend; Harold Taft from all of us here.