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Like the old Headline news was years ago, cable channels have become an endless jukebox of shows. It's silly to think what purpose they even serve as the shows they air on repeat over and over again are often readily available on demand from a streaming service without the on-screen clutter and commercials that pretty much put things on at oddball times (that's more of a TVLand thing though and TBS TurnerTime is long gone.) Since they're jukeboxes, they're pretty much turnkey operations that require little human intervention. And in the digital realm where channel space is unlimited, these channels won't go away anytime soon until everybody switches to streaming and the cable bundle dies once and for all.

I’m sort of surprised that having an affair with two married coworkers while being married yourself doesn’t violate a morality clause of some sort, especially since this is Disney we’re talking about. That said, as reprehensible as TJ or Amy may be in their personal lives, I’m not sure firing them would be a good precedent for the rest of the company. Even though TJ may have had a habit of $h*—ing where he ate, his relationships were consensual, and unless ABC has an explicit “no fraternization” policy, I’m don’t think they’d have any justification for firing him. Same goes for Amy. EDIT: Kim Godwin herself stated that TJ’s actions were “not a violation of company policy,” so ABC would have no justification for firing him.

From a member on the Discord: they’re shooting promos for the morning show now.

Definitely well deserved, and I think its a first in the market, First Black Woman Chief Meteorologist, she would've been my choice as well! I am surprised, because I definitely thought Bryan Van DeGraff and Steve Rudin (Who has been at WUSA, WTTG, and now WJLA) would've had the position!

I don’t think comparing 2 stations in 2 different time slots really counts as competition, but I assume your point is that KCAL has the higher-rated newscasts. Is that really a bad thing? It’s the exact same news department, and the revenue is all flowing in the same direction.

This is unwanted attention, an unncesary distraction, and disheartening for the spouces involved. Lets be fair though. People in every day jobs mess around with their coworkers. This is only a big deal because the parties involved work on TV and have the media exacerbating their liaison. The other outlets might want to tread carefully and be self reflective regaurding workplace gossip. As the mutiple scandals in pervious years have showed us, alot of news agencies have skeletons in their closets. This may follow the usual pattern. This one scandal will suddenly open the door for a multitude of allegations about numerous things from people who were quiet for years. We're talking alot about morality clauses and Disney. Let's not forget Disney owned ABC is the same network that aired Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and other raunchy shows, not to mention General Hospital on right after in most markets, lol. I'm sure a decent swath of the public doesn't even know that ABC is owned by Disney to make that brand connection. It reminds me of when Paul Pierce was fired from ESPN for that considerably mild video where strippers were walking in the background as it "wasn't a good look" for a Disney company employee. This despite the majority of ESPN's audience being men, many of whom are watching in barbershops and bars, (who probably wouldn't mind) given the conversations that occur in those spaces. Overall, a company has a right to tell its employees to be careful of what they do on their personal time, as not to negatively affect the company's image. But, like this case, everything doesn't require disciplinary action.

That's basically what I said, only going in the other direction.

Jim's final newscast will be December 21st, two weeks from tomorrow. Edit: story from WPVI's site: https://6abc.com/action-news-at-6-brian-taff-6abc-jim-gardner-retires/12533116/

I was glad to read Brian Taff is replacing Jim Gardner on the 6pm newscast. He’s always been a favorite and will be great. Brian posted the news today on his Facebook page.

Horrible this was a great show hoping this backfires!

That montage all but encapsulated Stelter's piece in the Atlantic. The channel in it's original format was not only rendered obsolete, the truly ugly parts that came thereafter (Nancy Grace and her obsession with Casey Anthony) ultimately and irrevocably destroyed HLN's reputation en route to becoming a true crime rerun library channel. Meade's show felt increasingly out of place and to be blunt, I'm shocked it lasted as long as it did. Because HLN was already a zombie network and had been for years. Even with Meade, it had no identity, no direction, and honestly, no purpose to even exist as a cable channel.

They couldn't wait to get rid of Morning Express. They should have replayed the last hour at 8am.

It was announced that WJLA morning meteorologist Veronica Johnson will be the WJLA's new Chief Meteorologist and Eileen Whelan will be the "new" morning meteorologist (though she has done mornings before) https://wjla.com/news/local/veronica-johnson-chief-meteorologist-historic-announcement-first-alert-weather-7news-wjla-channel7-dc-washington-local-news-history-first-woman-dmv

I don’t know if I’d call it “ass-backwards management” (not yet, anyway); it’s more like throwing in the towel on channel 2 in the morning. I can’t blame them. Keep in mind that their current arrangement has KCBS airing a newscast that draws a big fat zero in the ratings, while KCAL airs infomercials. As unconventional as this new arrangement is, it’s better than what they have now (although they might want to consider promoting the damn thing). That’s not saying much, of course. The spiel about “making KCAL a major player” is BS, and I imagine that management is smart enough to realize that they won’t be a major threat to KTLA or KTTV. The broader point is that KCAL can air its own programming (via CBS LA’s news dept), and the extra airing of CBS Mornings can give the show a ratings boost (albeit, a very small one). Sure, KCBS loses morning news, but when no one’s watching it, it’s not like anyone living in LA is going to give a damn.

Yep. Quite surprising. I don’t think they are going to launch this thing on Monday, unless they make a soft launch, maybe debuting the new KCAL set and going on with the new hirings, which is the most likely thing. No new graphics or “CBS News Los Angeles” until after the holidays or when CBS News Detroit launches (or maybe yes), which could be the moment to promote the new product and finally get KCAL to produce the other hours. Unless, as you say, it is postponed at the last minute and/or withholding it for the New Year.

ABC O&Os are the perfect example of streamlined with a touch of individuality. There are umpteen ABC 7s with roughly the same logo, branding themselves as Eyewitness News. The vast majority of them are the number one station in their markets, and despite there duplicated formats, the stations have seeds of uniqness that make them authentic to the cities they broadcast to. Pardon the ancient example but, Van Amborg was uniquely San Francisco as Grimsby & Beutel felt very New York.

If they really are launching on KCAL tomorrow, you’d think they’d do a better job promoting it. I haven’t seen anything on their website that promotes a Dec. 5 launch (other than program guides), and I assume they aren’t airing promos on KCBS/KCAL. AFAIK, nothing promoting a specific launch date on social media or YouTube either. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t know if you have any hope of getting viewers for this thing if you aren’t even telling people when/where to watch it. Unless, of course, they aren’t launching tomorrow.

The program guide on the CBS LA website shows the title of the newscasts on channel 2 as “KCAL News at x on CBS Los Angeles” starting December 5.

Speaking in generalities... IMO: A consensual relationship with your co-worker (given that both of you are single) is messy but not morally wrong. The problem becomes an awkward work environment if the relationship ends. This might be unpopular but dare I say it: A boss and their subordinate having a consensual relationship is also messy --and should be avoided -- but isn't morally wrong either, given that the subordinate is not being granted unearned work privileges and that the boss doesn't try to retaliate if the relationship ends badly. It's best to avoid s$&/$ing where you eat as the saying goes, but life happens. As someone pointed out earlier, this will be buried in the news cycle in the next 2 to 3 weeks, and ABC should probably weather through the storm rather than overreact. Let's hope nothing nefarious on either Holmes or Robach's parts comes out in the next few weeks.

Tamsen would be fine in smaller doses (not literally every evening broadcast)...everytime I see Kaity on the weekends (although I'm grateful she's still on the schedule at all) I think of how she was back on weekdays in 2016 only to be dropped within 6 months or so. Even if they just gave the "evening news" (6:30pm) program to her or the 6pm it would draw in many viewers and give competition to the Dana Tyler/Chuck Scarborough/Bill Ritter (and formerly Lori Stokes) fans. PIX has definitely gotten worse with the constant morning changes too (why switch Craig to weekends only to switch him back to weekdays and completely demote John; the Betty Ngueyn story etc etc); I frankly given up understanding their logic for it. Dan has been the only real constant since Suki left. It's nice they're getting a new studio but I really hope they get to improving their broadcasts and stop changing talent (particularly in the AMs) constantly; I feel like the more you move talent around like that the more likely they are to just leave all together.

This issue with KCBS/KCAL is one hot mess.

This makes me wonder if the plan is for ID to take over HLN's channel space on most cable systems once the latter is fully shut down.

At this point now that Morning/Weekend Express has been canceled, What exactly is HLN at this point? What would be the justification for TV companies to justify having it on its system?

I was looking at out-of-country news clips, and I noticed something from Australian TV stations. TEN Eyewitness News had State Bank on their chopper, while Seven National News had National Australia Bank on their chopper. I wonder if those two banks were sponsoring each network's aerial news coverage. Flying billboard if you will. If that's the case, that idea could work in America local stations. A bank funding the chopper for a local station, and in exchange, having the bank's logo somewhere on the chopper with the station logo on it. Plus, announcing that the aerial coverage sponsored by X Bank, so that the station can provide their bank more business. Either a bank, a real estate chain, or even a grocery store sponsoring a station's helicopter coverage. Example, KCAL 9's helicopter with the Albertson's grocery stores logo on it

KCAL has essentially become a competitor with KCBS in itself, which is not a good thing, for obvious reasons (just look at KCAL's 10pm and KCBS' 11pm ratings)

How long do contracts like these last (or specifically, contracts like the ones HLN has with cable companies), I’m curious? I’m not one to speculate, but I’m guessing the future of HLN can’t be good once the contracts you mentioned expire….

Ad revenue is the obvious answer but HLN might aswell go off the air totally.

I don't think it's a dumb move at all. Comparing CBS 2's and KCAL's brands, KCAL is the more recognizable and more local brand and really they should've always been making KCAL the more dominant brand since the merge. I'd say that when there was a period when broadcast news in general was in a slump, that KCAL seemed to be an after thought, with much of the talent there laid off and also many of the daytime broadcasts eliminated (2pm, 3p and a half hour of the 4p).

It's made more complicated by Investigation Discovery having a much better brand and name awareness despite a smaller nationwide cable footprint. Plus—per Stelter—the simulcast of CNN This Morning is explicitly due to carriage contracts with cable companies that require HLN air a bare minimum of news programming. Stelter’s background working for CNN makes him very unlikely to simply make up an urban legend.

Final sign off:

Final hour of Morning Express is airing now.