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Oh, whatever. He looks fine.

WESH would generally be the first to roll out new graphics, i.e. since the hub is there and historically, they have been the first. If new graphics do roll out eventually, it starts there.

Ratings for cable talk channels in general deserve a massive asterisk. Yes, they (and Fox News in general) have a large audience, but when the bulk of it is over the age of 54, does it even matter? Maybe that’s why FNC only needs direct response ads, because they get hefty retrans fees from cable providers. NewsNation’s continual failure remains on two points: the audience rejected the original intent of a generic prime—time newscast in resounding fashion, and the channel isn’t able to peel away any viewers from Fox News. Scott Jones may call it “Fox News Lite” and call Chris Cuomo “Fredo” (which isn’t even an original insult) but to be honest, no one really cares. Viewing patterns are difficult to break, which isn’t helped by not doing anything to differentiate from the competition.

It's also just a declining pool of viewers; at maximum you can have 15 million on a good night, and on a night where nothing is happening, it's down to 5 million. That's 1-5% of the country, and even then how many of those TVs just have it on for background noise? You have so many places where the TV is just set on FNC or CNN just for the sake of visual noise, and to try to talk a declining audience to switch to this 'new' network you associate with reruns and multiple programming directions, and you're not going to do that because you'll just get customers who are like 'put it on a REAL news channel' (or are in a place at 3am wondering what the hell a campmeeting is). Also don't forget just how much FNC is just in so many routines. Fox News Radio is now the main radio news service, along with their features on even mainstream full service stations, so even if you're nowhere near a TV with cable, Fox is going to be on something. NewsNation has just one radio station, WGN, along with whichever leftover affiliates somehow decided ABC, CBS, FNR, USA Radio, Salem, or Westwood One don't provide a good news product. WGN has become the most mid station to ever mid and is run godawfully (their schedule page thinks Jim Bohannan is still doing his show in his casket, I guess). And Fox has Fox Nation, MSNBC has NBC News Now, CNN has their app. At the start of 2023, I still cannot stream NewsNation on Spectrum or even in their app off wifi. Nexstar failed terribly at getting their ducks in a row before launching NN, and Perry's 'the web is a fad' thinking is going to come back to bite him sooner than later.

One thing I like that CBS started as the trend is not just minimalist deconstruction in their rebrand, but harkening back to previous eras in their rebrand. CBS had the most success in their rebrand, so much so that ABC copied them, and now NBC is following suit. If FOX didn't sell out to Disney, I would have totally seen the searchlights come back at some point.

In honor of today being New Year's Eve, here are a couple of newscasts recorded on New Year's Eve. WISN Channel 12 Action News at 11:00 in 1979: And WLS Eyewitness News at 10:00 in 1984:

NBC continues to roll out it’s new on air branding centered around the new peacock, and we’ve got a new vanity card, which the network calls a “curtain raiser”, complete with the new logo, update chimes and animation. After seeing what they plan to do with the peacock animation and color variations, I really like the route they’ve gone with it, the new vanity card has some of that “in living color” vibe to it in my opinion and comes off less corporate-ish than the last one. Full article here: https://www.The Other Site.com/2022/12/30/nbc-rebranding-vanity-bug-snipe/ New vanity card:

I hope his bosses have a sense of humor. Most corporate suits don't. But then again, Byron Allen owns the station, so he might not mind the comedy.

Viewership must have been low across all news outlets on Christmas weekend. Speaking of NewsNation, I saw a promo on WJW for NN featuring Fredo and O'Reilly. No thanks!

Personally, I wouldn't ever boast about beating taped programming on two nights the NFL buried anything with a (live and on-air and not involving home shopping) pulse, but for NN, I guess beating a taped show about the 'war on Christmas', on Christmas, in a very asterisk-heavy demographic manner, is an achievement in something, something enough to have your classic TV network being forced to acknowledge it on Facebook.

Speaking of the 96 theme…Gardner was quoted in this detailed article looking back on the incident https://billypenn.com/2015/08/12/phillys-action-news-theme-song-has-survived-10-presidential-elections-and-20-olympic-games-and-isnt-going-anywhere/

I had a feeling she was going to Detroit at first, but then she started talking like she was going to be staying in Columbus, so that threw me off. Always go with your first instinct.

That’s not really how it works. First, ABC doesn’t program sports just to “avoid having to get people to work on the holiday”. I’m hoping that was meant to be funny, but it comes off as naive. Second, the newsroom does not get the day off. It still has weekend staffing. That includes assignment editors, reporters and photographers working on stories for the late news. A skeleton staff of producers, editors, writers, directors, on-air talent and technical people will still be scheduled during the day, in case of an emergency or breaking news. They won’t have a lot to do, but they’ll still be there, just in case. Small market stations might not do that, but at WABC, and I’m sure most other major market stations, that’s the way it works. Newsrooms everywhere get a staffing break when Christmas falls on a weekend, because weekends always have skeleton staffs, compared to weekdays. So, Christmas scheduling on a Sunday is easier, even without sports to fill the day. By the way, the people who went to work at 11PM on Christmas Eve, in miserable weather, to put together the morning show on Christmas Day probably don’t feel like the newsroom got the day off. Neither will the people who have to go to bed at 3PM on Christmas Day, so they can do the Monday morning show.

Here is last night's Gardner retrospective:

I don’t know if any other market has someone like a Jim Gardner. I know other cities have people who’ve anchored for a long time, but I’m not sure they’ve had the same cultural impact/relevance that Jim has in Philly. I mean, the dude had people tailgating in the parking lot for this. Nobody deserves it more, though. Happy retirement, Jim.

ABC News Legendary journalist Barbara Walters passed away yesterday evening at the age of 93 with her family by her side. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/12/31/barbara-walters-dead

What do you all think of Greg's beard? I think it's too much and looks unprofessional, especially on the 7pm newscast when he has no tie. He probably keeps it from going grey, but it's too much and he looks way better shaven or at least with less facial hair. Do you think Cheryl and/or Greg are going to go network with Rob Marciano not on GMA weekday and weekend anymore?

As confirmed during a investment firm conference earlier today, Nexstar will use the proceeds -- $155 million of net cash -- from the sale of its Chicago property the Freedom Center (to Bally's for a future billion-dollar casino on the site) to invest in operations of The CW. (The pending sale was already publicly disclosed recently.) https://deadline.com/2022/11/nexstar-cw-investment-funded-by-proceeds-from-sale-chicago-property-casino-1235173891/