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I’m not trying to downplay any of the points made here but a lot of this is blaming ABC, NBC and CBS who have made adjustments to format based on what viewers respond to. The formats you’re longing for were optimal for a period 20 years in the past. The most egregious of the fast paced newscasts is dominating 6:30pm and has for some years. Technology has changed the world and information processes so much that the 2005 format for these broadcasts would be DOA. Hell, I love broadcast media and even I have to force myself to sit through Lester Holt or David Muir. The news they’re presenting has already been broken, disseminated and analyzed hours in advance by the time they take to the air. Times have changed, I’m not mad at any of these newscasts for evolving.

@ABC 7 Denverbeat me to it, but half of the PBS NewsHour is made up of talking heads, and, no offense to fans of the show, but most people don’t want to watch that crap. It’s a big reason why PBS never moves beyond its very niche audience. Not to mention, it has always been a very slow newscast, and was considered as such even when the big networks were doing slower-paced newscasts. Many European networks seem to find a way to do stories with depth and context without boring their viewers to death; I don’t see a reason why we have to pick between a sleep aid and the desperately frenetic product that the big networks are putting out now.

First look at what I'm guessing will be the new graphics/theme via a promo:

My lord...the CBS Evening News has been a dumpster fire ever since Scott Pelley "stepped down" from the anchor desk....and an underground mine fire burning out of control since Jeff Glor was given the boot. It makes Katie Couric's days look like quality television...and even how Dan Rather tanked the show in the 80s and 90s still look respectable.

I don't blame you for that thought. I never watched it in years, to be honest.

It feels like watching a TikTok that's so professionally edited it really has no life (yes, I use TikTok). I understand the point of it in keeping you informed, but if you've watched it, you've gotten the entire newscast. You're not sticking around for whatever geriatric health news Norah mentions at the end and the geriatric drug ads in-between. What this tells me, along with watching NBC and ABC, is that the days of 'the world in 26 minutes' and giving breathing room to stories are long gone. If you want detail beyond a newscast, a subscription to the Washington Post will do much more than a TV newscast. I knew things weren't looking good when the early morning newscasts and First Look abandoned the format, and now even the evening shows are done with tradition.

It's too much, too chaotic, too loud and cheap looking. At least the long WNT open is just David introducing multiple stories one at a time. The CBS This Morning eye opener was good, they should have played off of that more. The Evening News was always faster paced, going back to the Rather days. At least they were well written, didn't overuse present tense, didn't seem like they were shouting, and didn't splash "Breaking News" over everything. I miss the days of the one story cold open, intro, then cut to anchor. If we have to introduce muliple stories the Bob Schiffer era did it well:

It’s a legitimate question for sure. I have to imagine that people who still watch linear broadcast news are choosing to consider there are millions of ways to get your news these days. As you alluded to, with so many options available someone who is tuning into the network news has to be doing so by choice.

If you count bi-state markets, Macon is one of three serving the state where Gray doesn’t have a station; it’s also absent in the spillover markets of Jacksonville (which includes far southeast Georgia) and Chattanooga (which covers the northwestern counties not in the Atlanta market). The only path into Chattanooga is a trade with Sinclair for either WTVC and/or WDSI/WFLI or with Morris for WDEF, or if Sarkes-Tarzian eventually decides to offload WRCB. It could enter Jacksonville by snagging either WTLV/WJXX or WFOX/WJAX, but only if the FCC ever rules on Apollo’s purchase of Tegna and decides that its interests in Tegna and Cox create ownership conflicts meriting spinoffs.

Unless Gray plans to snare the ABC or Fox affiliations from WGXA (assuming Sinclair’s contracts with those networks for that station are set to expire in the near future), it seems like an open question what they plan to do with WPGA. (Incidentally, WPGA replaced WGXA as Macon’s ABC affiliate in 1996; its previous owners, Register Communications, dropped the network in 2009, because of objections to the content of some programs and ABC’s request that its affiliates pay $500,000 in annual reverse compensation fees to carry its programming.) As for KNIN, that’s an open question as to whether Marquee continues the SSA with KIVI or turns it into a standalone station with its own studio, staff and news department, like what it did when it bought WSWG from Gray a few years ago. (Boise used to have four news departments until KNIN replaced KTRV as the Fox affiliate in 2011, which resulted in Block, which later sold the station to Ion Media, shutting down KTRV’s newsroom.)

How about putting some games on the USA Network? I thought they wanted to turn the USA network to like TNT, with a mixture of sports and entertainment.

There's a CBS News Detroit at 6am on streaming. Any plans for it to air on TV?

It would be really nice to see Rangers baseball back on KDFI and KDFW (Should KDFW preempt daytime programming).

Theoretically, but it's gotten so much into analysis and commentary. It's not news! It's Public Media on Cable in that case. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO PAY ATTENTION TO?! What am I looking at? What am I supposed to hear? The awful vamp? The voice over? Those graphics are too distracting. Is this a newscast or a sizzle real for a ad agency?

What i hate about all the evening newscasts (WNT, NN, EN) is that they all feel so rushed. From the opens, to the stories, the bumpers, everything. It's like watching at 2X speed of normal. I'd wish they'd slow down and let the stories breath instead of cramming as much into 20 min as possible.

I don’t hate it, don’t hate it all. I actually quite liked that. It’s similar to WNT with the flare of CBS Mornings’ Eye Opener. Doubt it moves the needle at all but I do like it. And the music continues to be one of the few bright spots about CBSEN.

Question is, will KYW get rid of its channel reference?? I think KDKA is right after KYW.

They could brand it as "MyBall".

I think Comcast/NBC is doing this in large part because of the potential fallout we're likely to see with Bally Sports' looming bankruptcy. They smell blood in the water and want in.

According to a report from CNBC, NBC Sports is preparing for an aggressive bid to bring back the NBA. NBC wants to have have a package to include playoff games on the network and some regular season games on Peacock. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/13/nbc-sports-prepared-to-make-nba-bid.html

Detroit is market #number 15, it’s cheaper to build News departments than it was in 1995. Because you can say goodbye to live trucks and hello to LiveUs, no more microwave trucks digital broadband now. And it’s profitable than a syndie because of local ADs. Wouldn’t surprised if the latter is more expensive. So expanding will be profitable no matter the ratings.

I don't love the quarter eye logo behind text in the bottom left, but otherwise, I think it's a great open. There is a marked disconnect between what TV news junkies on a message board like and what the general public likes. Is it how Cronkite presented the news? No. But this style is what catches people's attention in 2023 and it has sent ABC WNT to #1. I actually quite liked the cuts syncing with the music. I think this version nicely delivers the headlines in an active, attention-holding way without the doomsday drama of WNT("As we come on the air"..."Happening right now"...every verb ending in -ing).

Gray needed somewhere to park a future Telemundo feed in that market.

New M&A. Looks like Gray and Marquee are swapping. From TVNewsCheck, Gray is selling its Boise, Idaho Fox affiliate KNIN to Marquee Broadcasting. Upon the closing of the KNIN deal, Gray will then acquire Macon, Georgia's MeTV outlet WPGA.

Yes pls

And remember, greed when it came to retran fees is what accelerated the decline. I think when I cut the cord, retran fees were about $22, and then there was a sports surcharge taking it up to $30 on top of the regular bill. That's when I said, "No thanks."

Network news now is in the business of ADHD pacing and high story count. Cram 'em with as much dumbed down info as possible in the shortest amount of time to sustain their shrinking attention spans. This is a tall order but all media needs to collectively slow things down a bit. How fast can we really go as a society. All of this tik-tok level pacing we consume is giving us collective attention defecit. It's coming not just at the expense of quality journalism but how we process information.

Well they definitely won’t be using the black box with “KYW” as 1) they haven’t called themselves “KYW” for a generation and 2) there’s this little thing called KYW NewsRadio, which now has a wide-ranging partnership with WCAU. ”CBS Philadelphia” sounds about right.

That's why we have Public Media. We have PBS NewsHour. Yes, it's an hour. But their stories have so much room and relaxes. Even their weekend edition (30mins) still holds the concept.

In theory I don't hate the idea of an evening version of the Eye Opener, but in execution this was chaotic and cheap looking, IMO. The 2018 version shared above felt better executed than this.

Sorry. To be honest, I think doing this is great to help bring unity and connection between the two top CBS News shows, and bring a mini newscast for people who don't want to watch too long, but still at least get the information needed in a world where now an AI robot can give it to you.

This is how you give viewers whiplash, ladies and gentlemen.

FWIW, the anchor desk graphics have changed.

KYW could be next in line. Zap2It’s schedule reads “CBS News Philadelphia at X” starting Monday.

Looks like CBS just got consultant-bombed. This new opening sequence is an absolute disaster. If this is supposed to hook viewers it did the opposite to me. I wanted to turn away

Wow, and a few months ago, she said WABC is the stopping point of her career, and viola she's on GMA.

It’s WJZ. Maryland’s News Station. (even though the logo reads as “CBS 13 WJZ”)

Dani Beckstrom is covering GMA this weekend. Not bad for only six months at WABC.

Oh well. Looks like KDKA will indeed completely get rid of its channel reference. My only complaint about WWJ is its opening, I wish they would show more Detroit landmarks in the News opening. I love the graphics but the opening is way too generic. Also. talked sigh someone from WWJ and it looks like the morning newscasts will debut within a couple weeks.

That desk is 8 years old, recycled from the 2015 temporary set.

Most likely a transitional logo not to confuse anyone with the OTHER WBZ that iHeart owns. Plus WBZ-TV doesn’t even use “4” in the branding verbally, they only go by “WBZ” and have for over a decade.

The general consensus seems to be that box is a transitional element, so I'd not expect them to brand as what is essentially "CBS 4 WBZ CBS NEWS BOSTON" forever.

Brittany Bell on GMA

Can we get back on topic please?

So they're coming up on dogsled through the Iditarod...hopefully the dogs don't get tired delivering that flash drive. (yes I do know Fairbanks isn't on the route)

Having recently done extensive research into the histories of a number of the biggest post-New World station builds, they mostly were staggered over a period of months. KSHB had an existing 9pm news which moved to 10 at the time of switch. A 5 was added in October 1994, a 6 in March 1995, but mornings had to wait until the summer of 1996. WDJT added two newscasts at the same time in its March 1996 news debut and then a third shortly thereafter. Weekend news was added the next year. Took them until 2001 to compete in mornings. KNXV started news at 10 on August 1, 1994. They added a 6 in about October, 5 in December, and mornings and middays in January 1995 when the remainder of the ABC programming moved over. WFTS aired its first news on December 12, 1994, but only at 6 and 11. The remaining newscasts showed up in the first four months of 1995. WGNX was not like many of the others. They were not producing a full line of newscasts until the new millennium: just noon, 6, and 11. It was not until Meredith took over that they added morning and 5 p.m. newscasts. WPTY went in all at once in evenings. When they debuted, they had 5, 6, 9 (WLMT) and 10. It took them at LEAST a decade to start a morning newscast! WWJ started with 6 and 11 (not including streaming hours) and has added a newscast in each of the two following weeks. Mornings do seem like they will take a little longer, and I'd expect that because of the time slot. Evening news additions tend to be more incremental, while mornings require a whole other team of on- and off-camera personnel.

I think those call signs explain the intended programming in Flagstaff and Yuma... And I think at this point with the WPGA-TV swap (which will likely give them WPGA-LD too, as that was hived off in the same "Marquee Broadcasting West" subsidiary for the purposes of the trade), we have to start thinking about what a Georgia Sports and Entertainment Network may look like...

Hmmmmmmm

Well if you’re looking at Zap2It right now, there’s a few gaps in the schedule starting next Monday as Drew’s show is being moved to WKBD outright (presumably in the 3am hour??). Phil McGraw’s show at 3pm has also apparently been removed? :thinking:

I’ve gotta hand it to CBS. They took a clean, cohesive intro and managed to make even that look cheap. Also, why do they insist on repeating the same 9 notes of the theme music before every headline in this new intro? It’s repetitive and annoying.