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Good Lord, does this thread need to turn into fantasy anchor line-up listings every time someone at WABC blinks? It's purely speculative, based on almost nothing. Do we need to have some users review the site rules?

I honestly do not care. I still maintain that a town hall is pointless if you’re packing the room with a friendly crowd and letting them lob softballs at the candidate under scrutiny. If Joe Biden does a town hall in the future and it’s full of committed supporters in the audience, I will say the exact same thing. If the only thing preventing this from being a full on political rally is by having Kaitlan Collins awkwardly fact-check in real time in front of a crowd that isn’t going to listen to fact checking, you might as well just broadcast a live rally.

As it should be... Nothing is gained if you have Republicans always agreeing with Republicans. The same applies for Democrats. Honestly, what’s missing from the majority (if not all) of these 'political panels' are Independent voices. It's those voices that CNN, MSNBC, etc... should include if they truly want to offer viewers balance coverage of issues, people and events.

I have to imagine that whatever he said warranted WABC’s decision. Were it not, they likely wouldn’t have moved this quick to remove a key part of their highly successful morning show.

Speaking of tabloid eras, here's a entire 10 p.m. WBBM newscast from 1992:

I’ll believe THAT when I see it. The story is largely sourced from a staffer present at a meeting in which the McKimmons didn’t even say a word. This feels like spin to hide a massive bloodletting at KUSI and merger at the KSWB building. Nexstar’s purely a bottom line company and there’s no reason for them to maintain two distinct news departments like this. At the same time, they can’t have everyone at KUSI quit in protest over the actual plans.

This is fair. I was thinking more in the sense that none of the morning departures of recent memory have been as amicable as Diana Williams, Bill Beutel’s and other departures. Granted those were retirements vs defections.

The morning slot has seen the most overturn of any timeslots at channel 7, which actually speaks to the station’s strengths. Steve, Lori, Bill and now Ken have each left the morning show a bit unceremoniously.

Respectfully, this comment makes it sound like you've never watched CNN's election coverage before. This has been standard operating procedure for them for all large political events for at least a decade. They have one host (typically Tapper) anchoring a panel of journalists and political analysts, and another host (typically Cooper) anchoring a panel of pundits. One gives objective analysis while the other gives opinion from the left and right.

This should have been a one-on-one interview rather than a Town Hall. From the clips I saw, it came across as a debate between the two which in turn ended up being a disaster. Without question, this Town Hall likely alienated the few viewers CNN has during primetime and really hurt their reputation much like when 60 Minutes /Leslie Stahl interviewed MTG. I don't understand this excessive need to offer individuals who are known liars, idiots, etc... a platform in the name of being fair/offering both sides. And for goodness sake... what is with them always having a thousand and one people offering up analysis? Couldn't Anderson and maybe two or three people handle things?

I agree with your points. I respect that they break party lines--as any reasonable person should. My issue with MSNBC is that alot of the right leaning perspectives I see on the network are those who agree with what the leftist panelists/hosts are saying. That isn't balanced. To draw to draw things back to CNN you actually do see guests of opposing views on the network. The issue is that many of those opposing guests are often inflammatory and start arguments on air. I suppose News Nation is attempting to pull off that mission. Their execution is questionable however.

Agreed. And the fact that it was caught on a mic means there’s a recording of it that will last forever and they know it will get out at some point. If they didn’t move quickly, it would be damaging not just to his reputation but also the station’s reputation and how management views the workplace environment.

This occurred a couple of weeks back. Kevin Stitt is leaning into the far-right culture war against the LGBTQ+ community (not exactly the smartest move when even a sizable chunk of Republicans support same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination laws protecting that community) by justifying his veto, but it's mainly tied to a dispute between Stitt and the Oklahoma Senate over his tax credit and education proposals (including a voucher-style tax credit for use in private schools), which resulted in Stitt vetoing any Senate-backed bills to pressure that chamber's leadership to pass his proposals into law. However, it's garnered him criticism even among Oklahomans (myself included, as I grew up watching PBS programming on OETA and, when OETA ran it as a secondary PBS station for Oklahoma City, KAUT—not just PBS Kids programs, but the Oklahoma News Report, when it was still a five-night-a-week broadcast, and selected other shows) for jeopardizing OETA's future to score political points.

While the remark may have not made it on air at Channel 7, the Golden rule still applies: Assume every mic and camera is on and can hear you.

Agreed! From what I've seen MSNBC panels don't usually have balanced opinions. They typically fill their shows with people along the leftist spectrum as to avoid scream television like CNN. MSNBC hosts usually parrott what they think the electorate thinks. The CNN town hall surprised me. As much as I agree with hosting a Republican Townhall for conservative voters to question their candidates, why would you give airtime to someone who you've devoted to taking down? Furthermore if Trump is pedaling conspiracies, why give him the platform to do so? There's a way to operate from the center without looking like your trying hard to appease a particular side.

Can't see how Paul Rudy, Mark Mathis and Logan Byrnes fit in long term when Nexstar comes in. They're probably making decent money and their positions become redundant when trying to slash costs. Assuming KSWB's staff stays in place, it'll be dejavu for Elizabeth Alvarez and Misha DiBono in their return to the KUSI building.

Aww man, a total downgrade for KSWB when they move. FOX5 is a 2 story building and well kept, however, KUSI’s building is so dated and falling apart. I remember them saying how the roof is leaking in the center of the studio and different parts of the newsroom. I hope Nexstar will invest and will bring the building up to date. KSWB’s building doesn’t have enough space for 2 studios. The way their studio is set up was such a unique design during the WB News at Ten era. (I can’t find the website that shows the design and layout) Basically, it was a hybrid newsroom and corner studio design along with a curved staircase that leads to an upstairs open area with a balcony and a corner office that overlooks downstairs. right below the upstairs corner office used to be the news director’s office which is now the weather center when the relocated the newsroom into the center of the building.

Thankfully it's coming in "pieces" and not all at once. Steve said while the current set may only be 5 years old, there are some fixes in the works. They are prepping for 4K newscasts and also getting the First Alert Meteorologists a larger weather area because Derek Beasley stated he really wants to see WJZ put their own twist on weather forecasts. There was a chance they were going to move to a new studio in Baltimore City because the building they are in is over 45 years old and in need of some repairs but Kathy Hostetter is already setting that in motion.

Technically, the resurrection of Court TV by Scripps predated that company's purchase of Ion by about 15 months.

I'd like to think someone at KOVR is reacting thusly: "HA! They blinked!"

I wouldn’t say Lori left unceremoniously. They knocked out the final 5 1/2 minutes of the morning news to run a highlight reel and have her say goodbye live. Yes, it was something agreed upon with lawyers involved, but it’s pretty significant for someone that exited because of mismanagement and then jumped to a competing show. Steve was unceremonious because he was terminated for cause. Bill’s exit was definitely unceremonious. We’ll see if Ken’s exit is addressed.

The station also just is an icon for the New York area, so just by habit people turn to the channel regardless of the on-air talent. Most of my family who grew up in the New York area tune to the channel because it's almost like a part of the city's DNA so they will be fine but it's still sad though to see such great talent go inexplicably like that. Kinda the same way Bill Evans left. Ken's replacement will have some tough shoes to fill.

It was only a matter of time though.

Clips of WFLA's "tabloid" era from 1994:

RIP Chroma Cues and the Westinghouse-ish 13.

Definitely a step up with the adaption of the new look, kudos to WJZ. With the new studio upgrade in the works, WJZ will definitely have cleanest on air look in the market. TV Hill is beginning to look a lot more sophisticated and classy.

Well! it's about damn time! The last one is KOVR-13 IN SACRAMENTO!!!!!!!!

The only connection to weather on the show is host Jon Kelley referring to Byron Allen (who is a regular panelist on the show) in many episodes as "the proud owner of The Weather Channel." But, yeah, there's absolutely no point in why FYSA is even on the late night (11:00-midnight ET) schedule; it fits AMG's other networks (like TheGrio, This TV and Comedy.tv), but it sticks out like a broken leg on The Weather Channel. If any show should fill that hour, it should be either one of its other long-form shows or a forecast program similar to the former Evening Edition to serve as a live counterpart to Fox Weather @ Night (and as a weather-focused counterpart to the live shows airing during that hour on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News). To be fair, this isn't the first questionable programming decision that TWC has made; under both NBCUniversal/Bain/Blackstone and Allen Media ownership, it aired movies with tangential (at best) connections to weather. "Flick and a Forecast" in 2009-10 featured such films as Wind (a film set during the America's Cup boat race), Misery (which takes place during a snowstorm) and The Perfect Storm; not realizing why airing movies on a network about weather didn't fare well the first time, TWC tried this idea again in January and February of this year, with the weekend evening "Winter Movie Fest" block.

You called it, they’re live.

CNN deserves to continue failing miserably. They've been on this re-identification thing for 10+ years now and not once have they considered going back to what made them a household name.

Paperwork is now up!!! On the local tv ownership compliance attachment, it said (according to the Nielsen March 2023 data) KUSI is ranked within the top-4, and KSWB is ranked fifth. And just to clairify, this is overall viewership (from sign-on to sign-off) and not just during newscast timeslots.

I just can't picture Nexstar being able to fit both operations at either location unless they were to expand the building. If they're going to keep both entities as a semi-separate operation, then they would be wise to start looking at other places they could purchase/remodel. Either way you slice it, any move(s) Nexstar makes will come with backlash from KUSI's audience. The channel has a niche audience that is not sustainable on it's own. They do run a pretty lean operation there, so any efficiencies will probably be minimal. The biggest question will be: will they completely dismantle the anchor teams or shift them to different hours as to not compete with FOX 5?

They're not the only ones; the shopping networks offer their own toll-free number/website link QR code designed for that broadcaster on-air, and the station group gets a cut of every sale made under that number or link. It's like the DRTV model, but with an entire network rather than commercials during shows. That's why the HSN and QVC over-the-air feeds specifically are called "Over the Air" rather than just a feed from a Dish box or direct consumer web feed. The other thing is it's both SD and the content most of the time is nearly static of the product, so it's barely a drain on overall station bandwidth. The days of it being a kiss of death because all 6 MHz of spectrum/168 hours had to be devoted to it are long over; it's like the saturation strategy with cable where 17 channels are these same few channels all through the dial.

KSWB has a much larger and more modern plant overall and there's been stories out there about how KUSI's shared building (it has another tenant but it looks like the other part is vacant) needs severe maintenance. There's two miles and roads between each studio, so there's not much complication to merging them together.

Contract issues? Money? The WNYW mets don’t want the extra work? Maybe filling in on Fox Weather isn’t as prestigious as a spot as you think it is.

The only thing these dumb local newspaper 'best of the best' polls show is that there's both unchecked ballot stuffing from the few old people who care about this, and monetary contributions from advertisers that influence the 'winner'. Gannett is horrible with these things (I'm sure the only reason Patrick Soon kept it from the Platinum Equity days is because some local advertisers treat it like a drug high and toss money to keep their titles and plaster their front walls with these tacky trophies; it's free money to throw up some Survey Monkey polls, put in a bulk order of some plaques, and call it a day) and I can expect once Nexstar is in charge, their winning streak will end because the U-T is competition.

Does anyone really pay attention to the bottom ticker these days though? Outside snowbird closing reports (or I guess 'snow eye' for CBS stations) and specific city weather and your road in, you know the game score (there's six possible local(ish) teams) and the tickers have repetitive and dull news anyways. You can look up scores and the Dow easily with a smart speaker. The ticker is more a public environment utility in muted environments than actually useful to a viewer, and if they only have weather and traffic, it does serve its purpose perfectly. Maybe if this new ATSC 3.0 standard actually includes interactive features that are cross-platform and not just half-assed implementations that depend on proprietary systems, the ticker becomes useful. For now though, it's just full of 'why is this news' stories rejected for the actual show that don't need elaboration.

More like a clone of "Cheddar News"....dumbing things down for Gen Z.... At least it's not as ill-conceived as the TBD network....that's like trying to surf the internet on a landline phone.

NBCLX seems like something that could've been a one-hour show on WMAQ America -- er, NBC News Now.

Not totally surprised. NBC News Now is the more successful network, and always wondered what the point of LX was other than being a younger leaning NBC News brand. Plus, NBCLX I don't believe was ever really promoted at all compared to the other NBC News brands.

Discussion ongoing in the new O&O graphics thread, if you want our, um, mild opinions.

Well, CBS 2 finally got the new Graphics. Are we digging the new look?

WBBH TV-20 Eyewitness News at 6:00 (October 18, 1990) WBBH TV-20 Eyewitness News at 6:00 (August 4, 1982) WBBH TV-20 Eyewitness News at 6:00 (July 9, 1985) WWL Eyewitness News at 10:00 (January 27, 1981)

Here's a rarity---a 1983 newscast from KTVK in Phoenix during the Phil Allen/Jim Scoutten period of the Eyewitness News era. Apparently, the station was on the verge of becoming competitive at the time, but personnel changes would later once again doom it to runner-up status. It took a management overhaul and the adoption of the NewsChannel 3 brand for the station to reverse its fortunes for good in the late 1980s:

They canceled Morning Express with Robin Meade, arguably the best morning news program that CNN had going for it, for this. Keep that in the back of your head. EDIT: I know HLN ran Robin Meade. I don't count New Day as CNN's best morning news program. They could have easily moved Meade to CNN instead of putting this crap on the air.

Yes. That would be redundant to Chris Wallace's interview series indeed. I can imagine, however, a scenario of Gayle King occasionally hosting interview specials with celebrities and newsmakers on CNN, like what the late Barbara Walters used to do on ABC, for example. On the subject of Wallace, while his series is interesting to watch, at times, I have never understood why CNN does not use him in a full time capacity covering politics. It seems more like his wheelhouse as opposed to a generalized interview show with high-profile guests. CNN is losing a golden opportunity by not using one of the best in the business at covering politics on a full-time basis, in my opinion.

Oklahoma's governor vetoed a bill funding OETA. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/media/oklahoma-pbs-oeta-reliable-sources/index.html

As much as I would love for CNN to “go back to what made them a household name,” I know in my gut that people wouldn’t watch it. American cable news viewers love outrage/conflict programming that’s hyper-focused on US politics. A shift to the center barely scratches the surface of what they need to do for someone like me to watch them. Tonight’s town hall was just another example of conflict television. There are YouTube channels (like TLDR News) that, while flawed and still growing, offer more sober and intelligent coverage of the news than anything I’ve seen on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. IMO, cable news as a whole deserves to fail miserably, and considering that younger viewers generally don’t watch it, there’s hope that it will. Side note: The fact that the audience was basically full of Trump supporters made this whole thing a near farce. If you ask me, the audience of a town hall should be chocked full of people who are either undecided or solidly against the candidate. If the people aren’t going to scrutinize politicians, then what’s the point of a town hall anyway?

Just catching up, but if you include Newschannel 8, I mean WJLA 24/7 (which is broadcast OTA on WIAV 58.3 - albeit ATSC 3.0), there’s constant local news from 11am until Midnight, and if you throw in Good Day DC, it’s straight through from 4am until Midnight… (all without cable TV!). (I’m not sure if LA has that full coverage, but they’re close…) I’m not sure, though of WJLA 24/7’s current live vs. taped in the afternoon, though they were replaying the WJLA 12pm newshour at 1, live from 2-3, then repeating from 3-4. lately, though, I’ve seen some live between 3&4 on the TV at work… Jim