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i think he means it's similar to the Disney mandates of recent.

CNN has been really solid today and lately with actual news reporting. I’m shockingly impressed.

No offense, but I have no clue where you’re getting that idea. They’re gutting and centralizing creative services to cut costs; they aren’t going to eliminate positions only to fill them up again with new people. It’s got nothing to do with some guy getting the font wrong at a particular station; as others mentioned, the people being let go are more than qualified for their positions.

Anyone wanna take bets on which "H" he's headed to? (Both of which are non-existant, but that's my opinion and Schwarzenegger's.) But aside from the polarizing aspects of his political activism and religious mission, Pat Robertson should be remembered as a pioneer of religious television. CBN started with WYAH-TV (WGNT) in Hampton Roads, in 1961. WYAH was all-religious at the outset, though it evolved into a general-entertainment independent with a jones for censorship. The other three CBN TV stations–Robertson launched WHAE-TV (WANF) in Atlanta in 1971; bought KXTX-TV in Dallas in '73, and signed-on WXNE-TV (WFXT) in Boston in '77–followed that model until CBN broke up the group in the 1980s. CBN also owned five Christian FM outlets, in Hampton Roads and a four-station network in upstate New York. And of course, there is the cable channel now known as Freeform, which much to ours and Disney's chagrin will be forced to carry Robertson's legacy, The 700 Club from now until the "Second Coming".

The Belmont Stakes has its own bespoke graphics package, which is surprising because I thought they'd be dragging out the old black rectangles for it. And shockingly it's not huge and in your face. It's very green and gold with shades of the World Cup, and the old US Open theme music strikes again.

An anatomy of eyewitness news - 1969 WABC special showing behind the scenes look at newscast production

Well over a year after their mishmashed graphics, they're finally upgrading the set? We shall see if they finally go full-KOIN with their on air package.

we will see how this goes but I would hate for them to adopt some bland flat look over what they currently and used to have. Since NBC-NN is most likely dropping the latter L3, I think they'd look really good on O&O stations.

The description from the article made me think of NBC News Daily.

The inconsistency of the schedule has shown up big time yet again. Looks like they're calling it at night early due to short staff this evening. Kelly Costa's pre-recorded show just started at 8pm ET and will presumably run the rest of the night, because Brigit and Steve were the only late afternoon/evening meteorologists available tonight. One thing that always been consistent from mid-February until now, is that whether the show was 1 hour or 3 hours, Fox Weather Now always started at 3pm ET. Welp, even that went out the window today, as America's Weather Center was on the air for 4 hours today, with Fox Weather Now starting at 4pm ET, hosted solo by Brigit. I missed the entire 5pm ET hour, but when I tuned back in at 6pm ET, Fox Weather Live was on the air from the former Fox Business studio, hosted by Steve and Brigit, which ended early at 8pm ET. (It stands to reason that the 5pm ET hour was probably Fox Weather Live with Steve and Brigit as well, but I can't prove it.) Edit: Guess there's only a shortage of staff in front of the camera, but not behind the camera. Kelly's show is being produced out of the normal control room tonight, presumably by the people that normally produce Fox Weather Live at this hour. Kelly's show tonight features the normal lower thirds, not the odd-looking ones, produced by different software, that we normally see on her show. In addition, tonight's show has music beds, a variety of full screen wipes, and also occasional pre-recorded stories, all things we normally don't see during her show.

For actual breaking news, CNN is far better than MSNBC or Fox News becuase they don't try to have three "analysts" shove a political opinion down your throat. They are actually just telling the story of what's going on. That is great for viewership when something big happens (when more "regular" people watch cable news) but doesn't work when it's just partisans watching.

They're always good with breaking news.

I really like the title logo. Simple, yet bold. I love the slit on the opposite sides of the N's, which of course correlates with the short N\N logo. (Sidebar: the G reminds me of the SNL pre-season 40 logo, which I also love).

Not to mention, they just have so many anchors…NINE people playing the “anchor” role in the afternoon and evening newscasts, yet down in Columbus - Tegna sister station WBNS has two anchors for 5, 6 and 11… It’s also three more anchors than top-rated WJW… Seems a bit bloated if you ask me!

And we're going to come back in a few months to do another "retooling"...... How they can maintain stability when they constantly shuffling their on-air talent around?

I was just thinking to myself how long its been since Nightly's L3's were updated. The current package is fine. I really like that the L3s aren't flat white boxes and they have gloss and shine to them. Likewise, they co-inside with the Special Report graphics.

Well the new logo is basically a modernized version of the classic 70's logo, so that's fine with me. Wonder what the new graphics will look like and wonder if there'll be a new version of the Mission?

Looks to be a modern update of the ‘80s NBC logo

I probably would venture away from "without a strategy" being that a set refresh is something that is planned will in advance as we always point out in these threads. We need to remember that delays always happen, and there are still supplies that have long lead lead times and sometimes permitting takes long as well. I work at theme park, and no matter how much you plan something, things still can put well off your plan. They very well may have had a plan to do it all at once, but something threw that off.

One would think so, right?! I feel like that’s how things “used to be” - make a big splash with a whole new look - set, graphics, music, logo, etc. Now, those kind of launches are rare and it’s all done piecemeal without a strategy behind it. *off my soapbox*

I really like the logo right now, but I'll reserve judgment for it and the new look as a whole for when it debuts. I'm real excited for it.

Big changes coming to Nightly.

You know this is a dying industry when all of these companies are being scooped up by banksters and bottom fisher low rent broadcasters like Byron Allen.

Seems like something they should have done leading up to the rebrand, not a few months after the rebrand. Very strange to be stuck on a temp set while trying to grow the new branding.

Now here's an interesting business venture. Apparently, Lilly (or an affiliated venture) has a fitness center in Erie using the "Erie Fitness Now" name, using the exact same logo as their "Erie News NOW" logo. Their website even has a link to "Erie News Now" They even do fitness segments on WICU and WSEE. If it's an affiliated venture, (or even sponsored), shouldn't that be disclosed, even though it's painfully obvious?

Sheesh didn’t realize it was that far back. KPIX only got the O&O Desk and Podium in February 2020 during Super Bowl

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Just kidding. It's kind of a shame, really. Licht is, by all accounts, an exceptionally successful and creative producer, having essentially resurrected three different shows on three different networks from near death to successes in their own right. In some ways, he was set up to fail: he came in replacing a predecessor (Zucker) who was terminated but incredibly popular among CNN staff, and then immediately after he was named CEO, Licht shut down CNN+ right after it launched, executed rounds of company layoffs, and fired several on-air talents, all at the behest of his boss, Zaslav. The Trump town hall, which irked many CNN staffers too, was no doubt encouraged or approved by Zaslav, too. But, yes, Licht also made his own fair share of unforced errors, and by his statements in the Atlantic article, he had lost all support from his staff.

Discussion here:

The "folksy" tone of the show was a double-edged sword. It was that warm approach that made it a "success" on HLN but it is also why it was never considered a fit for the mothership. I put success in quotes because its ratings were good...for HLN...but the expectations for that channel were always lower than main CNN. The tenor of Morning Xpress was always lighter than the more serious tone CNN wanted through numerous iterations of New Day. Now, you could make the case constant anchor changes, set changes, etc. never really moved the needle against Fox & Friends and Morning Joe so why not try something different. But sadly, I don't see it happening. I don't see MSNBC making any adjustments because of CNN. They have been giving Fox a run for its money since Tucker's departure. (Obviously that has more to do with FNC's stumble but hey an opportunity is an opportunity) So, I don't see them adjusting anything because of a distant third-place CNN. If anything, they should focus on what (if anything) they can do to break FNC's long run atop the weekly ratings.

That would actually make sense, it wouldn’t do any worse in the ratings and it would bring a certain level of comfort to the executives, knowing she and her team are more than capable and they wouldn’t have to worry about any unfavorable press with them. Im also wondering if MSNBC is smart enough to take advantage of CNN’s down position and make any changes to primetime or weekends ahead of the election year, seems like a great time for MSNBC to tidy up the network while CNN is a mess.

Kind of unnecessary, especially considering other NYC sets. Lets just hope the set looks just as good if not better with this refresh, sure it became the carbon copy for a few other O&O stations and it's not a big set by any means but it still looks good, simple but modern. Here's hoping!

Wow. Didn't see that coming. The "old" set held up well. Still better than a lot of the NYC stations.

Ted Turner for CEO

Somewhat doubtful. Gayle likely only agreed to do the show as a favor to Licht. Now that he's gone; not sure she would want to continue as she doesn't need the money nor the extra workload. Charles signed a huge new deal that WBD will want to get their monies worth some how from him. A lot will depend on when a new leader is named. My guess is sometime in August or September. Can't see a ton of people jumping at the chance to run CNN and be micro-managed 24/7. And with a temporary quadfecta of people currently running things, I would assume no big decisions will be made anytime soon.

CNN is so screwed up right now (along with WarnerDiscovery) it would almost make sense for Nexstar to just give up on NewsNation and take CNN, and maybe a few more networks off of WarnerDiscovery's hands. The implosion of cable TV is imminent, and Nexstar could get these networks on the cheap. Then again, Perry being Perry, he'll make the same mistake Sinclair did with the former Fox RSNs and overvalue them to the point companies drop them and we have another Bally's situation...

i felt like ever since LIV Golf proved it could put on a good presentation it was only a matter of time. this is the worst moment for sports in a long time.

I honestly thought - due to his previous work - that Licht would be a great fit for CNN, but I was wrong. Here's hoping the next leader will really improve the network. But at this point, it feels like a longshot.

I'd say it's brand recognition. For most of these stations, Eyewitness News is their brand. When the logos are different, they are instantly recognizable as a certain station. That might not necessarily be true for WLS since they dropped the EWN brand 17 years, but I think it's certainly true for WABC or KTRK. I mean, it kind of looks like someone just typed up "EYEWITNESS NEWS" the same font of WABC or KTRK's chyrons, so that's why I call it brandless. I agree. The other thing that doesn't make sense about it, is that they went from a 4:3 forecast, where there's room for the meteorologist to stand, to a 16:9, where the weatherman would cover up at least one of the days, while adding nothing new or better to the graphic itself.

After reading that article, the biggest red flag for me is that I don't understand Licht's vision for CNN. What is the mission and purpose of the news organization? A clear mission statement is often a rallying point for culture change. After spending time with that lengthy profile, you don't walk away with a crystal-clear picture of where he wants to take the channel. I understand what he's against, like boxes...he hates boxes to the point that the control room can say it in unison. He seemingly spends a lot of time trashing anything that was built in Zucker's vision. Fine. You don't like how he managed the channel. But what is your vision? Staff and ultimately viewers need more than a generic "under new management" type message. Here's the unfortunate reality for CNN; the competition has defined identities, and they don't. MSNBC captured the liberal lane. FOX, from its inception, laid claim to the conservative lane. So that leaves CNN to claim the middle. While the center of the ideological spectrum is a huge potential audience, it isn't exactly an audience that shows up night after night for cable news. The other two channels have built in audiences looking to see what mud their favorite host is going sling in the opposite direction. To me, the middle isn't a long-term solution. You are just Fox lite to one group and you are MSNBC lite to the other. Stand for something different! In my opinion, CNN should transform its primetime into storytelling and original reporting. Two of the most watched shows on television (broadcast or cable) are 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning. Each do in-depth original reporting and that old-school style reporting gets people talking. And given CNN doesn't have the same time constraints as 60 minutes, you could air the report and then bring the reporter (and other appropriate guests) in for a debrief. Plus, it gets you out of covering politics every night. This is a huge country, there are plenty of stories to tell beyond the political ones. That is just one of a dozen different directions CNN could go. It is a costly and time-intensive idea, so it might not feasible. But at least it is a clear vision, something in 15,000 words I didn't get from the head of CNN.

Alternatively, what is the value of making them look different?

Personally I really miss good investigations of consumer issues like pricing and grocery store issues, but Food Lion and Pink Slime pretty much scared ABC and NBC into full time crime on their newsmagazines, and you don't see CBS even cover many of those stories any longer.

I still don't understand what they're going to merge...the team golf concept nobody understands or has any loyalty to, or making LIV a part of the FedEx Cup? The Champions Tour just being yeeted out of existence? I am just left with more questions than answers about what this merger will do except confuse the rights holders, the PGA loyalists, and the clubs that host events already on the edge (your BC Opens) who may lose their tour stops. Maybe this is more PGA tossing money at LIV to just go away and get back to normal than anything.

WHOA!! Didn't see that coming

Even though I don't watch golf, I did not see this coming... and I don't know how to feel about this.

Okay this is actually really cool, custom M&Ms made for KYW that also include "Philly Proud". Whoever is in their promotions department is a genius.

It's one thing to blow up the last place station that no one watches anyway. That way News With A Twist can exist peacefully amongst good and semi-decent products. In Tegna's case, they've taken successful stations (and a cellar dweller or two) and driven them into the ground (further) with their "forward thinking" WKYC and WWL were once decent stations (WKYC was finally clicking after DECADES of failure) to have been fixed to death by Tegna....

Those names are so bad, I couldn't express my thoughts in words, so I give you this....

"...To Another Channel!"

That wasn't meant to be a negative or poor reflection on her. Instead it was meant to be a negative reflection on an industry that now sees experience as too costly to be worth it.