Leaderboard

Looks like we're a go with the new graphics at 4pm on WLS. Sounded like an updated higher paced music track as well for the open. This is a swipe effect.

I’m not sure about that; the intro cut of music has the NS2000 signature tacked on at the end. It sounds as if it’s an old cut that’s never been used by anyone before. EDIT: Here’s the video

I was really hoping to see the talent opens return to WLS. I love the graphical elements however the opens seem a little busy. Also not a fan of the new open mash-up music.

They have a dynamic open with the date, time and temp inserted in? Can't say I've seen that before!

I like this a lot... WABC needs this ASAP

Open definitely seems busy! Not at all what I was expecting when I saw the lower-thirds.

Super interesting how the open has the live time and temp baked into it. Look closely and you'll see it said 3:59 and 61°. It even has a glimpse of the forecast. That has to be a first.

*Cough*

Here's an ongoing playlist of ALL the opens, as they debut. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRUzFrK0TcW02gjJ62pjIUV1VSzsVM9CZ

Disney has definitely been making cuts but they are planned out. He had a new ABC ID card in hand and was in the payroll system. The budget line for his job didn’t just suddenly disappear overnight.

I'll third that. The collage of pictures is too much to look at, and the way it swipes across the screen makes it look even busier. The second cut of music doesn't match the first and I don't like the way it sounds together either. I'd like to see a whole broadcast before I pass judgement on the entire package, but there are a lot of strange arrows everywhere like the graphic that says "Coming Up: Rainy and Raw Day".

I agree with you on not definitely taking what he said at face value, but I have heard some instances recently where people who were about to start a job were suddenly told it was no longer happening. Someone I know was given a start date a few months in advance, only for all the incoming hires to be told their project was canceled due to economic reasons. I believe at least one of the big tech companies also let go a group of incoming hires a earlier this year amid all those tech layoffs. So it is possible and Disney has been undergoing cuts.

Jim Rosenfield being considered is something I did not expect but he would be a great hire. I'm used to seeing him as an afternoon/evening anchor so it would be interesting to see him doing mornings. However, as this station just let a newly hired reporter go before he could even appear on air due to apparent budget issues, I'm not sure that they have the money available to hire someone with Jim's experience. (Unless they feel that this would be more of a necessary "power move" to fill in their anchor slots compared to a new reporter.) Rosenfield first came to New York joining CBS 2 as noon and 6:00 co-anchor. I remember the promos hyping his arrival and being disappointed that he seemed very stiff. Then he left for NBC 4, and eventually came back to CBS 2 and seemed much more comfortable. While we're thinking of former CBS 2 anchors, my mind also considered Don Dahler, who was an ABC News correspondent before essentially filling Jim's role at 2. I wonder if he is also under consideration at all. (Not to turn into too much speculation here.)

Those are fair points, but the package is still a massive upgrade for pretty much all of those stations (esp. WABC). Imo, it’s still on par w/ the other major network O&Os, and it looks far better than the packages the major station groups have put on their stations.

The package looks good overall but you can sort of tell it took years to finally implement. Some of the design trends used here are now a tad bit past their prime (arrows opening up sliding elements, semi-webpage looking animation cues). Also I'm seeing some very minor similarities to the CBS O&O look, likely owing to the fact that Wendy McMahon was the driving force behind both.

If they're still using VizRT it's super simple to integrate that live data into the scene.

I like. Will be interesting to see this integrated into WPVI's style of opens. I can definitely see it though.

Looks pretty good to me.

Just turned on my mother's TV and saw the new graphics at WLS. I think that WLS now uses Gari's Eyewitness News music package full time and the Stimulus news music package appears to be retired.

Although that's what Paul Gerke posted on his social media, people don't get hired and then let go a day before their start date due to budgetary issues. Sure, it's theoretically plausible, especially if he was hired as a per diem or freelancer, but I suspect there's more there, e.g. an unresolved dispute between parties or a red flag in his personnel file that was discovered last minute.

Rosenfield joining WABC, if it occurs, would also make him a rare three-peat, working for all 3 major stations of NYC (WABC, WNBC and WCBS). Ira Joe Fisher has done it. John Johnson has done it. I feel like there's probably someone I'm forgetting.

WABC behind the scenes 1991:

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

The two line lower thirds in the “regular” weight font look so much better than the one line versions. If CNN stuck to the two line format I’d be willing to admit that this graphics refresh is an improvement.

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.

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.

Marissa Torres just announced on the air, while doing a segment about the air quality's effect on children and mothers who are expecting, that she is 4 months pregnant. Congrats!

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*

Well, I believe it just based on the schedule nonsense I've seen on the air. They're constantly changing schedules around every few days. As Jman mentioned above, it makes no sense why you would completely change show names and times just because certain on-air folks have the day off. You need to have sufficient fill-ins available to cover shifts when people are off. Take this Monday, for example, the first day of Jason's paternity leave, Kendall had to cover the entire Fox Weather First and then come back on the air 3 hours later to host her entire normal shift on America's Weather Center. That stuff shouldn't have to happen. The whole network schedule shouldn't fall apart because two OCMs are out. They have lost John Marshall and Katie Garner from the network, and they have moved Nick Kosir to a non-host role, yet no effort has been made to replace any of them. I can't speak for what the behind the scenes folks must be experiencing, but I noticed that many of their on-air staff have become a lot quieter on social media than in the early days of the network.

The constant schedule changes must be frustrating for producers and talent, let alone viewers…. I understand and fully support time off, however I don’t understand why they change length of shows, swap titles around, etc… just have fill-ins and keep the rest the same! Honestly, not sure why the need for different show names after ‘Weather Command’…. It’s not like the shows are designed around the hosts. Just name the live weather blocks all “FOX Weather LIVE”… or, what about an afternoon version of Weather Command with Ian as the moderator alongside Bridget followed by an evening edition.. 8am-12pm - Weather Command w/Amy , Stephen and rotating panelists (weekend primaries) 12-4pm -Weather Command w/Ian Brigit and rotating panelists (weekend primaries) 4-8pm - Weather Command w/ Marissa, Steve & Kendall Smith as panelist 8pm-10pm - FOX Weather w/ Kelly Costa and Kendall

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.

There might be a new schedule in effect. I noticed that as of this Monday 6/5, other changes took place as well: Fox Weather First has moved into the former Fox Business studio (temporarily? permanently? Hard to say for sure.) Fox Weather Now has been three hours long every day this week from 3pm-6pm ET. Across America has not aired at all. Fox Weather Live has been four hours long every day this week from 6pm-10pm ET. Strangely, the first two hours are hosted in the former Fox Business studio, and then for hours 3 and 4, Steve and Marissa move over to the main Fox Weather studio W. -The new untitled show with Kelly Costa continues this week from 10pm ET throughout the entire night, on a half-hour recorded loop. From what I can tell, it seems that it even airs through the overnight, with Night Light seemingly reduced to weekends only. Schedules are a bit weird right now, because Ian is on vacation, and Jason Frazer and his wife just had a baby on Saturday, so Jason's going to be out of action for a while. But some of this stuff feels a bit permanent, because the 4-hour Fox Weather Live thing is brand new. So far this week, Brigit has hosted the Monday/Tuesday editions of Fox Weather Now from the studio and then hosted the Wednesday edition of the show from the field, with rotating OCMs covering the studio duties (Adam Klotz for hour 1, Steve Bender for hour 2, and Craig Herrera for hour 3). I could see a future where, when Ian returns from vacation, Fox Weather Now becomes his only show for three hours instead of one, and either Brigit joins him as a co-host, or Brigit joins the Weather Command crew. I noticed that due to short staffing, both the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of that show were just Amy and Stephen this week, with no third co-host. We'll have to see how it all shakes out next week. Unlike America's Weather Center(still exists) and Across America(RIP maybe?), which both relocated to the former Fox Business studio several weeks ago and use a huge video wall as a backdrop with barely any physical set visible, the new renditions of Fox Weather First and Fox Weather Live from the former Fox Business studio feature the desk rotated in a different direction, such that almost the entire background is a view of the physical set. The new desk angle can be seen in this video, announcing the birth of Jason and Romney's child:

Ami late to the game on this? Or did the ABC logo bug just get smaller?

Take notes WABC! It's amazing how all of the New York stations are flagships yet none of them are the best looking presentation wise in any of their station groups. * not counting graphics on 2, 4, & 5 who have the exact same graphics as their sister stations*. Not feeling the new ABC bug. It's the same things CBS did: put a streaming sized bug on TV.

Overall I’m excited for this package but the opener and music are very busy.

WTVD is next Mark. My. Words!!! They were second with the new weather graphics.

The conspiratorialist side of me says that this is all set up in advance as a way for the Saudis to get to buy into the PGA. The PGA, I believe, is a non-profit. No way to buy into a non-profit except maybe through a backdoor merger like this. Monahan and a bunch of key executives probably got payoffs and retention bonuses as well. That's what happens with all these mutual insurance companies that get gobbled up by another company, especially for profit companies. You were all played.

I've seen a lot of ads where Byron Allen's court show promos are being aired on rival stations without any local tag or even a "check local listings" mention at the end. I'm told these are actual "time buys" where Allen buys the time regardless of whether the station airs the show or not...

I like how the time and "Headlines" boxes very nearly line up with KPIX and CBS News Bay Area boxes. Seriously, why is CBS so sloppy with this look? I thought they delayed it to get it right.