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I clicked on this wanting to hate it- but I don't. Their logic for taking "The" out of the logo is sound, they're using a color palate that stands out in the field, and is a fresh coat of paint that actually looks decent given what Nexstar seems to be going for. Keep in mind that green/white have been the primary colors for CW since its launch in 06. That said, the programming has to back up the refresh. The logo revamp is to show they're superhero network anymore, which is fine; but for your first major rebrand in 18 years (and that whole viewership drop in 2023 thing), you need to have programming and content to back it up. I have to admit that their sports coverage wasn't terrible- announcers for the Barstool Sports Bowl made me keep watching on their own.

I hate this package. The way the theme music has been chopped up and abrubtly cut off on some or quickly turned off. It doesnt even feel like COX anymore. They were always still the best at news opens and the correct timings and flow of the opens with the music and graphics. There were never rushed and they always had proper opens. Not these rushed anchor introduced 2 second opens most stations use today. These are just awful. IMO complete downgrade.

EDIT 1/16/24: WAFB has moved to GrayONE as of Noon on 1/16/24. Put WAFB/Baton Rouge on the clock for GreyONE - this new logo just popped up on their website: Previous logo, in place for decades with the CBS eye logo added along the way:

I guess Nexstar didn't want a repeat of the WADL mess, hence no Mission this time. Apparently the Londens were far more amenable to such a deal than Kevin Adell.

Any market that has to deal with a significant amount of severe weather/tornadoes/hurricanes, I can see at most 6. Have 2 in-studio, and instead of using reporters/mmjs, use the other 4 out in the field for reports, so they can give first-hand meteorological reports of damages, etc and fill-ins... I don't know why stations all of a sudden had a need to have a different meteorologist for each damn newscast of the day... No wonder they are starting mets at $15k a year.. there's no work

I think five is sufficient. Four main on-air ones plus a fifth as a behind-the-scenes producer/fill-in.

If one of them had to move to weekend evenings, I’d go with Toni. Michelle’s been on weekend mornings for what feels like forever. I’m surprised they ended up hiring a new weekend anchor instead of sticking with Michelle and Toni though.

Wow. NWA should be lucky. That... narcotic spot [which was planned by owner Billy Corgan despite some resistance] at their October PPV seemingly imploded their partnership completely, and honestly (as it was stupid and unnecessary -- both when it happened and right after) they (especially Corgan) kinda deserved the resulting backlash. I hope the partnership goes well and lasts quite a while, and Corgan and the NWA staff don't push their luck.

Working at WABC as an intern helps. Congrats to Sandra. We've certainly had old late 90s weekends with Bill and Sandra working so much on weekdays.

From this press release, It's official. After 25 years on the weekends, Sandra Bookman is moving to the Noon show. Also announced, former KTLA reporter/anchor Pedro Rivera will anchor Weekend Mornings, beginning February 3rd.

Except for possibly the First Alert logo, this is a 1:1 preview of WOIO’s take on GrayONE.

Especially since the Baltimore stations thoroughly cover this part of Maryland in the local news… Whatever happened to “significantly viewed” status?

He will be doing the full 7-10 and apparently during the NFL season he’ll do Tuesday-Friday

Not to get too off-track, but don't forget Bryant Gumbel's sports background, too.

Exactly what I was coming to say. Teresa has been screwed over more than once there. And I don't see Bianca as an evening anchor type. Very odd. That said. I learned about this change from Teresa's IG story feed.

That's odd. I just watched NBC broadcast the All-American Bowl which used the new College Football/Basketball graphics so that look is definitely not tied to the Big Ten or Notre Dame exclusively. Makes no sense why they would do this with the Atlantic 10. Basically shows that NBC Sports views that conference as lower production value.

Wait, signing off is a matter of the public interest? Huh?

With the Comics Unleashed reruns on CBS set to end later this month with the premiere of After Midnight, I have to think the owners and managers of some affiliates must be quietly relieved -- specifically, anyone who owns or runs a CBS affiliate in a market where Allen Media owns a competing station. Sure, the episodes are all over a decade old and yes, we're talking about the 12:30am ET time slot, but the show was hosted by the guy who now owns a station that directly competes with them. At the very least, it must have been a bit weird.

The major issue I have with the editorial is it focuses too much on all these Big Four issues, when the major problem are these subfarm broadcasters like H2/Edge/DTV America, along with Coastal and WRNN that should be operating stations in the local interest, but instead have bought out stations to turn into subchannel farms of absolute low-effort IPTV crap run by the same kinds of people who have made the Internet an advertising hellscape. Or with Coastal and Sinclair, have completely garbage newscasts recorded during studio downtime that are viewer-repellant. Edge Spectrum has been tolling out CP's for nearly 6-8 years with no intention of actually broadcasting, while H2 has wound down networks for filler crap like Timeless TV and Vision Latina and absolutely refused to be competitive. Even Tegna, Scripps and Sinclair are complicit with this, as outside Ion the rest of their channels are reality glurge only there for advertising slots, and instead of multiple networks like Twist dying because there's nobody watching, they're being replaced with more things nobody is watching. There should be a local broadcaster running these stations, and the religious broadcasters should be serving their community. They aren't, and the FCC is at least trying something. I understand the justification being the Main Studio Rule repeal, but there should be some kind of local programming on these stations, and not just 'I called some NPO to drone 20 minutes about their stuff, we're good' malicious compliance. There are YouTubers in those communities that could probably fulfill those guidelines better in themselves. Just stop consolidating and racing to the bottom, broadcasters. You see what happened to radio; don't try to even venture near that result.

Better them than airing TND IMO. At least WPXI is local.

Sorry to revive an older thread, but was going through some old news clips on an old hard drive and ran across WJLA's weather team in 2012 - They had 13 weather people on staff: - Chief Meterologist: Doug Hill - Senior Meteorologist: Bob Ryan - Meteorologists: Adam Caskey, Alex Liggett, Brian van de Graaf, Devon Lucie, Eileen Whelan, Jacqui Jeras, Ryan Miller, Steve Rudin - Forecaster: Dave Zahren - Weathercasters: Chad Merrill, Mike Stinneford IIRC, Devon Lucie was pretty much NewsChannel 8, and I think the 2 weathercasters were tied to WTOP (longtime weather partner), as they didn't list "ABC7" in their titles... Regardless, that's a lot on staff... Jim

I guess it depends on the station. IMO it would work at a station like WBRC, but not a station like KVVU.

I still don't understand how you only make a two-year deal and call it a 'multiyear' deal, especially when RTC deals are usually on a three-year cycle. The two-year cycle suggests either some acrimony from Comcast that they now prefer bi-yearly deals, and certainly panic on Paramount's side so they can keep the unseen lights on for a few of their zombie networks as long as possible. Going by current year-end cable rankings (the one Variety article I must read at the end of the year), Nick/@ Nite went from being ranked in the lower top 10-top 20 to now #54 by average. There is no literal kid's cable market any longer outside rare events and several series, and by the time any deal for PG is finished, CBS, Paramount+ with Showtime and the library will be the only value left. On another note, that 21% drop-off for The CW versus Ion and Me is concerning. I expected a drop, but not that hard.

And I should mention that WNEM is using the GrayONE version of the First Alert Weather intro to the weather segment.. I'm thinking within the next week or so they'll switch over...

That’s.. new.

Technically, not all of the series on the new lineup are exclusively female-led: * One on One had Flex Alexander (Flex Washington) and Kyla Pratt (Breanna Barnes) effectively as co-leads until the show's Season 5 retool, when fellow original cast member Robert Ri'chard (Arnaz Ballard) was promoted to co-lead status alongside Pratt. (Alexander guest starred in a few episodes after the show's setting moved from Baltimore to Venice Beach.) * The Game technically qualifies as both a female-led and an ensemble series, since there is roughly equal emphasis on female and male characters (given the premise mainly focuses on the players of the fictional San Diego Sabers football team and their significant others, as well as the "momager" of one of the players).

There are actually cases where an existing competitor would serve the market BETTER by picking up another affiliation than letting it be run by another party. Case in point, Mobile & Pensacola. Since WPMI has been gutted by Sinclair, both WEAR and WPMI have suffered. Mobile is having to pad out their newscasts with Pensacola stories, and on the weekends, WEAR produces and simulcasts their weekend shows. Deflating the argument that Mobile and Pensacola are better served by separate stations, even WEAR is watering down their shows to air Mobile stories on a regular basis. Now if WALA is granted the NBC affiliation as a subchannel, Mobile viewers would have a more-local option, plus the option of having a dedicated 6pm newscast since Jeopardy! is on at 6 on WALA's main feed.

...and NBC has an agreement with Gray "in principle" to renew all of their stations' affiliations. The current agreement expires at the end of this year. https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/gray-television-renews-all-its-nbc-affiliations/ Despite what people have been saying, I really think this was all a scare tactic by Gray to force a renewal, or to be ready for NBC to pull up stakes if a deal wasn't made. Now how long before the peacock starts showing up again on all of these stations?

It's tangentially related. So much of the music changes and debranding efforts are coinciding with the graphics rollout. It won't last forever, and we'll get back to the graphics in no time.

The only local TV news broadcaster that might be “good” is the Disney O&O group. Those stations are typically number one in the ratings and have a Disney-backed budget to make things happen. But, as we learned this year from CEO Bob Iger, Disney may eventually get out of linear television. And I’m sure the likes of Perry Sook and Byron Allen will be ready to make an offer. TV news has always been about the money, especially local TV news, regardless of the owners. It’s just that some companies are more open about it, like Nexstar and Sinclair. The other companies — like Gray, Scripps, Tegna, Cox, Graham, Allen, etc. — are all watching the bottom line just as much.

When Fave first started a couple of years back, it was airing lots of 90s comedies like the Wayans' Bros. Was unaware of the slight shift of format.

Tegna must have forgotten they have acquired some long-standing juggernauts, for some of those crown jewels were lost in the shuffle are now a shell of themselves (see WFAA, WWL) thanks to the tomfoolery over the years. I understand company mandates, but everything isn't meant for everyone.

And just out of curiosity about what 41.2 will air, it looks like Dabl is completely done after December 29th; according to its national schedule it's becoming yet another Paramount Global specialty with their networks that need to die; a rerun feed of 90s UPN/WB sitcoms; no network name known yet, so expect another big exodus of stations at the end of the year switching networks on their Dabl subs. The network's social feeds haven't been updated since mid-September so it already was on borrowed time.

My only issue with the "stripping" of affiliate logos from these stations is that these affiliations lend a form of credibility to them. Bad actors have been lifting and creating fake logos for use on illegitimate "news" sites for the sole purpose of spreading disinformation. Even with FOX affiliates, despite any link to their affiliates and "news" channel. The link between them is minimal and any well-educated person should know that. Being a heritage station and Raycom's idea to use their highly visible longtime neon sign as their main brand is a brilliant branding move. Same with WAVE in Louisville resurrecting their "WAVE" logo from years past.

For GR most likely it'll replace WXSP's primetime with CW rather than being on a sub of WOOD or WOTV, of course. And here the CW should've been on WXSP in the first place to begin with. ETA - B+C says WOTV will carry it and cede ABC (likely a misreading), but the Nexstar PR doesn't clarify which station among the three will carry it. Another ETA - WXSP's translator network is the ATSC 3.0 lighthouse though, so I do agree with TB that it seems WOTV-DT2 is likely to carry it just because they have room for another 1080i sub and Dabl is easy to dump.

Bialik and Jennings were pretty good. Found it strange that they opted for alternating dual hosts, but it worked. Bialik aside, Jeopardy had a gargantuan task in filling Trebek's shoes, unfortunately it seems any successor candidate has come under intense public scrutiny. It's just a gameshow hosting job, not the presidency, give the new host a chance.

Here's something from the Houston area in terms of weekend syndication that @SS8609 may have missed: In addition to "iCrime" airing at 3:30am on KPRC, KTXH (who had aired season 1 on weekday last season) also airs five episodes said show on their Saturday afternoon lineup prior to a movie presentation (or "Whacked Out Sports" or other programming, depending on the length of the movie).

Well that makes sense, and I completely understand why. Everyone probably knows what network each station is affiliated with in their area, so that's not an issue. And if not, a quick Google search will solve that problem. I just don't think it should be a group wide thing...

No switch to GrayONE yet, but WMTV got the new brand (15 News) and new music (Unite from Stephen Arnold Music) on Wednesday.

Since the only realistic choice was Sinclair (no way current era Cox would pay to add it to PCNC and KDKA+ isn't quite developed yet), it was the best choice, though hopefully that plain-Jane NESN template is gussied up a bit by next season.

The Pirates are staying with SportsNet Pittsburgh, and will co-own the network with the Penguins. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/pirates-penguins-to-jointly-own-cable-tv-sports-channel/ar-AA1lsiCI?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a61a902803924d59bbe9d66d185dea7c&ei=9&fbclid=IwAR1eafXYE1oKJ_FAYxGJcKRSeuFJN7760BjpFbwekDKZrwsTJ_Ie_tqCO1M

I'll bite. Just had a nice little glass of bourbon, so let's see what we can come up with: When I first started working for TEGNA, I felt like they didn't get enough credit for what they were trying to do. They were investing a ton of money into the brands of these stations and bringing in some interesting people to shake things up on the marketing side. It sounded really exciting and I got sucked into it, leaving a well established market-leading station to jump into this mess. It's no exaggeration to say when I was sitting in the hotel the night before my first day watching WUSA9, I felt immediate regret in my decision and I started working immediately to leave. (It took nearly three years to get out... woof.) When I look back at it all, I think one of the biggest problems is that the news and production folks at these local stations have absolutely no idea how to make good television. Is that really their fault? I don't know. Local news has looked essentially the same since the 1940s. Desk. Chair. Backdrop. Want to shake things up? Have the anchor stand. That backdrop? It's now a monitor. That's about as groundbreaking as these people know what to do. (And that's not just TEGNA, it's an industry-wide issue.) So now you want to revamp your morning show and you bring in a comedian... again, not exactly revolutionary. It's been done. But news leadership is really afraid to lean into this concept, so it's just another straightforward mediocre newscast with a comedian randomly dropped in. The comedian has no one to play off of. Your news anchors and reporters aren't funny, they don't know humor. So you have awkward interactions throughout the show. You blow millions on marketing this 3rd or 4th place show to get folks to "sample" it. Sure, there is a slight spike in ratings - people drop in, have a look, say "what the hell is this?", tune out and never come back. TEGNA would fly in folks from various departments from their stations all around the country every few months for "innovation summits" at their HQ. I got invited to one. A lot of interesting ideas. Absolutely no way to execute it. An idea I had got piloted in Cleveland (of course, I never saw a bonus, not that I expected one ). They flew out the comedian from DC to host it. It was awful. You know why? Your producer who graduated from Elon's school of journalism has absolutely no clue how to make good television. They know how to copy and paste from the wires and re-write stories from the 11p to drop into their AM shows. (Just kidding, that gets copy and pasted as well.) I could go on and on. I haven't even started in on the mediocre general managers with sales backgrounds - that might be an even bigger issue. You think the guy from sales who got the corner office knows how to make good television?? They have an eye for talent? Absolutely not. Local television news isn't dying, it's dead. You're just watching zombies now. Waiting until the next hedge fund comes in to turn the lights off.

Sinclair and Nexstar especially. Nexstar pays their employees like crap, while Sinclair stations pay a bit better, but look abysmal. Some Sinclair sets look like cheap college/infomercial productions and their graphics are basic and boxy.

Don’t forget Scripps, they had also been replacing newscasts with “Scrippscasts”, much like Sinclair does.

I didn’t think ET was allowed to air before 6pm similar to Wheel of Fortune.

There just needs to plain be a rule that RTC announcements are limited to commercial time and that's it. They're not on the level of EAS/NOAA warnings and non-applicable to folks who don't have these providers, and just generally interfere with watching a program. It's absurd with cable disputes, but at least there they have the excuse of having to transmit to multiple broadcasters. There's less excuse with both a local TV station, and the ability to just not send the ticker on a certain provider if you have that direct connection to the headend, and it simply shouldn't appear for OTA viewers outside Dish disputes (because they're still in 1982 as far as signal acquisition).

I'm not surprised that Judy Justice was going to be cleared for syndication was a matter of time that Amazon was going to sell it to TV station groups across America, I wouldn't be surprised if Judy Justice goes against her older show Judge Judy.

For the most part these are games are played by public schools on public property and team rosters are publicly available (same with private schools), so there are no privacy concerns here. Please stay on topic.

It never made sense to me that TMC and Flix haven’t been made available as livestreams within Showtime’s streaming add-ons, especially when you consider that they (along with Starz’s Movieplex channels) are the only premium channels whose feeds are not available on streaming in some capacity. WBD sells Cinemax and MGM/Amazon sells ScreenPix as standalone vMVPD and channel store add-ons (despite some library content redundancies with those of their sister premium channels, HBO and MGM+ [the network formerly known as Epix]), and Lionsgate includes live feeds of the Starz Encore channels on Starz’s streaming add-ons.

I’m guessing they’re bringing in either students or grads from Mississippi State’s program - I know in the past it’s been one of the best broadcast meteorology programs in the country. Jim