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14 hours ago, Rusty Muck said: Oh come on, it's academic. If one actually pays attention, the only reason why WTTV and WNCN are even CBS affiliates is because Tribune (at the time for the former) and Nexstar were willing to paid hefty fees to affiliate with CBS. Paramount held all the cards here and you cannot deny that. If one actually pays attention...Nexstar did not own WNCN when the CBS affiliate agreement was signed. It was a Media General station. In addition, WNCN hooked up with CBS because WRAL dumped CBS and NBC took the opportunity to pair up with the #1 station in the market. CBS didn't have a lot of options because outside of WRAL/WRAZ and WTVD, the rest of the stations are poorly viewed. WNCN was the best of the worst. That's not to say Media General had a lot of options on their end either. So they were essentially stuck with each other. Have the terms of the deal been released? Or have you read the agreement?

That's going to be because the CW primetime lineup is a giant blackhole of cheap, forgettable programming and Canadian imports, not out of anything on WSVN's part. It's the Ollie's Bargain Outlet of broadcast networks.

Will you please stop spouting nonsense and word salads, especially since you don't sight your sources, have no clue what you're talking about, and only seem to post just to hear yourself talk? Thank you. With all that said, let's move on and have someone with more insider knowledge talk more about the 2024-25 syndication season

Personally I’m not a fan of Tony Dokouoil and didn’t think he fit well when he has filled in for Norah. John Dickerson should focus on his streaming show which airs at the same time and Vald should focus on streaming & his morning segments and continue to be groomed for the next open seat on Mornings. Just my opinion. Jeff Glor has done it before and is really liked on Saturdays so he’d be a recognizable face who has led big coverage. Lisa Ling would be great for special coverage too due to her experience and name recognition.

Regarding CBS and WNCN. Media General offered CBS scale at the time since they were a larger group and WRAL was a one station mom and pop shop. But in the local market, WRAL gave NBC the gift of a lifetime in instant ratings success in a market where NBC has suffered eternally while CBS got a good deal with a larger broadcaster that had an also-ran station in the same market. Moral of the story is that the parent company who paid the network bill is what matters to CBS. That's what reverse compensation has done to the local station industry. NBC took a small sacrifice to gain a lot there.

I’m really looking forward to see how CBS does this, it works really well for the BBC and allows the focus to be on the news, not the anchor. This seems like a great opportunity for CBS to really think about what they want out of the evening news and potentially refocus things. I’d like to see the following people in the rotation: Lindsey Reiser (24/7 streaming) Cecilia Vega (60 minuets) Lilia Luciano (24/7 streaming) Sharyn Alfonsi (60 minuets) Jericka Duncan (CBS weekend news) Elaine Quijano (network & WCBS anchor) The following could be brought in as needed for bigger stories such as politics and event coverage: Lisa Ling (yes that one, joined CBS last year) Margaret Brennan (face the nation) Jeff Glor (Saturday morning) Maurice DuBois (WCBS and filled in for Pelley) No Tony, no Major Garrett, no James Brown. I think going for established talent from 24/7 streaming and 60 minuets is the way to go, viewers across the board know them and have seen them, anchors from streaming could appeal to younger audiences and anchors from 60 minuets would provide maturity & stability to a rotating anchor format. I really hope CBS gets this right and it ends up working out well for them, they should continue to use both Washington and New York for broadcasting as it doesn’t really matter where it comes from as long it’s got substance.

The CW Network Announces New Affiliates In Tucson, Arizona, Santa Barbara, California, And Corpus Christi, Texas

I Forgot to mention...Anderson Cooper. Not sure if he's still a 60 minutes contributor but he's established presence familiar with CBS. He's got the roving anchorman in a black T-shirt experience of David Muir, and the calming stoicism of Lester Holt. The only problem is he wouldn't be cheap and I don't think Paramount wants to spend money right now. Instead of this musical anchor chairs CBSEN could have stuck with Bob Schiffer for the 10 years until his retirement and then went with someone else.

I feel like that would amount to a Jeff Glor 2.0 situation. Moderately known, middle aged, all American anchorman who gets the job done but ends up gone in a few years. The advantage that ABC and NBC have is that they have well groomed anchor talent waiting in the reserves. If David & Lester were to quit tomorrow, Tom Llamas, Savannah Guthrie, Peter Alexander, or George Stephanopoulos, Lindsay Davis and Whit Johnson could step in ASAP.

Yes.

Nowhere, likely just the usual; 480i widescreen CW+ on 12.3 to replace Laff (or 12.4 because 12.1 is SD for some reason), HD on cable/IPTV.

I understand Garrett & Brown, but the omission of Dokoupil, Dickerson & Duthiers is a massive oversight, especially when names like Ling & Glor make your cut.

Shouldn’t be shocked to see this given EN patterns since Dan Rather but damn this is surprising. She was never that great behind the desk but they made an investment in her and the show moving down to DC so I thought they’d stick with her. If you’re going to revamp the show every 3-5 years then you might as well implement a rotating anchor format.

WRAL and WISH dropped CBS because the network wanted those stations to pay to carry CBS's programs. WISH went to the CW, but WRAL went back to its original network, NBC, and WNCN became the new CBS affiliate. The CW affiliate in the Triangle is WLFL, owned by Sinclair.

You are correct! Also, having a 10pm newscast since 1989 has greatly helped WSVN in the long run, despite how joked it was in 1988.

All the other deals the CW and Nexstar made about affiliations of the CW was not because of Paramount. Besides, Paramount is more focused on other stuff.

Kind of surprised that they would announce this before the election. Makes her seem like a "lame duck" anchor through one of the busiest periods of the news cycle. Not a fan of rotating anchors as a permanent replacement. They've done this in the past for a few weeks/months between anchors, but this feels extremely cheap and as if they do not care about the CBS Evening News. Will the broadcast remain in DC? Back to NY?

I can’t imagine CBS News will be needing any outside people to come in here. They have a lot of folks I can see fitting into a rotating cast well; Maurice DuBois is something they’re giving more a national spotlight to lately. I imagine a good deal of the 60 Minutes team will get their at bats too; with The Talk ending in December, I wouldn’t be surprised if Natalie Morales came into this as well.

It's not even a question! Nexstar was acting out of utter desperation and paid through the nose in the process with those CBS renewals. Paramount held all the cards and if they walked away, then Nexstar would kiss NASCAR's junior circuit and WWE NXT goodbye because the affiliate map would be missing two top 20 markets! To whom? It's no longer a buyer's market for TV stations and dumps like WUPA, KSTW and WTOG are unsalable. Paramount and that Ellison kid is stuck with them. And Paramount Global got a hefty payday from a desperate Nexstar. It's a big slice of humble pie from Perry Sook and the other morons at Nexstar corporate that thought they could play pretend media moguls when in reality they couldn't back up their bravado.

I was just thinking about how long Nora has been in the role and how long she's going to last. She's not that remarkable as evening host, but CBS doesn't have anyone so they might as well stick with her. Would love to see her on back CBS Mornings but they're overcrowded now. Unless it's going to be Brian Williams or Shepherd Smith I'm disinterested. Do not do the rotating anchor method, people want a leading familiar face on the Evening/breaking news. If we are rotating, I'd like to see Ted Koppel there two times a week lol. No hate, but I hope they do not put John Dickerson in the role. He seems like a nice guy who's knowledgeable of politics but he does not have the personality to be an anchor even though they keep forcing him into anchor roles.

Rotating anchors could be interesting, and CBS certainly has a deep bench of folks who’d fit in that role. I assume they’ll try and get Gayle King to start the rotation…

No doubt whatever they do will be on the cheap. I think CBS News at the national and local level have given up on trying to compete. The strategy is to make money in third place.

There's unconfirmed reports (or Adell leaked this) that a reverse comp dispute was behind the CW-Scripps breakup. Lol.

So now CBS will be looking for their 5th or 6th anchor for the Evening News in a 20-year span. Is Shepard Smith doing anything? I feel like he would be a good hire at this point if CBS were to go that route.

Brian Williams for CBSEN!

Norah’s being reassigned:

The question is, who is more desperate... Nexstar or Paramount Global? It'll be interesting to see if this has any effect on any future sales of the non-CBS stations....

To quote Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown in the opening scene of New Jack City..."money talks and bullshit runs a marathon..."

…and @RustyMuck was so certain that The CW would be locked out of those two markets. Anyway, funny that Paramount/CBS gave up its CW affiliations last year, only to now agree to bring the network back to WKBD and add WBFS (which The CW passed over in favor of WSFL through its charter affiliation deal with Tribune) as an affiliate. This was totally out of left field.

The NBA needs WBD?? The NBA is getting $76 billion which, according to Forbes, represents an increase of 160% per season compared to the current contract. So I think the NBA is just fine. Besides, why would the NBA 'need' a partner whose CEO said they "don't need the NBA"? Plus is not being on TNT a big loss for the NBA? Their new 11-year pack includes two free over-the-air broadcast networks (a first for the league), a cable channel dedicated to sports, and two streamers in Peacock and Amazon. The three partners (Disney, NBCU, and Amazon) will also carve up international markets with Disney using ESPN-branded assets in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the Netherlands They will use Disney+ in select markets in Asia and Europe. NBCU will distribute NBA games in several European markets via Sky Sports as well as in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Amazon’s Prime Video will distribute NBA games with a package of games in Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the U.K. and Ireland. I believe it is this international piece which is where the NBA will say WBD didn't truly match the offer. They have been clear that it isn't just a dollar amount, but the overall offering. So this international component may well play a role, along with the additional activations Amazon included in their bid. Ultimately, I believe it is WBD that needs the NBA. They have cut most of their original programming so the NBA filled many hours on their schedule. Without the NBA, TNT will have a lot of airtime to fill. Will it be cheaper than producing NBA games? Sure. But the ratings will undoubtedly be much smaller. That, in turn, will hurt their ability to charge cable companies a premium for their channel. And NBA advertising dollars will dry up for WBD. So they will lose revenue on two fronts. Therefore, I believe it is WBD that needs the NBA more than the NBA needs WBD.

Which I wonder if NBC did give-up 10PM if Nexstar would air news on both WXSP & CW6 at 10PM or if they would drop it and be only on the main channel Wood TV. Since I don't see NBC giving up 10PM anytime soon not happening. I just don't think there needs to be anymore news to be added in my opinion as nothing happens in West Michigan.

Most likely to make NBC happy during the Olympics showing the Peacock logo & the Olympic rings. Even affiliates not used to branding like this like Graham-owned WDIV in Detroit show off the Peacock & the rings albeit not alongside their logo.

WFOR/WBFS had their 10 pm newscast but it's long gone for a reason. WTVJ tried a 10pm newscast on WSFL (and later Cozi?) and it didn't work. WPLG has a 10pm newscast on WSFL but honestly WSVN has that slot locked down.

That's why I mentioned San Francisco because it worked in Sacramento, but it didn't in the Bay Area.

Not only that but also, Fox Stations would just defeat any station which tries to air a 10pm newscast because their network just gave them 10pm to their affiliates. That's why the Early Prime-Time idea failed in San Francisco, (and why ABC didn't allow KGO-TV or any other station to participate in the idea) because they were getting defeated by KTVU (It's bot exactly the same since they still had 3 hours and not 2 hours, but the point's exactly there.) And for WTHR in Indianapolis, Early Prime-Time would be used because of Time-Zone weirdness.

It always never fails to see certain people in this fandom bleat the age old cry that mOaR lOcAl nEwS is what the marketplace needs. Sure, let's divvy up a shrinking pie of TV viewers even further while overstretching existing personnel to do more work for less pay and merely rehashing the same content with the same McStation graphics and same unimaginative cuts from another generic Stephen Arnold music package. YAWN. Here's a news flash: if either big three network pulls out of programming the 10pm hour, that's nothing but a devastingly dire outlook for the entire industry. It means that local television is in trouble and in an unsustainable path to insolvency unless you implement the Scrippscast model (or even the Rogers CityNews model) across-the-board or utilize AI to do everything for less. But then again, it's not the first time the TV fandom has been so utterly detached from reality.

I feel like the weather channel needs an entire new graphics and icons package! The refresh feels like a mash of old HD look and 2013 look together!

I wish Scott Pelley was still an option. He made CBS News good again after the Katie Couric experiment went awry. Then again, much of the stablility and prowess of CBS News at the time was tied to the Me Too movement and the bad behavior of the people running the show back then. Ever since that purge, CBS News has been a mess and Norah O'Donnell didn't help matters. We've come a long way from Uncle Walter and even Dan Rather.

I agree on that front with Tony Dokoupil. I actually think Maurice DuBois might be one of the better options, but viewers outside of New York would likely find him an unfamiliar face. Dick Brennan could seamlessly replace him at 5,6 and 11pm on WCBS since he fills in quite often and already has established chemistry with Kristine. Another out-of-the-box option could be Bill Whitaker. Yes, he is older, but he would bring a well-known, calming presence to the evening news. Also from 60 minutes they could bring out Sharyn Alfonsi or even Cecilia Vega (if they want someone younger).

Well crud. That means that things may stay status quo in Mobile/Pensacola. WKRG (and the other CBS affiliates in SEC country) may have a bad year. And NBC is likely stuck on WPMI for a few more years....if Sinclair renews.

If you scroll up you would have read the post (that I just tagged below) which questioned if it is typical for Fox stations to be #1 in their markets. A wide assumption is that ABC NBC and CBS stations are often (not always) the top three in their markets. I basically responded to the poster by saying though it goes against conventional assumptions, there are examples such as in Miami where the Fox station is number one.

A lot of Fox stations are #1 in their markets… what are you talking about?

Starting today, The Drew Barrymore Show moves from 9:30am. To a full hour at 3pm, with the change News has been expanded to a full hour.

I'm sorry but I want to comment about NBC in general ... It's very underwhelming, compared to the previous Olympic sets. I hate to say this cuz I know NBC is America's Olympic Network but I am starting to hope that CBS or ABC should get a crack at it when the time comes. NBC just doesn't care about the elegance of the Games. The set should be over the top, the Olympic theme should play ... in it's entirety every night at the beginning of the evening broadcasts, preferably more times during the day ... uninterrupted ... and I'm sorry, I know that they want Gen X and Z to be interested, but having all these celebs as correspondents ... I just can't. Jim McKay would NEVER have put up with that. Is the graphics nice? Sure. But everything else? Very underwhelming. if NBC wants to do some soul searching how to do this ... see the CBC for inspiration. Sorry for the rant, just how I feel. - - Matt