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A federal judge issued a 14-day restraining order Wednesday against Oklahoma Superintendent of Education Ryan Walter's and Board of Education spokesman Dan Isset. The board cannot ban KFOR reporters from rooms where the BOE meets, cannot ban them from press conferences and cannot physically impede their access. Isett attended the hearing and still insisted KFOR isn't a legitimate news organization in comments made after the hearing.

Being privately owned has its advantages at times, particularly for Hearst. The company seems to invest in its stations, and it's not beholden to stockholders.

I am not surprised that Hoda is leaving the show. She had left the Olympics several days before they finished. One of her daughters was recently, or a while back, seriously ill and in the hospital. I imagine she wants to spend more time with them, especially in the morning. Hoda said she just turned 60 and has two little girls. I imagined It would have been a different decision if she had been 40-50 and had no kids. It's good to hear she won't be leaving the network altogether, so we will probably see her on the show once in a while, perhaps even filling in the forms from time to time. About who will replace her: They will probably elevate Craig to co-anchor. They should bring Amy Robach back to NBC and make her the TODAY Show news anchor, along with a prime spot on Dateline. That would be a good redemption story. She left NBC all those years ago because her career was basically going nowhere. She was doing very well at ABC with the co-anchor job at 20/20 and would likely be Robin Roberts's successor on GMA at some point, but then she was fired. I don't see them permanently elevating Craig (to co-anchor) and Sheinelle (news anchor) in the 7-9 hours. Perhaps they have Sheinelle replace Hoda in the 4th hour. It would be cool if they brought Natalie back to be the news anchor with the Talk ending in December, but I doubt that will happen. She's pretty set in the California/Hollywood (not saying in a bad way) ways now, and I don't see her moving back to NYC at least any time soon. She also has a good correspondent Job at 48 Hours, which she seems to be enjoying, and once the Talk ends, she will probably focus more time on that and get a more significant role.

Tom Llamas could be an option.

Here are some pics of the set I was able to grab during the live stream. So far, incredible.

This record-breaking storm is heading directly for Tallahassee, and could have far-reaching impacts in surrounding areas including even Atlanta. Tallahassee being the media market that it is, there's Gray's WCTV and Scripps' WTXL. And then there's Sinclair's WTWC. Last time (during Idalia) they piped in dedicated coverage from West Palm Beach. Their Fox channel still gets their news from WCTV. Not even a weather warning so far on the NBC side. Hopefully Sinclair is prepared, especially since they have to pipe in coverage and if there's any local effects to the stations this may actually be an advantage. I'll be curious to see if WMBB in Panama City and WFLA in Tampa actually offer live coverage online...since it's a hurricane and people need to evacuate out of their market areas...

Highs: The stand up story area is impressive, nice depth with the cityscape behind. So is the weather center and side 3 shot of the weather anchor next to the desk with the 6 logo and cityscape in the distance Lows: The main center shot of the anchors. That curved monitor is too close and the graphic they chose is too bold, it overpowers the talent. Looks too confined. Weather by a monitor is OK for a moment, but hard to read, need a huge wall or green screen to get the elements big and easy to read.

They lucked out by going outside NBC and getting Meredith, but there was no guarantee that that would work, but it did that time! Although, the show was in first place back then and had more to lose.

Absolutely love the upgrades, especially the use of a screen for the weather. May the green screen remain banished to the nether regions of the studio. In the year of our lord 2024, it’s nice to step beyond the old conventions and upgrade technology. The desk looks nice, the presentation areas are better, the entire theme is fresher and brighter.

Craig is a great option next to Savannah but I almost want them to take a big swing at an outsider like they did with Meredith Vieira.

Here is the full studio tour given by Adam Joseph. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/M5PHqWgUz5RG6Yxp/?mibextid=oFDknk

I kinda think they're going to keep him on News Now until Lester leaves, then he takes helm of the Nightly anchor chair.

Honestly not a terrible idea given he's suddenly on the market. Even elevating Craig to co-host and bringing Glor in as News/Headline anchor wouldn't be terrible given he has the "breakfast show" experience with CTM Saturday, and "hard news" experience with Evening News. Also comes with at least *some* name recognition.

WPVI debuted their new set today (September 26th) on Action News at Noon! Very impressive.

Easiest moves would be to elevate Craig Melvin to co-anchor, Sheinelle Jones to news anchor and co-host of 4th hour. would mean changes to 3rd hour (at a minimum replacing Sheinelle). Wouldn’t be surprised though if they leave everyone and bring in someone from outside. Maybe Jeff Gloor??

Update: WTXL and WCTV are live with storm coverage. (Cut-ins only) If WTXL doesn't do live from the field, they may stay in the weather wall or feed packages or look-lives as they come.

Hearst stations, based on reporter feedback and posts in this thread, seem to be well run, and look good aesthetically. Their format can be a little stiff however.

EW Scripps is a mess. If they do give it to Hearst please. I would love to see ABC (now Disney) take it again, but I don't think they're in the business of buying tv stations anymore. I hate pointless live shots, especially ones far away, and especially when sports pre empts programming. I don't think the audience cares about a static live shot in front of a dark building. Live shots should be reserved for an active scene, breaking news/rapidly changing info, or when there's not enough time to assemble a package. Otherwise live for live sake adds nothing to a broadcast. At my old duopoly station, there was a policy that the secondary station could pretape newscasts delayed by sports. The primary station however had to go on live, even though they would just be copy and pasting the same broadcast on to both stations. I don't think ratings will drop if the broadcast is not live.

I know she’s no longer at NBC, but I always thought it would’ve been a great idea to pair Chelsea Clinton with Jenna Bush Hager on the 4th hour.

It's not even wall-to-wall at this point with ANY station. Maybe because of the "total evacuation" of coastal counties, or the general state of TV itself. Or it could be the timing of the landfall. Several years ago, being this close to landfall without wall-to-wall coverage was unheard of. Even the Weather Channel stayed with regular programming after midnight to 6am ET. Fox Weather went with full coverage. And from what I saw with WTXL, it was mostly Scrippscast with their chief meteorologist leading coverage in the studio. I would hope Sinclair starts something real quick. There's no excuse to have NOTHING for a storm of this magnitude, especially in an area that's never had one like this before.

Breaking : Hoda Kotb is stepping down as co-host of NBC Today https://x.com/NBCNews/status/1839280600861081919