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Liz Cho anchored at noon today, for the one person here who seems to be obsessed with her subbing schedule and feels she should work more.

Ratings on Christmas are higher than you'd think. A lot of people are at home with not much else to do, or maybe they get enough of family time after a while. Plus, now there's football on Christmas Day. With that said, a skeleton staff and maybe an hour show in the morning and half hour at 10/11pm is more than enough to suffice on Christmas. Run the yule log and pre-taped specials for the rest of the day. In my experience, the most pointless holiday newscast is the morning news on New Year's Day. That's the hardest one to rustle up content for. Even less is happening then, and even fewer viewers are watching.

There was no need for an actual newscast, especially in an era of internet. I was watching WSVN and they had their full slate of evening Newscasts. All shows from 4 to 7:00 p.m. appeared to be repeats of each other with little local content. Overall, this subject comes up every year. Religious or not, there shouldn't be a problem with having an annual national day of rest. It says something about this country that we get so upset when our daily institutions get to pause for one day.

Putting it bluntly, the New York contingent on this forum has the tendency to be a mind-numbingly aloof echo chamber.

Gayle King hosted the Christmas show solo and I actually like the idea of doing a one-person show given the pre-recorded nature of the Christmas broadcasts. Somehow has a more intimate vibe.

Objectively, the people making the decisions have far more information than speculation. I don’t need to know every single piece of data to understand why station X decides it’s fitting to run their normal schedule, albeit with a reduced staff, while station Y tosses on filler material. Nobody is just burning the bosses’ money for kicks and giggles.

Objectively speaking....Why pay staff time and a half to produce a full schedule of newscasts when little *LOCAL* news is actually occuring, for probably below average viewership? Is there an appetite to hear about the latest shooting/stabbing on Christmas? And from a subjective POV....What little does someone have going on in their life that they're mad about not being able to watch as much news for one day out of 366? Does any of this actually warrant debate? A major national holiday occurred, and mass amounts non-emergency workers scheduled vacation simultaneously. Its that simple. Anyway this sums it all up...

It is definitely all day especially west of Eastern time for sure.

Thus, “aside from morning.” And apart from that and the Disney parks commercial, it’s 13 something hours of NBA, so yeah, it’s all day.

I was going to add that channel 7 might do as they've done for years and have their prominent Jewish staffers (aka the "Eyewitness Jews"–Bill Ritter, Lauren Glassberg, Lee Goldberg among them) front the Xmas day shows. But with Hanukkah starting on Wednesday as well, probably not.

And why are we even speculating that is the case? Some things just are.

It also doesn't warrant every anchor sub being reported. It won't get back to normal until after the new year. Enjoy the season. Even anchors & reporters deserve time off with heir families.

This week every news organization is going to have an abnormal schedule. It's the holidays. It's expected. We go through this every year and seem to begrudge people for taking time off during the holidays and...no. Just enjoy different people getting on the air. Some of them REALLY need it after the abuse some of them have had to deal with this year from the public, politicians and c-suiters pushing them to their last nerve. Live with your ABC station not having news on Wednesday because of the NBA being on all day and get over that your local station doesn't have your precious morning news and advertorial show on that morning and instead runs a mass, some bargain-bin Christmas film from Trifecta, or a taped parade. I feel like I have to say this every year and it's tiring. People deserve time off.

All the best to Neil Cavuto in the nest chapter it seems that Neil health problems that he was more off than on for the last few years. When FOX News was added in the cable lineup in 2001, I watched his show a lot for years, but I haven't watched his show for years as well. I watched his final send off last night very good and touching and bittersweet as well.

It's more than nothing!

Every year at this time, there are many not usual substitutions as many staff, especially those with long service are off before, during and after Christmas. Typically this time of year can be slow news cycles (this year may be an exception). On air and behind the scenes staff take needed vacation days. Many have to use it or loose it, just like those who work elsewhere.

Today we had Liz Cho at noon.

In Pittsburgh, Celina Pompeani Mathison, who gave birth to a son in September of last year and is also well known for her previous association with the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, has made the irreversible decision to leave KDKA's Pittsburgh Today Live and the entire television business to focus more on spending time with her family.

52 years in television news (mostly in Buffalo) ended today for Don Postles. He's now off to retirement.

Say what you want about Fox News- Cavuto was always solid, and he persevered through a lot. I agree with what he said in his signoff about calling balls and strikes- he often had no problem bucking the consensus of many others in the lineup. Chris Wallace left CNN to do move over to the "new media environment"- A Wallace/Cavuto team-up might be interesting to see. Otherwise, his reporting style might have a place over at CBS... I'm excited to see what's next for him.

On days with more breaking news, WCBS has opted for a 2 anchor format at noon (Jessica Moore anchored with Cindy the day of the CEO murder, and Doug Williams joined her today).

Mentioned in the Sets & Studios section, this is only temporary for the week has they have work done on their main studio.

I like this idea. They could also move Syfy's few remaining original series to USA, leave Syfy's mix of popular movies (only some of which are sci-fi or fantasy), and rebrand itas USA2 or even USA Movies.

The Braves on Peachtree TV was a certain level of nostalgia

Based on the similarities in the ticker layout, I’m assuming MAX Alert Live is the same alert system that Nexstar uses on most of its stations (like KFOR and KFDX).

That is their new severe weather ticker system Called MAX Alert Live. (We just updated here as well.) All Gray stations, when they switch over to MAL, will look like this regardless of whether they have GrayONE or not. (Some stations still have the old :LIVEWire system and have not converted over to the new software yet.)

The old WTBS now Peachtree TV, which if I'm not mistaken north of the border in Canada, is still being shown like it was back in the old SuperStation days getting similar treatment to WPIX, WGN, & KTLA.

Not to invalidate his claims, but he's making some pretty serious accusations. Sounds like he wasn't happy in his role (which I'm guessing was as a morning reporter??) and wanted to move up. Anchor slots (or even anchor fill-in roles) often go to station vets and/or those with a lot more experience than he has. If he was looking to move up the ladder, WGN was the wrong station for him.

USA is basically the general entertainment cable network, something that is considered a liability nowadays because streamers have eaten up much of their value proposition. But it's still one of the biggest cable networks and knowing that "USA Networks" has a history as a corporate moniker, I think using that for this company would be a good idea.

There is a reason a lot of TV folks hang around past their expiration dates. Many of them will go until they literally can’t anymore.

Quite a low moment for ABC News and a bleak sign of where media is heading under this administration.

Disagree. Sade had an undisclosed illness for a period in 2023 and a knee replacement surgery in 2024, the latter which is widely known to be a grueling recovery process. It would be harsh to push her aside for health issues over the last year of her 20 years at WABC. It isn't that Liz is too good go for filling in - she has a contract that they agreed to for her services. FWIW, I’ve seen Liz at noon a number of times and she filled in for Bill and Sade at 11pm earlier this year. When she left 11pm years ago she expressed that it was to spend her evenings with her family.

WWLP (NBC) also switched to this package either earlier this year or late last year

I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but maybe it is time for both Sade and Liz to step aside. I feel like Sade has been out more than she has been in the past few years. Although she is a great anchor, perhaps it is time for her to step aside and focus on her health. As for Liz, she’s the #2 behind Sade, yet she apparently is too good to be a team player and fill in at Noon or 11pm. Not someone I would want on my team, even if they are great at what they do. Kudos to Sandra for sticking it out on the weekends all those years and stepping up when management needed her to.

Long term who knows how successful any cable network will be, but right now the NBCU cable networks part of the spin-off are profitable with billions in revenue, so shutting them down doesn't really make a lot of sense. Not to mention, shutting everything down and moving all the shows to the currently unprofitable peacock just increases expenses for peacock. If a show is successful on E! or Oxygen, it makes sense to keep the show on that network and have that network cover the majority of the costs instead of shifting the cost of the show exclusively to peacock where the show might not even perform as well. Same goes for moving Bravo shows exclusively to peacock. It makes more sense for NBC to keep Bravo and have the profitable network finance shows which can then perform well on peacock, and peacock doesn't have to cover the majority of the costs. I don't see how it makes sense for MSNBC & CNBC to merge into one channel. Both networks are highly profitable on their own and target different audiences. Besides weekend marathons of Lockup, left wing opinion programming is the only thing MSNBC has had success with. While I as a news junkie like them to cover news, I accept that there are so many news channels out there covering news, and MSNBC is the 2nd most watched news channel because it focuses on left wing opinion. Whenever they do focus on non-political news their ratings fall behind CNN, I still think they need to cover non-political news as a news channel and I'm disappointed with their lack of coverage for major international news stories over the past few years, but it's hard to deny how successful they have become focusing on politics with the left leaning view.

I don't understand why they would want to sell USA network. It's still one of the most watched cable networks and profitable. Instead of keeping bravo, why not move the programs that are on that network to peacock or combine it with the programming on USA network. I could imagine them combining cnbc & msnbc into one channel. They should remove some of the opinionated programs and just focus on reporting on the news & more in depth coverage or reporting of the days top stories. With the other channels / networks, I think they should have just shut them down and move the successful programs on those networks to peacock. I don't think the new company will be successful.

Saturdays for both shows run one season back so it won't be until next year.

Adding one more... WPXI's David Johnson and yes, Peggy Finnegan was there too. It only made sense for David and Peggy to be together one more time. https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/watch-david-johnsons-final-newscast-channel-11-news-friday/2NS2ROHX7FGI5KERMNEDP3SLCY/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem_manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawHJ48ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQgRq3vty_tkfWhZBJkqgSkRq18ILclpoW4jjD26xJjtNn9FbsUrFFo9-A_aem_RqGjJhyuNimsZph_ZivofA And WTVD's John Clark at 6am yesterday.

This is over 10 years old at this point, but it shaped the way I was going to approach news design in the future and I think what is outlined here is still relevant today. It made me rethink broadcast design from what was trendy toward designing with a focus on audience experience. Then I left the station I was at and went to an O&O group with a Linear Drift package and all that went out the window.

The primary role of local news design is to support editorial content while creating a cohesive brand experience. At its core, design needs to prioritize clear, legible information for audiences, whether they’re watching on large screens or smaller devices across different platforms. A strong, well-defined hierarchy is essential to guide attention and ensure key details can be understood at a glance. While I absolutely agree that design should also be visually engaging, it has to stick to basic principles of layout and typography to do its job: enhancing and clarifying the content, not just chasing trends for the sake of being flashy. This is where I think some broadcast designers—and foamers—lose the thread. There needs to be real intention behind design decisions. In this case, I don’t see that intention, either from an information perspective or even in the overall design. That said, if you’re just into big, shiny 3D shapes, that’s awesome! I’m glad there are still designers out there who can create that for you.

Linear Drift has absolutely no idea how to design a lower third.

Meh.

The situation with Wisconsin has an explanation though, as WKOW's sister stations did in the past start out as semi-satellites of it (with the FCC's blessing) and over time, broke off on their own as investments were made by their owners to break off the cord, as it were, with Madison, and Shockley and Qunicy had those resources to provide that support to their stations. It seems like all that AMG has is cheap programming and no desire to expand at all, so they've contracted two generations of progress with WXOW/WQOW/WAOW to basically return them to the state they were in the 70s, but with an ugly 2020s centralcasting twist. A red flag for me with the Quincy/Gray merger was the lack of fight to keep WYOW and letting it go for a pittance to Gray; it felt very out of character and there didn't seem to be any regulatory reason to do so. WEAU and WSAW are the strength of both their markets, but I can see good reasons for WMTV doing weekend morning newscasts for them at the very least, because some markets just really don't need them to begin with, and at least with E/I being opened up to the 5am hour it's literally better than nothing. And agreed; WBAY does some Gray things, but outside certain touches they know what keeps them on top and adding new things that keep that dominance, and Gray is smart enough to leave well enough alone with them; it helps that their building and staff just plain can't support doing much more than what they do in their market outside the obvious Packers coverage lead.

As long as Morgan Murphy doesn't acquire WJFW, that station is sitting there isolated - otherwise, the western/central markets would be all completely aligned. In the case of WEAU, nothing is being cut since there has never been such a newscast. The fact Gray doesn't own a station in Milwaukee prevents anything "completely" statewide from forming.

People watch this channel? So many stations and channels are suffering financially and this indie channel is still operating? Interesting.

As sad as I am to see reporters lose their job, are national bureaus for station groups necessary? Don't network affiliations already fill that void? The only beneficiary I can see is an independent station. It's duplicative for WSB to need Cox Washington packages when ABC News can already cover that. Despite the vast array of media services available to a local station they all cover the same thing. How many sources do we need providing a package on AAA Thanksgiving travel predictions? Wow! Sucks. He had a legacy tie to the station as his dad was big time local anchor Don Farmer. Justin always did this weird singing thing in his anchoring cadence. Has anyone ever noticed this?

I'm guessing with the close of the DC bureau, the Cox stations will likely have to lean on their respective networks and/or CNN for news in the nation's capital.

I don't have any insight or information, but having a new job and an ongoing relationship with the station makes me think this was a planned exit by him. A quiet and short notice without the pomp and circumstance is the ideal departure for many people. News anchors come and go, and maybe he didn't want to make himself the news or at least minimize the time when he is the center of attention. The tribute and retrospective PKGs are awkward and have no viewer benefit. Newsroom cakes and speeches are just painfully awkward.

Or... getting out before the holidays.

The reason The King of Queens is leaving broadcast syndication is because Sony Pictures Television has cut a deal to bring it and Married… with Children to Cozi TV’s lineup. King will join the network’s prime time lineup (displacing Frasier in the 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET slot) on September 9, while Married… (following an eight-hour marathon two days before) joins the late afternoon schedule on August 5 (replacing Monk in the 4:00-6:00 p.m. ET slot).