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https://thedesk.net/2026/03/judge-grants-restraining-order-nexstar-tegna-deal/ Restraining order granted by judge. Full order: https://thedesk.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-03-Nexstar-TEGNA-restraining-order-granted.pdf

Coping directly from the article linked above: “A separate restraining order request was made in the state case, and was granted on Friday, with the same conditions imposed on Nexstar and TEGNA.”

"Nexstar must permit Tegna to continue operating as a separate and distinct, independently managed business unit from Nexstar, and Nexstar must put measures in place to maintain Tegna as an ongoing, economically viable, and active competitor. Tegna shall have separate management that operates Tegna in the ordinary course consistent with pre-closing practices." It better NOT be anyone from Mission!!!

Peter Alexander announces his departure from Saturday Today. https://pagesix.com/2026/03/28/entertainment/peter-alexander-is-leaving-nbc-after-years-of-being-passed-over-for-top-anchor-jobs-source/

The courts will likely intervene if that happened.

I'm thinking KNXV is next. I noticed on Wednesday on their website that more sections have the new graphics backgrounds. I also asked Met. Jorge Torres and his response seems promising.

But...but....but....they said they wouldn't do this. They said they wanted to preserve voices.

Nexstar held its company-wide merger town hall today, streaming to employees of both old Nexstar and the now-former Tegna. The event was filmed on the WFAA set in DFW. Despite all-powerful Perry's best "efforts" to keep the meeting quiet, some topics are leaking out, including to a close source of mine. The merged company now employs about 18,000 people, of which half are journalists. He very bluntly said that jobs will be lost, and in very quick order, before... They will merge & consolidate multi-station markets' building operations within the next year or so. Everything under one roof. Joint leadership teams will be announced in the next several weeks. Email accounts and other digital communications are merging ASAP. Digital production/output is a high priority. Several minutes were spent praising and bragging about News Nation. Six stations (previously mentioned) will be sold over the next 2-3 years.

Gene Shalit turned 100-years-young on Wednesday- and TODAY celebrated accordingly- by putting his face on a Smucker's jar. https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/today-celebrates-gene-shalit-100-130818398.html

WABC, In my humble opinion, from an on air presentation (graphics and set) standpoint, I think we can all agree that they are comfortably "the best" just recently. KABC was always the better one for years and even today I think the KABC set is probably still a bit nicer than WABC's by a touch (they have the extra space that WABC doesn't have). The news product itself which is what ultimately matters has always been one of the most top notch local news productions in this entire country. They've always been prestigious at which all other local stations try to model. Both KABC and WABC stations do a near excellent job with that. And now we are starting to see both stations work kinda together on some stories which is kinda cute. For WABC, in terms of the on air graphics and set, I think that was a long journey for them. At this point the only criticism I have now for WABC and now KABC is I wish they used more of their news music package. I'd imagine they have full access to the entire suite of music. At this point, its probably safe to say that WABC is the best overall O&O ABC station now and now we are seeing the rest of the Circle 7 ABC O&O stations model them (Logo and Graphics etc..) A bit of history with WABC; from an on-air graphics and presentation perspective, they were always far behind the rest of the O&Os until this past year really. KABC always had the edge over the years. I would always envy KABC because of how they just excelled over WABC. It wasn't till probably around 2012 with the Giant Octopus graphics that their on air appearance represented what a flagship station should be but it was short lived, they literally took two steps back with those terribly looking flat graphics in 2016 which pretty much sucked in my opinion they were really boring and just lazily designed. We had to deal with that disaster for 8 years and finally they got their new graphics in 2024 followed by their new beautiful set in 2025 which KABC now modeled and has a slight edge over.

stations are going into a holding company owned by Standard Media to be overseen by their CEO. Parkin has also reneged on buying Standard Media (KLKN, WLNE, KBSI, WDKA), and Sinclair stations (WVTV, WICS, WICD, KHQA, KTVO) that was announced in July 2025. Allegedly, his financing fell through (bridge loans, operating income for 3 months post closing per FCC rules, refi into a permanent deb), and Standard Media is said to have no interest, they want out asap. If he was 'warehousing' the stations the lenders probably balked at giving him money for a bridge or permanent refi

There is only one appropriate response to this development...

For the first time ever, a local broadcast station has debuted ESPN 8: The Ocho on a digital subchannel. The honor... WKCF Clermont/Orlando on DT 18.3, moving Estrella TV to another subchannel announced later. That 20% stake in ESPN is finally coming in handy for Hearst (though not the first time... WCVB's SportsCenter 5). What a unique idea! https://tvnewscheck.com/programming/article/wkcf-orlando-launches-espn8-the-ocho/

These greenlit deals (WTVA, WLFI, WTHI) are not in conflict with other stations in their markets, so they were able to close with no issues from the FCC and DOJ. Others, like WSIL, WAAY and WCOV conflict with existing stations, and could cause issues with market share as well.

As bizarre that it is for Nexstar/Tegna to be approved and yet Allen still waiting to sell the remaining "for sale" stations to Gray, I'm not complaining about that. And while Nexstar would likely merge behind the scenes and keep "visually" separate newscasts, the moment Gray gets its hands on WAAY it's over for that station. They'd merge the news with WAFF without thinking twice about it.

What is actually happening? Who cares that we are seeing his office or Anderson has some Mics on the desk?! Talk about a rudderless ship. Is someone doing this on purpose to CNN? It seems like self-sabotage. Im confused. I still would rather watch CNN if I had to ( though I preferred CNN international, until they basically let everyone go and people just left and they never re-hired anyone.) but the channel is effectively a mere shadow of its former self. CNN International still does some news broadcasts instead of endless talking head "analyst" shows rather than actual news. But this "podcasty" move on CNN domestic is just silly, performative and pointless. Its so sad to see. Particularly when they formerly commanded a massive huge news room at the CNN Center and then a sister channel that never stopped in Headline News. Which was operating at just delivering the news headlines nonstop. CNN Domestic its just bored-looking over paid anchors in front of screens in flash cam studios conducting sleep inducing interviews. What happened?! (My views have nothing to do with politics) Its just so sad. It just to be the globally respected news channel. When they are on they do great work. It used to be the go to channel for breaking news....those days are over. (Because everything is branded as breaking news) CNN international also had a massive news room on display in Atlanta, London and in Hong Kong with dedicated blocks of news and reports from all corners of the globe. Now its just a collection of flash cam screens. Does any one actually work there anymore besides those doing politics? Doesnt seem that way. Today they have basically neglected the entire Southern Hemisphere and you rarely get any news out of Africa or Asia unless is something about China censoring them live by shutting off their signal. We've seen it a billion times already. Really no interesting reports and its become US domestic politics heavy. Yawn. I find myself turning to SkyNews, BBC, AlJazeera, France 24, CBC. Other global broadcasters that have effectively taken what CNN International used to do and replaced them. There are so many channels that now have filled the space left by Headline News. Not sure why Headline News couldnt have made it work. Oh I remember.... they kept tinkering with it to death and people stopped watching. Now we have ABC News Live, CBS 24/7, NBC News Now, Scripps News and NewsNation amongst many others also internationally running headline services. And all of which came on the scene after they made a mess of Headline News. Those competitors are some how profitable. Now CNN is trying to rebuild that legacy by creating the CNN Headlines FAST channel. Which is a dire attempt to say the least. Its so sad to watch.

Could Morgan Murphy even afford to buy Hearst Television? Does Graham even want to own that many stations? Sinclair and Nexstar should have been stopped in their tracks years ago. We've been sounding the alarm about them for years and by the time anybody but us noticed it was too late.

I'd rather see Hearst sell to Gray. Or Graham. Or Morgan Murphy. Or anyone besides Sinclair or Nexstar.

Sara Sanchez is NOT waiting for the possible repercussions of the Nexstar/TEGNA merger. She's leaving WTIC on April 19th before more changes can be implemented. For the record, Nexstar will soon have WTNH/WTIC/WCCT but is selling WCTX. https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1385537246714168&id=100057737184805

Wishing her the best!!! https://tvnewscheck.com/journalism/article/staci-spanos-returns-to-wjxt-jacksonville-as-evening-anchor-investigative-reporter/ Also in Jacksonville....Staci Spanos is returning to WJXT after eight years, to become their FIFTH evening anchor! What's partially visible in the Jeannie video is that WTLV/WJXX also has about 4 to 5 evening anchors. Both duopolies alternate evening anchor lineups on the half hour. First Coast & News 4 Jax must have money. By comparison the competition WJAX/WFOX Action News Jax follows current trends. The same two anchors do just about all of their evening shows. Yes! I was just thinking about this the other day. I remember even WNBC was in bad shape around this time. They dropped Live at Five for a generic 5 o'clock newscast, and information tips show News 4 You at 5:30. They eventually dropped one of their 5 o'clock shows in favor of Extra then a lifestyle show. They abandoned studio 6B in favor of a dull content center studio. It really turned around by 2012.

Between CNNI's dual focus on Europe and Asia (each in a batch of different time zones) and their use of CNN/US shows, I don't think the global channel originates what would be considered a dead hour of news.

I'm still really confused why in the lead up to the NFL Draft coverage last year that WBAY started using the GrayOne ticker and bug and then reverted back to the old style after a couple days.

I can't take that open seriously, I don't know how to say it but it's... offensively bland.

It's just interesting how Nexstar is so bold in their press release craving media attention about bringing down Jimmy Kimmel, but when it comes to a major left wing market the Nexstar station is claiming it's all on ABC. The people protesting outside Disney should also protest outside KTLA. Nexstar deserves just as much negative backlash as ABC and Disney do for this decision, and it's about time Nexstar stations start to suffer in left wing markets. LA's Very Own is owned by the MAGA far right

It was kind of telling how KTLA opened its 10:00pm newscast tonight with the story that ABC had pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live while barely acknowledging their beloved owner Nexstar's major role. As Cher explained a misleading timeline of events she made no mention that Nexstar put out a press release attacking Jimmy Kimmel and saying they would refuse to air the show, saying only that "ABC made the decision after the FCC chairmen suggested they may take action against the network". While later on the report did mention that "Nexstar, KTLA's parent company, also announced that it would be pulling Kimmel from its ABC affiliates" this was the only mention of Nexstar's involvement. Why was KTLA so afraid to highlight the actions of their parent company? I mean this is the same network that relentlessly demonized the anti ICE protesters non stop back in June. Are they just now starting to realize that being part of Nexstar's MAGA empire is not going to pay off in Southern California?

According to Nexstar's TV station list, Rockford is in the Chicago market, Beaumont in Houston, Colorado Springs in Denver, Youngstown in Cleveland, Huntsville in Birmingham, and Erie, PA in Buffalo, NY. Not only that, on their contact page, in their social media links: "X, formally Twitter" I weep for this industry's future.

They are moving quickly so that the merger can't be unwound. It's disgusting.