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At least it looks better with the new package then it did with the other one. And the team colors are also used by the Pirates and the Penguins, so they do transcend beyond the Steelers to being more of a "Pittsburgh" thing. I like Pittsburgh, But being from Northeast Ohio, you get the idea .

I understand Colorado (the Denver market covers a majority of the state geographically), but given that Texas is also home to a big city like Houston and growing cities like Austin and San Antonio, the brand just doesn’t work IMO.

For the CBS owned stations, I think comes down to a lack of budget and the resulting lack of identity. CBS O&Os historically have spent less than their ABC and NBC counterparts leaving them with fewer resources. To play catchup stations like WCBS and WBBM have gone through numerous rebrandings. From a corporate standpoint, CBS has undervalued the "presentation" portion of TV news which has been reflected in the way they fund their local stations. They live in the Walter Cronkite era of storytelling. Admirable? Sure. But television is a visual medium and newscasts are built on a relationship with the viewer. I don't feel like CBS has ever truly embraced either of those things. The lack of investment was easier to hide in the 70s and 80s because everyone's presentation was crude. But as technology has evolved, CBS always seems to be playing catch-up. When Jeff Zucker cut NBC budgets in the early 2000s, WNBC went into their "WCBS era" where they lacked identity and money. The NBC O&O group launched Daily Connection which was a "newscast" that featured repurposed content from across NBCU properties. The pieces of the show were assembled in NYC and then fed to stations to be produced with local talent. (Sound similar to the equally generic CBS News Now broadcast from Texas?) Cost efficient? You bet. Compelling tv? Not at all. WNBC eliminated Live at Five in favor of News4You and Extra. When that didn't work, WNBC played musical chairs with timeslots, anchors, and formats for years. WNBC their newsroom into a "Content Center" which was nothing more than a gimmick, like the gimmick WCBS tried in launching the short-lived CBS 2 Information Network. It was during this time when WCBS was able to move up to #2, not because Channel 2 was doing anything particularly compelling but because they offered stability where WNBC didn't. Valari Staab, formerly with the ABC O&O group, has spent over a decade rebuilding the newsgathering resources of the NBC group. New radar technology, studios, increased digital resources, heck even new buildings have been added. CBS meanwhile appears to continue the "more with less" mantra that has been in place for over 40 years. While NBC was rebuilding, the ABC stations, with their well-defined local identities, have steamrolled everyone with a consistent and well-funded product. Meanwhile the FOX O&O group, with seemingly endless hours of local news, generates strong local revenue. What has CBS done? Slapped the last-place 'CBS News' brand onto their local stations. Most of the CBS stations lack the type of true community investment it takes to be a strong player. With audiences for linear TV newscasts continuing to shrink, one could argue it Is way too late for them to catch up.

TBF, just cause it's "renewed though 2028" doesn't mean it will be "on CBS through 2028", they could very easily have a clause just like with Days to move to streaming at a later date. Or of course, they could can the other one to free up the hour instead. Alongside the announcement, TVLine was told this So like maybe B&B is only renewed for one more year while the more popular Y&R stays on for 4. ------ Personally, I'm of the mind that yeah I do think there's too much news hours even if yes, most people don't watch all the hours and aren't getting "fatigued" from it. I personally would want them to be more like say BBC internationally where daytime hours include stuff rarely shown on broadcast television over here and are instead locked to cable/streaming like cooking or home improvement shows BUT I can't deny Daily has been a success (and personally I find it to be my favorite, just the right mix of more upbeat morning news and serious primetime news without going too far in each direction) and like, most people nowadays have options. Even before streaming, most people could switch to any of the 100s of cable channels if they didn't want to watch what the big networks were showing and especially now with streaming, there's literally thousands of other options if you don't want news at noon. It's 2024, basically everyone has decent internet and already streams content, you aren't forced to watch NBC (and the others) if you don't want news. Hell, go watch YouTube even, you don't even need a 30-60 minute scripted drama during that time frame. ------ Side-Note: Why have they not put Daily on demand yet like almost all of their other news shows. Kinda hard to watch the one you prefer when it's literally not available. NBC News Now of course streams it but not everyone can watch live that exact second and the only stream that allows going back into the VoD is the YouTube version but they delist that meaning if you don't save the link, it's impossible to watch. Every other NBC News show from the mainstay TODAY to Nightly and including other News Now ones like Top Story, Stay Tuned, etc. you can stream on-demand on either YouTube, NBC.com, Peacock, or via Podcast. I get Daily is a bit unique in that there's 4 separate hours but nobody is saying you have to save all 4 of them, like already Nightly is only the West Coast edition on demand so like just pick one of the 4 hours and make that the on demand version.

It has a lot to do with lead-ins. WCBS had Judge Judy at 4 and the 5:00 was doing well. Then they lost Judge Judy and immediately fell. They picked up the show again and shot back up to #2. WABC had Oprah at 4 and those viewers made them #1 at 5. The winning allowed the station to remain stable in terms of talent and presentation. When Oprah ended her show and WABC replaced it with a newscast, viewers were already so accustomed to Eyewitness News that they largely stayed with them. Syndicated and network lead-ins are huge, along with stability (which is often a chicken-or-the-egg-type thing with winning).

Bad news for those calling for Y&R to get cancelled.

Andrea I always thought was great as anchor, especially with Cindy, but there’s also no diversity so maybe that has something to do with this move? I feel like this was the reason John was bumped from weekdays in favor of Elise, who I thought was great, too, but adding Tony into the mix makes sense for this reason after Elise’s passing. I don’t mind Tony but John doesn’t need a partner in the morning. It’s kinda insulting in a way. John’s day could be shortened to have it make more sense. Also, I like Chris and Mary (Chris is honestly the best male morning anchor in NYC in my opinion), but for as long as they’ve been paired together, it seems they never move the ratings needle. WCBS has a great team but nothing seems to work!

Thank you for clarifying that the WNBC situation was budget cuts. I wondered why they would wreck their solid news product in the mid-2000s, for all the crap you listed coupled with a sub par studio and worse graphics. News 4 really improved in 2012! I do however appreciate that CBS O&Os don't have a billion hours of news compared to their counterparts.

I don’t mean to offend, but I really don’t understand why this bothers people. They’re not my favorite colors either, but we’re talking about Pittsburgh here. Sure, there are better ways to execute the black and gold look, but is it so bad that a station’s visual identity reflects the city it serves?

As for why CBS O&Os are struggling, I just think many of them lost their identity.

Such a shame for CBS bosses to force Andrea out of the chair, a chair that has been hers since as others mentioned, 2013. Her and Doug (and Craig) were all great together (speaking of which I would hope Craig would stay too). I was thinking recently how nice it would be for Alice Gainer to be a permanent anchor again in some capacity since she lost the news at 9 gig, and she is great whenever she fills in (especially with Dick Brennan). Either way I'm also surprised CBS is allowing both Andrea and Doug to speak the truth about the change, since that will obviously fuel anger and hate towards WCBS (and heck, if enough speak out maybe even reverse that decision)! At least I haven't seen talent shifts at other stations recently where the anchors were allowed to speak so candidly about decisions by the bosses. Either way Andrea has talent and deserves that chair; if not at WCBS she will certainly earn it somewhere else.

Which is why KCNC should really be called CBS News Denver, IMO (and KTVT of the Metroplex should be called CBS News DFW, instead of CBS News Texas).

I think the biggest problem CBS O&Os face today is the nationalization of its local markets. How much is "CBS Colorado" actually covering news from places like Pueblo, Grand Junction, or CO Springs? Genuine question, I don't know. You also have, in my opinion, overlapping brands. Saying you're watching CBS 2 News from CBS News New York is unnecessarily layered and almost totally removes the local aspect. I get what they've tried to do, but I don't think it's been implemented well.

And Milwaukee, where WITI Channel 6 became Fox from CBS, so CBS had to go to WDJT Channel 58, also in the boondocks.

Damn. I loved Kelly. I thought she was great and very versatile.

WBBM used to be number one and they went from this To this and audiences returned briefly and then abandoned ship and never came back .

Can't help but to think of the Maury Show when seeing the WMLW logo. - Matt

From experience living in the south, and the dominance of the SEC, this could certainly hurt viewership on Saturdays. As SEC college football is king in the south. Also, there is a thin possibility that it could help in markets like Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte and Nashville due to the amount of people that are transplants from historical BIG10 territory (Atlanta has a lot from rust belt, Charlotte and Nashville is more from across the country).

I really used to like Scripps... Now I think they are complete trash... They're still above Sinclair, but barely...

I haven't been watching much Fox Weather lately, but I just tuned in and noticed that the overnight show has been given the Fox Weather @ Night moniker back, and the show is being produced by the control room with a full set of graphics, inserts, and music again. And I noticed that Haley Meier is hosting on a Thursday, which was always one of her days off... So I checked the bio page, and sure enough, Kelly Costa's bio has been de-linked. Her last social media post about Fox Weather seems to be on February 13th. Looking in the past, she tweeted on February 14, 2023 that it was her 1-year mark with Fox Weather. Sounds like she had a two-year deal that was not renewed. This makes sense, as it's seemed like Fox Weather has had very little interest in keeping the Orlando operation going ever since Katie Garner left. Back in June 2023, when they changed Kelly's backdrop from the Orlando skyline to a fake background of the NYC Weather Command area, compounded with the fact that they never hired an Orlando-based replacement for Katie, I had a feeling that their tiny Orlando outfit would come to an end sooner rather than later. Wishing Kelly well on whatever comes next.

Given the questionable status of Alabama (and other SEC schools), and the dominance of Michigan (and potentially Ohio State), this change of CBS from SEC to Big 10 may help in more important places as opposed to the CBS stations taking a dive without SEC football. I don't think that it's going to lead to any affiliation switches, unless one of the big owners really drops the ball with Paramount and they go elsewhere....

I feel CBS getting the rights to Big Ten football will help its O&O in Detroit, WWJ, Michigan football is a huge ratings draw and you know CBS will show Michigan as much as possible.

Yes! CBS shows appeal to an older audience. I can also see why CBS stations do well in rural smaller areas. Historically the network has run rural comedies like Green Acres and in the 90s *shows* like Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Walker Texas Ranger etc. Today they've got an endless portfolio of procedurals. It's definitely a watch with your grandparents kind of channel which must trickle down to the newscasts.

I was interviewed for one of WUPA's "newscasts" back in December of 2022, with one of their only MMJs. Watched the newscast that evening to see what was what and definitely disappointed. Wasn't surprised, I didn't even know what the local CW affiliate was at the time until that morning, let alone that they had a newscast. I will definitely agree that they were produced like "Spectrum News 1".

My theory for the affiliates is that their struggles stem from the '94 realignments. They lost some stronger affiliates, left to pick up weaker ones. Look at ATL, CBS lost WAGA 5 to Fox, so they had to settle for WGNX 46, a weaker station with a dial number up in the boondocks. For the owned and operated stations I'll say again...CBS O&O newscasts have a very generic, corporate, "Spectrum News" like feel, that isn't always authentic to the markets they're in. Big example, CBS' defunct "Nowcasts". WUPA's version, produced in NYC, felt so out of place in a country/soulful/hip hop city like Atlanta. WCBS' Mary Calvi and Chris Wragge could do one of those nowcasts because they don't add any extra personality to make it feel like you're watching a New York morning show. This in contrast to the loud-brash-Brooklyn Rosanna Scotto on GDNY or the Jamaican Dancehall or Street Soldiers segments covered on WNYW. Even though all o&o station groups duplicate their formats across markets, ABC, NBC, and especially FOX & CW stations are great at adding local touches.

CBS O&Os that were formerly Group W stations tend to outperform their CBS peers. While WCBS seems to have stabilized over the past few years, WBBM is blown up every few years in favor of the next best thing that will turn things around and in LA they threw in the towel on KCBS in favor of KCAL.

There were times where WAGA did beat WSB in the 70s, 80s and 90s before the switch. There were times WXIA beat both WSB & WAGA at 11pm due to NBC primetime lead in the late 80s and early 90s. When the 80s came around in the bigger markets NBC & ABC just changed with the times. CBS hasn't fared well in the bigger markets, but NBC & ABC does really well. CBS does well in mid size, smaller and rural markets. Prior to the switch in the 90s. Atlanta, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Dallas, Phoenix & Tampa Bay those CBS affiliates did really well.

You can partially give the New World-FOX partnership/merger the blame for all of this too. Additionally, before WAGA was bought by/transferred to FOX in the 1994-96 realignment, it was arguably one of their stronger affiliates. Notably it is also the only station in Atlanta that currently has a chance at surpassing the almighty WSB-TV. Same goes for the prior affiliates in Detroit, Milwaukee, etc. New World must have run their stations well because the majority of them continue to maintain strong viewership. This time period also coincides with when CBS began to see declining ratings as a whole. Also during realignment CBS had to affiliate with small unheard of channels with relatively high channel numbers, and in many cases the news room was built from scratch.

There can be common threads, but no situations are identical. Each station has its own unique competitors and market dynamics at work. In some cases (a la KDKA as noted) that has worked to the station's benefit. Others, not so much. Sometimes you can employ a solid plan and execute it well, and still not show big results, if the competition hasn't given people enough reason to go elsewhere. And your network performance matters; while a really strong local affiliate can outperform and even give the parent network a bit of a boost there, by and large, you're also partially at the mercy of factors outside your control.

A notable exception is CBS owned KDKA in Pittsburgh, although a lot of it is historical preference hanging on tight.

A lot of CBS stations especially in the top ten markets had historically have less stability and branding changes regularly while NBC and especially ABC stations have way more stability and reporters/anchors tend to stay at these stations longer so viewers get familiar with them and trust these people more to deliver the news. Most people want a quality newscast over quantity.

Five weeks and a day is a notable shift. I guess they didn't have enough content ready to merit sticking to the original date.