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It been #1since 1988 where at the time it was 13 shows. You might wanna look at it in a different way.

I agree with you MediaZone, the set is a bit dated now at this point having been in use since 2012. The studio can certainly use some updates, but we have to remember how horrible their set always was even before they moved to the street studio in 2012. So I still think 'Abysmal' is a bit harsh, to say the least. They are the only station in New York to have a street studio which to me beats any other station in NY. That alone is quite amazing. Their current streetside studio, despite now being just over 10 years old, is still country MILES away better than what they had before. Their previous studio was also cramped, small, and (even burned down) only to be rebuilt again. The issues you pointed out with the camera and graininess are quite possibly rooted in two things: 1. They are still on 720p (two steps below 4K), so they are not able to get the best picture quality because for some reason ABC and Disney opted for 720p during the HD rollout of the late 2000s rather than 1080i which allows for better lighting and picture quality. Most people won't notice the difference between 720 progressive and 1080 interlace, but 1080 is still more pixels and thus better quality. I'm not sure if ABC will ever upgrade to 1080i but that is certainly a limiting factor. 2. I do agree with you that WABC's set/studio lighting has never been optimal. It's always been just fair. They've always had issues with lighting and contrast. One thing they could do that is cost-effective is simply invest more in their lighting to squeeze more life out of the current studio till they move downtown later in the decade. It would certainly add more life to their aging set. Overall, I think WABC has come a very long way with its on-air appearance. It's taken them up until now really to get it right. With a couple of tweaks to the lighting and cameras, they can easily enhance their studio's look. And right now with the new group package, it's possibly the best look they've ever had. At the time it was pretty dated and antiquated and arguably the worst in the market. I don't think their current set is all that bad, is it on par with the rest of the O&Os, I think it is actually. All the other O&Os have newer updated sets so naturally they are more modern but WABC's new studio is on the horizon with the big move for ABC downtown so I'm willing to bet they will exceed our expectations when they move down there. I hope they go with a nice futuristic "White and Blue" look similar to CBS, rather than the dark blue hues we commonly associate them with. Would be a refreshing more modern look for them.

*Byron Allen has entered the chat*

"This is what I mean." We know what the set looks like. Screenshots don't prove your point.

No idea about ratings, but Lyons is a stabilizer. WBBM is competently-staffed, and puts out a quality, if little-watched product. As a viewer and news junkie, that's as important as building the ratings. As for WGN, they didn't miss a beat. They're in the WLS club of Don't Actively F#ck It Up & You'll Do Great.

I have been a fan of Skilling since I was young. He is a true legend in Chicago. I will miss his weather reports. Good news is he doesn't plan to go away completely and is not leaving Chicago. Here is Skilling's sign off. Here is Micah's interview with Skilling. Beautifully done.

End of an era. Growing up watching Tom constantly over the past 30 years, it's hard to believe this day has finally come. Enjoy retirement, Tom! Side note: During the 6pm hour today, they talked about the fact that the parts of the 2005 Nicolas Cage movie The Weatherman was filmed on the WGN News set in 2004, with Tom serving as Assistant Director / advisor behind the scenes. https://wgntv.com/celebratingskilling/the-making-of-the-weatherman-with-tom-skilling/ Ironically, the movie was filed on WGN's old set in May 2004, but they were on their new 2005 set by the time the movie finally released. Does anyone know if WGN had to make any special arrangements for their actual newscasts while the movie filmed in their studio? Or was the long break between the Noon newscast and the 9pm newscast back then a long enough gap to do all of the movie filming without disruption to their actual newscasts?

What a lovely piece on Tom with Micah. Glad to hear Tom isn’t leaving Chicago and will continue with WGN for special projects. Enjoy retirement Tom! You’ll be missed!

This. Houston is a great example where the CBS affiliate historically struggled behind ABC and NBC stations until Oprah bolstered them into a competitive and then (although brief) a market leader. WFAA's lead in Dallas started to slip when Oprah ended her show. Outside of that, it was always puzzling to me why CBS News and CBS stations generally performed so badly despite having the dominating entertainment division.

Posting here because of the talk about what CBS should do. The Young and the Restless has been renewed through 2028: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/the-young-and-the-restless-renewed-cbs-1235924102/

I was thinking the same. Pair Dana and Cindy at noon! Cindy anchored the noon newscast for a long time in the late ‘90s-mid ‘00s. Dana anchored at noon in the mid-‘90s. How nice would it be to pair them up? Also, Chris and Mary do not even co-anchor at noon anymore. Instead, they rotate each day. Not having a fixed anchor makes the newscast feel like an afterthought. Chris and Mary are also co-anchoring the 7am streaming newscast, and Chris anchors a streaming hour at 8am. It feels like a lot. Why not break it up with a few other anchors?

So sorry to hear the news about Dana Tyler and Dick Brennan, especially Dana, given her tenure at the anchor desk. She survived a lot of format and management changes over the years and has been an evening anchor for over 30 years! Also, how boring to have Maurice and Kristine at 6. It was weird to have Dana and Dick there only for a half hour at 6, but better than the same anchors from 5-6:30. Bad decision in my opinion.

Thank you for articulating that respectfully. Everyone is entitled to express their opinions, the key is doing so politely and not being a keyboard warrior, unlike 24994J who consistently disrespects users on these boards despite being a moderator.

It's the 11pm newscast based on the tease from earlier in the video. Also, this is likely the second night of "News 4 New York." Research from old newspaper clippings and ads placed the first "News 4 New York" on Monday, September 29. Sue would be moved off of 6pm a few weeks later to "Live at Five."

Two things I'd like to say: --First, a question: was this an evening edition (6 P.M.) or a late one (11 P.M.)? --Second, an observation: I noticed that there was no announcer on this apparent maiden voyage of News 4 New York.

Interesting hypothesis- and it makes sense. Of the stations I identified, the only one that has a single O&O to compete against is WCCO (KMSP is Fox O&O).

Well it seems that KTTV doesn’t do as well as they have no morning weekend news at all. This only happens when it’s not worth competing with other stations. It seems that CBS O&Os do better in markets where there are non owned and operated stations to compete with. WJZ in Baltimore does very well ratings wise there as WMAR has been in last place since the 1960s and WBFF Fox has opinionated news stories from Sinclair. Only WBAL TV NBC from Hearst directly competes with WJZ for #1 in the Baltimore DMA.

Terrible move, yet again by CBS 2. Ugh.

WJZ Eyewitness News December 31 1987, The passing of Jerry Turner.

Ah yes, your daily dose of condescension and talking to people any way you want in these threds. . "We?" Speak for yourself. IMO This picture is a perfect illustration of poor grainy lighting compared to the more brightly lit, slicker looking appearence of Mornings on 10. Poor lighting compared to the sets of the competition even.

WGN doing a beautiful job with Skilling's last show.... Unveiled the "Tom Skilling Weather Center", Mark Suppelsa, Dan Roan, Steve Sanders, and a ton more filling the weather center right now along with Skilling's family. And of course, Skilling has to introduce and tell a story about everyone in the room.

KDKA, WJZ, WCCO come to mind. Does anyone have a pulse on WBZ or KTVT? I agree with your previous hypothesis that the CBS O&O format might have some merit. Does not help that Evening News and Mornings do not provide much of a support to any of the CBS affiliates.

I don’t think CBS is gonna add a midday newscast anytime soon. Looks like they are doing more recorded hours on CBS News Streaming. If anything I can see them adding to streaming before broadcast network. Even then do a simulcast like NBC

Admittedly Dana isn't the strongest anchor these days (when solo) but this isn't is a solution at all. Maybe it's just me but don't viewers get tired of seeing the same faces on every newscast? That's Maurice and Christine at 5,6, (8 on WLNY?) and 11. I'd think you would want a veteran like Dana Tyler up against Chuck Scarborough and Bill Ritter in the same slot. Dick is great on air and deserves an anchor spot wether it's with Alice or Dana. If ratings ate behind this, Dana and Dick aren't the problem the dry CBS o&o format is. Devil's advocate, maybe this is for the better. There was pushback when Dana and Jim Rosenfield were booted from the 11 in favor of Maurice and Christine, but ratings improved. So we'll see.

So this must be part of the 'big changes' Andrea teased the bosses were making. Such a shame to move Dana (and Dick too) off that desk, these bosses ought to be ashamed of themeselves. This seems reminiscent of when Bill Carey re-assigned Kaity and Jim, or when Sue Simmons was forced out at WNBC. Terrible moves this week overall. I think these changes will alienate lots of WCBS viewers. But I would think if they are making these changes, ratings must not be good.

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.

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

The first few minutes of WNBC News 4 New York from September 30, 1980 (12:37): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5inuKzOHTEU&t=758s At this time they just started using that name/music/set but I don't think I've ever seen that WNBC logo.

Trying to justify the purchase of what was an HD-era experimental channel otherwise bound for HC2 irrelevancy. The entire WHDT purchase made no sense from the start at all; sure, you get an overflow station, but what else can you do with that station outside guaranteeing full coverage for your subnets? The CW isn't moving, you've got WFLX and Fox already via sidecar, and the Ion flagship is just as sidecarred. I wouldn't be surprised if the purchase came with a Mar-a-Lago membership a la WLNY.

I graduated high school in 1988. And I’m freaking old as dirt. What I did back them matters not a bit, nor does the fact that back then it was a big fish in a bigger pond. Sorry, it’s 2024, and being “number one” among three surviving and limping contenders is hardly trophy worthy. CBS could plop a polka music show on its schedule a guaranteed it will be number one in the category of broadcast polka music shows. Im looking at what matters: sellable audience eyeballs. If CBS can make enough bucks to wring some more life out of an ancient cast and recycled plots, props to them. But can we acknowledge that model is much closer to its end than its beginning? The world moves on, and no advertiser or media buyer is looking at what happened in the Regan administration era to place ad buys today.

Y&R is in terrible shape writing and aesthetic wise but it still pulls an -old- audience and shockingly remains #1 against other soaps. Nostalgia has to be the reason because quality certainly isn't. Despite one of the better performing daytime shows being renewed for 4 years I'm suprised there's still talk about if CBS will put a newscast in the slot. Is CBS is rushing to add midday news as its national product (even the o&o local version) isnt a top performer outside of 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning? Younger demo maybe?

B&C states that WCBS is making a big change to its 6pm broadcast. Dana Tyler & Dick Brennan will depart from their 6pm anchor roles at the end of March. Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson (who anchors the 5 & 11) will take over the 6pm duties.

What a horrible turn of events for Newshub and for New Zealanders. WBD has already been making cuts to its NZ division, but to close the entire newsroom is diabolical. A lot of good people are going to be out of work, and most importantly, it’s a disaster for New Zealand. TVNZ (the state-owned “public” broadcaster that operates more like a commercial channel in practice) is going to have a monopoly on TV news. What a joke. I don’t know of too many healthy democracies with a lack of media diversity. You can’t adequately scrutinize people in power when there’s only one, state-owned outlet available to do it. I’m hoping there’s a way to save Newshub before June, but I wouldn’t bet on it.