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Are you the demo for The Talk? My hunch is no.

First there has to be an actual show, before anything is planned. Keep that skepticism handy until the show is ordered to series for CBS. Things have ways of winding up dead, on another platform or morphed into a very different form. It’s amusing however, to see how bent out of shape people get about The Talk.

The more I think about Dana getting demoted, the more it annoys me. I get if there are budget cuts to make, but to make her a fill-in anchor is such a classless move when she’s nearing the end of her career. If you want her off evenings, fine. However, why not just make her the official noon anchor at this point instead of having it rotate between Chris and Mary. Give that newscast some stability, similar to how ABC 7 has Sandra Bookman on at noon. Lighten their workload, give Dana her own newscast, and then if she has to fill in for the evening newscast it doesn’t appear as insulting, because we know she’s already there in the studio for the noon newscast. Just a thought. Or, they could also have her and Cindy do 9am and Noon so there could be some conversation, similar to how ABC 7 does their 10am show. Dana, Cindy, and John is a great pairing in my eyes at least. Plus it pairs up to two longest-tenured anchors, and they’re friends, so the chemistry is already there.

EDIT: The NY Post article says "stepping down" which suggests Dana Tyler's move is voluntary. However, Andrea Grymes was just removed as weekend morning co-anchor and posted on IG: "The CBS bosses are making some changes, and that includes a new co-anchor for Doug." That being said, I'm skeptical about how voluntary Dana's reduction to fill in is. Next Tv says Dick Brennan will return to reporting, I also doubt that was voluntary: https://www.nexttv.com/news/wcbs-new-york-changes-6-pm-team Is there anywhere to find accurate updated ratings for NYC?

Another thought could be CBS & the Bell family expanding B&B to 1 hour, and The Gates be a half-hour soap. It'll be interesting to see what CBS might be planning.

I think they'd want to sandwich The Gates between Y&R and B&B, so it gains the carryover audeince from Young, and people won't change the channel to stick around for Bold. It has been argued that Bold maintained the #2 position for so long because it follows Y&R in eastern time markets. The Talk has just become a cookie cutter pc opinion show that CBS also uses to promote it's other products. In the beginning, it was a better alternative to the over politicized "The View", but the show also fell off in quality. IMO "The Real" ended up being better than both shows.

Can you please do the fellow posters/readers a favor and give us full names? Not all of us have total recall.

Big news from the Big Apple: after nearly 34 years as an anchor at WCBS-TV, Dana Tyler is leaving the desk at the end of March. But she will be staying on as a special correspondent, of sorts. In actuality, both she and co-anchor Dick Brennan are being moved off the 6:00 PM show in favor of the station's lead anchor team of Kristine Johnson and Maurice DuBois, who will now anchor all of WCBS-TV's evening newscasts. What role Brennan will have at CBS New York after the move is not yet known.

I hope it replaces The Talk; I hated that show ever since. I had a vision of what the lineup would look like. 10AM (ET) - LMAD 11AM (ET) - The Price is Right 12PM - Local News 12:30PM - Y&R 1:30PM - B&B 2PM - The Gates In case you forgotten, CBS pulled the plug on two legendary soaps (GL & AWTW) in '09 and '10. And for game show fans like me, in case you might remember CBS did a pilot for ($1,000,000) Pyramid in '09, but it was passed up... twice!

Your crystal ball needs adjusting.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in WBDland.... Warner Bros. Discovery to Overhaul TruTV With Sports; Sets Nightly Block for Games and More TruTV isn't the only "zombie" WBD needs to deal with...

Splitting off this thread was long overdue

I can imagine The Daytime Emmys in 2026 with cast members of The Gates being nominated for Daytime Emmys

Sorry to see Molly Grantham abruptly depart WBTV, as she was apparently forced out the door after she declined to renew her contract which expires at the end of the month. Rather than allowing her honorably finish 20 years of service, she was abruptly kicked to the curb wih no appropriate farewell or final broadcast. I would speculate Gray TV offered her an unsatisfactory contract, but whatever the case it is a shame to see her treated so disrespectfully. I hope to see her join WSOC or some other station if she so chooses and a contract is offered. WBTV continues to lose longtime legacy talent, incuding Paul Cameron, Maureen O'Boyle, Eric Thomas, Steve Ohnesorge, David Whisnant, and Steve Crump. Losing heritage credentials and class act reputation. More inclined to watch WSOC.

Randy Shaver is calling it quits in June after 40+ Years at KARE11. Moved to the anchor desk years ago, but still maintained his Prep Sports Extra- Did a lot to promote High School Athletics in Minnesota! https://www.kare11.com/article/about-us/randy-shaver-retirement/89-81c4fadd-702c-4d15-a6f8-6d4083c817d8

To piggyback on this: I assume that all of the posters here are men, just as I am. Y'all/We aren't even in the main demographic age-wise or gender-wise for The Young and the Restless or The Talk, and most of you probably don't watch either show. I don't watch either, either. So, to say that Y&R and/or The Talk should be cut in half or altogether canceled outright is short-sighted and silly. Especially as both shows still make money for the network even if viewership levels aren't what they were at each show's peak. With that said, I will be surprised if this proposed soap makes it beyond the developmental stage, let alone to CBS. And if it does, it's a prime candidate for streaming. (I was going to say BET, but who knows if it'll be owned by Paramount Global a year from now.)

As an elder millennial who spent more than a decade in the business, burned out, and quit without a plan, solving this problem is a complex puzzle—and to be quite honest, I don't think there is a simple fix if there is one at all. Some key points from my experience... 1. The business expects people to treat it as a lifestyle, not a job. People coming out of college recently have (SMARTLY!) refused to accept this, which leads to potential broadcast journalists not entering the field. And those who do enter still have their priorities in the correct place of needing balance. Just as an anecdote, in late 2016, when it appeared the minimum salary to be exempt (salaried) under Fair Labor Standards Act regulations was going to go up, producers where I worked at the time were switched from salary to hourly pay. They were upset they would get overtime pay for working over 40 hours a week instead of getting a comp day for an extra day or double shift. 2. The quality of life is crap, and the have/have not with desirable schedules is ugly in a 24/7 business. People would weaponize incompetence themselves into roles where they had maximum supervision but desirable schedules rather than advance into roles where they could be trusted with less management intervention. Drive and ambition lead to a lower quality of life, and if you say "yes" too much to management's requests to work a shift that isn't normal for you or an extra day - you'll get guilted if you stand up for yourself when you need to prioritize your life over work. Refuse to help, and you'll get left alone. 3. Every role in the newsroom is doing more with less, and every added platform needs your full attention and dedication - even if it is of minimal value to the operation. Does TikTok generate revenue? No. But it still matters for some reason. 4. The industry is delusional about its prestige and standing in 2024. Companies are still convinced there are 1994 levels of job applicants and still try to sign employees to employment agreements with MASSIVE financial penalties should they resign or quit—even if they leave the industry. Those tactics drive people away before they even start. 5. There's no delicate way to say this, but the only way to survive in TV news as you start your career - is to have financial support. Even as companies have pushed minimum salaries higher - they still aren't matching the escalating cost of living. This leads to newsrooms full of people from privileged backgrounds who don't understand what matters to the audience members living paycheck to paycheck. An anchor once told me the only place they got recognized was at Walmart or K-Mart, and smartly reminded our team we must keep that in mind as we decide what we will cover. 6. COVID-19 opened a lot of eyes and accelerated the brain drain. The people who got to work from home realized a higher quality of life was possible and were inspired to find their next career because of it. Many people who were forced to come into the station or work in the field during lockdowns felt like bosses considered their health and safety less important than the people who got to stay home. They got (very understandably) frustrated and left. The list could go on and on... But those are the big factors in my mind.

this is why think reporters should get a *separate* friends only social media where they can post almost whatever they want. Keep your public profile clean and brand related. EDIT: and block your job from seeing your IG story, maybe even block them totally if you can.

Its a few things. The ABC's have always been better run operations. WCBS has been a shuffle of management in addition to talent. And yes, pay. WCBS starts GA reporters at around 150-170K. WABC 180K-200K.

Agreed. In hearing from reporters, constant turnover usually equals unimpressive pay, a toxic work environment, or burnout from being overworked. WABC appears to have the most reporters with a 20+ year tenure. They must have great pay and a decent working culture.

I was just wondering if this was a part of paramount global cuts? I know their cutting and firing people all across the organization. They should have let Dana bow out gracefully than throwing a bone and give her. Any changes that needed to be made would be the morning team. Chris and Mary are bland. Yes they are good anchors but bland for a morning news team.

This is honestly devastating news to hear. I know linear television is in decline, but this is how you start turning off those viewers who you do have left. I’ve recently been thinking about how the NYC TV news market has evolved over the last three decades. What I thought was interesting is that WCBS went from being the most unstable operation to the most stable (at least in terms of the anchor desk). Not a single weekday change occurred from when Chris replaced Rob in mornings in 2013 until 2019 when Alex Denis left and John Elliott was moved to weekends. Even then, until John came back to weekdays, the stability was incredible— with the only anchor change being to add Dick at 6 and bring Cindy back to weekdays. (Speaking exclusively about WCBS weekdays— weekends and WLNY went through a lot of evolutions during this period.) The problem with the WCBS operation is not the anchors— the anchors are familiar faces now. It is the massive churn of reporters. Part of the reason why WABC thrives is because their reporters don’t spend a few years at the station on the way to something else. Dana is the soul of WCBS. The station neglected and diminished her for the last decade, but she has been the constant. Maurice and Kristine are great anchors, I cannot take that away from them. They do not come off as people who really like each other much (Kristine would much rather be back next to Wragge), but they are good anchors. But we don’t need more of them. Dick has been a solid contributor since he joined WCBS. He also deserves a prominent role at the station. For a while now I’ve wondered why WCBS is wasting talent that they have. I think Cindy is probably the single best anchor they have— she has a way of striking the right tone that Chris and Mary just don’t. Why does she only do 30 minutes on linear daily? Why does she not coanchor the noon newscast — a newscast that was hers for 15 years— with her friend Dana? I also think Natalie Duddridge is under-utilized (she has grown significantly the last few years and is a very good fill in anchor). At the same time, I think Doug Williams is overrated (he lacks the charisma of his father and is awkward with reporters and coanchors). Regardless, he won’t be at WCBS for long, just like his father wasn’t. I also, contrary to many in this forum, find Alice to be bland and boring and I also think Jessica is fine on weekends but could never be a weekday talent. Let’s also acknowledge the industry might be moving in the direction of less anchors doing more newscasts, but this city isn’t. WCBS is returning to a period of four weekday anchors (plus Cindy at 9, but since she is underutilized, it is essentially four)— reminiscent of 2003 when Cindy/Michael did AM/noon and Dana/Ernie did 4:30-6:30 and 11. Back then, the station produced 5 hours of daily news; currently the station produces 8 + the half hour Atlanta newscast. Meanwhile, PIX just expanded to a fourth evening anchor, WNYW just moved a morning anchor to have a third in the evening, and depending on how you count, WABC has more than seven anchors for 7.5 hours of daily newscasts. Dana has been on the weekday anchor desk since 1992? 1993? More than 30 years. She has been on from 6-6:30 at WCBS for more than 25 continuous years— since I believe 1999 (for a few years post-massacre she was moved to 5pm). And this is a horrible and cruel way to work her out the door. “Fill in anchor.” Yeah, we will see her do that a half dozen times before her contract isn’t renewed and she is pushed out of the station. Just want to put a few stats out there before I close: Dana is the longest ever anchor at WCBS (nearly 34 years total, 30+ years weekday — Jim Jensen spent 31 years at the station and was a weekday anchor for 29) Kristine is the longest serving 11pm anchor at WCBS (Kristine is currently at 16+ years; Michele had about 14.) Kristine and Maurice are the longest ever anchor pair at WCBS (13 years; previously Jensen and Rolland Smith spent 12 years together) But you know, this was always the most likely outcome at this station. Look at the way they treated other station icons like Jim Jensen and Michele Marsh. I genuinely thought Johnny/Sarah were an improvement over Peter/David. Doesn’t look that way now. It is a cruel business, but it doesn’t have to be like this.

I personally don't have a problem with The Talk. It's a fine show, and IMO, it's much better than its competitor The View. I don't see why there's so much hate for it. But in terms of CBS possibly launching a new soap opera, it's not a good idea. At least in my opinion. And if they are, they should take a page out of NBC's book and stream it on Paramount+. That doesn't sound terrible. Let the affiliates keep their hour or two, axe The Talk and expand B&B to an hour.