Spring Rubber

I like these graphics better than their standard graphics, I think. Makes me miss the 2014-2017 set, which I strongly preferred to their current set.

For the Midday News, they're going with a double-box setup with the two anchors. They're both still in the studio but are being shown with a double box instead of a wideshot.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, Instant Replay has been shelved in favor of more news. Also, Jackie and Tahman are distancing themselves in the studio, and Mike is doing the weather from a chroma key with a relatively low-res camera elsewhere in the building.

Looks like sadly, the Chicago Fire telecasts are not produced by WGN-TV; they are instead produced by the team and/or ESPN. The graphics are ESPN's 2014 graphics package, and the mic flags display the logo of Chicago Fire FC. They keep saying, "Thank you for joining us on WGN and ESPN+" throughout the broadcast. There's no presence of WGN Sports branding anywhere on the telecast. Yeah, I'm disappointed.

Looks like the outro of the WGN News at Ten has been removed and replaced by a teaser for GN Sports. They now do a wideshot of the desk, throw Micah's Bu-Bye graphic up on the video wall, pan out to reveal Dan and Jarrett sitting at the GN Sports desk, and then toss to Dan and Jarrett to do a full teaser for GN Sports leading into break. The Nexstar copyright graphic is also gone from the 10pm news; guess they're just looping it in with the copyright notice that appears at the end of GN Sports, just like they did for ages on Sunday nights where only Instant Replay, not the 9pm newscast, had a copyright notice.

It definitely puts them in a pinch losing Steve Sanders and Tom Negovan on the same day. Until the replacements are hired, I'm expecting to see Sean Lewis and Patrick Elwood getting a lot of time behind the anchor desk, and possibly several female+female pairings when extra fill-ins are needed. Heaving Dina Bair and Jackie Bange this past Saturday was quite unexpected.

Yep, Feder confirmed Negovan's departure effective Feb 28th. No word on where he's going next. https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/03/04/robservations-ratings-deliver-gratifying-victory-univision-chicagos-wojo/#more-24721

Speaking of which, Sean Lewis also was the election results reporter in studio tonight. I feel like that's normally a role for Tom Negovan if he were still around.

I've noticed that under Nexstar, they seem to always have a sub on the weekend evening newscasts when one of the anchors is out. They even have Dina Bair anchoring the 5, 9, and 10pm tonight with Jackie. Under Tribune, tonight definitely would have been Jackie solo.

All the best to Skilling. I didn't think they usually did gastric bypass surgery to patients above age 60 due to increased risk, so it's a bit scary. Hope all goes well.

Ok, that might explain it. I didn't bother to tune in until 9:30pm to catch the weather.

So uhhh, you know how Feder and others called out CBS 2 for not doing a sports segment on Tuesday's 10pm show? WGN just took a page out of their book and didn't do a sports segment on tonight's 9pm show. They instead opted for a very long Black History Month long-form piece during the usual sports segment. I didn't see the first half of the news before 9:30pm, so idk if they did an early sports segment, but I've never known them to do such a thing in lieu of having sports at the usual time.

With both Dan and Jarrett out tonight, Lauren is finally on GN Sports with Josh tonight.

I wonder if Nexstar requires the job to be posted to the public? I know some corporations post all jobs in the same way for internal and external candidates, even if they do plan on promoting/hiring from within.

Lauren did the 5-7 block of sports in studio. Come to think of it, there were several times prior to GN Sports debut where they aired the Dan Roan bumper on a Friday even though Lauren or somebody else was doing sports. Did they stop using the special Friday bumpers for some reason? Maybe somebody new took over in production that doesn't even realize they have special Friday bumpers with Lauren in them.

They just ran a Dan Roan talent bumper, which is odd for a Friday, but hey, maybe he'll be on tonight with the Spring Training report?

Any idea what this segment is about?

Hmmm, somebody was listening. This week, they've added the WGN News signature to the beginning and the end of the opener.

They were referred to as "football" graphics, so my initial inclination is yes, but then again, ESPN uses a completely different package for college football, so...

I'll have to try to pay attention next week. I haven't been watching the full hours of each newscast to catch if there was a talent open. Do you remember which block they air the talent opens during? I feel like it's either near :08 or :38, but I can't remember.

Has Dan permanently been removed from the 5pm and 6pm news? Even on the nights Dan is working, it seems to be a rotating cast of characters on those newscasts while Dan is only appearing at 9pm and on GN Sports.

Night 8 of GN Sports, and now both Dan and Jarrett are off. Wow.

Right, on no normal newscast or sports program do you see a host move over when someone is off. An anchor always maintains their side of the desk while the fill-in takes the seat of whoever is off. It's strange to see Jarrett be moved over to the right in Dan's absence.

That didn't take long. Day 6 of GN Sports, and Dan Roan is already off. Josh Frydman is filling in. Yesterday's show was the only show with Dan and Jarrett in studio together, as Jarrett was in Miami for the Super Bowl all last week.

I'm with you on the "none of this feels like Fox" thing. I think what makes it worse is how rarely Fox uses their own music anymore. The broadcasts feel very generic and unbranded. The graphics don't scream "Fox". The production and pop music doesn't scream "Fox". It's all quite generic.