TSSZNews

Aesthetically, it's the nicest set they've had since...well, the last Washington set. I wish it didn't give such a CNN / FOX O&O feel, but that's sort of to be expected with the new EP coming from the Situation Room. I hope they find good use for those floor panels. Visually, it's the most polished look since the Couric era. They really could have put their money where their mouth is and led with politics tonight if that's the whole reason to set up shop there. A little disappointed it was weather instead.

That's the big problem with the show moving to Washington, though--does the American public really want even the perception of another newscast focused on politics when there are so many dedicated to the cause, and so many speaking to any number of different politically-minded choirs? I'm not saying leading with weather every night is the way forward, either. There's room for one of the national newscasts to do in-depth reporting every night, CBS would fit the bill like a glove, and they used to do it during the Pelley era. Even something akin to CBC's current format of The National where it's not a clean introduction of the news of the day, but rather an analytical approach to the news with investigative reporting sprinkled in, would work. Instead, they're trying to copy ABC and it shows.

The whole thing's kind of all over the place -- the open screams Linear Drift, the lower-thirds feel like RenderOn, and I see some hints of the last-gen Access Hollywood look later in the show. Their headline bed is a library track from NSM and if you were jamming to the opening to Telemundo like I was, I have good news.

In another universe, it is! Nice look--if it indeed was in-house, well done. Hope it makes its way to other stations in the group.

Is....is that SCOTT CHAPIN???

Even more interesting on that KJRH tape - there's a cut of Finale used in one of the weather promos.

Interesting time to experiment given we're at the November book...

It's weird because the previous FTN studio was perfectly serviceable for the Evening News and was only a year or so old - and IIRC Norah anchored EN from there a couple times and it looked really good. An 11PM or otherwise late national news won't work - too many are in bed by that hour and it would probably need to be "edgy" to have a snowball's chance. What I do think would work is someone expanding their evening newscast to an hour each night, so there's more opportunity to produce and air stories with depth and not try to jam everything most of the public already knows into 90 second packages--basically put on a watered down 60 Minutes, but every night. That's basically what Scott Pelley's Evening News was, and even in a 30 minute slot it was excellent. As the syndication market falters and more programming's coming in-house, I wonder what network would have the guts to try it. CBS, honestly, is a prime candidate. Their syndie arm just dropped the Insider and while Inside Edition filled the hole in a lot of markets, that time could absolutely be spent putting better content on the air. I bet plenty of station groups would love to not have to pay for another half-hour of programming for their stations.

Kinda wonder if ViacomCBS would buy MediaWorks out - it would be an excellent complement to TEN in Australia and it absolutely makes sense to do in this "bigger is better" world of scale.

Based on the reactions to this-- I cannot wait for the shitstorm to ensue when WNEP picks up the Tegna theme.

Careful what you wish for...

KTVU may want to have a word re: the ratings, but that aside, SVN definitely ranks up there and absolutely is the model almost everything we know about FOX today is based off of - from FOX News Channel, to sports, to a lot of the older O&Os even. You could even say that about HDH to an extent--and they're still pulling in great numbers in Boston without a network affiliation. I suspect the Ansin family will sell when Ed dies and it will be to FOX - both in Miami and Boston. Would be really interesting to see if they're handled with kid gloves as an O&O.

Are we sure Novocom didn't...you know, do that look for WESH?

Looks like KYW commissioned some updates to Enforcer...

Only now that they can't buy Trib.

On a more serious note - likely the only reason it's GMA-branded is because ABC sees some value in the brand now, given the parent program's #1 rating in HHs during the morning--and their recent demo wins. I like the Crew name too, but this looks like ABC trying to build GMA into a more fluid, all-hours brand like Today.

Personally I was hoping for a rename to GMA3: Return of the Jedi. We also would've accepted GMA3: G With a Vengeance.

The 10PM news on PHL 17 just crashed into commercial - video wall wasn't working and they cut everything to black a few seconds after... --They came back like nothing happened. Though the wall is from a different daypart and not moving. Was hoping they had a textured blue background on standby like WLS!

That was pretty close to a look KYW had...in 2002.

That ain’t a knock-off. It’s the real deal from the FTS Graphics Hub. Also not the first time they’ve helped out a non-O&O either. Though what they did have before was definitely serviceable for that market.

I always suspected it would be the FTN set - barring staffing it makes you wonder why they didn't launch right from DC out of the gate. Given the short tenure of Jeff Glor vs. the expectations set for Norah, months and even weeks do matter here.

So FOX 29 was knocked off the air Saturday AM for several hours because of a power outage / underground fire right near their studios. They've been doing the news from the streetside studio ever since. Wonder if their videowall-heavy studio got damaged from some kind of power surge?

More and more companies are producing web-exclusive content. There are less and less sources of ad revenue online unless you want to become a video portal, which I suspect a market like Fargo can't support. Forum wants to be paid for the content they create, and I can't totally blame them. I think you'll see a point soon where some of the online-only newscasts become paywall'd--and so many are now used to receiving content for free that it's going to be a PAINFUL adjustment on both ends. The ones that are providing free content are hanging on by a thread. There will need to be a way to directly monetize it all, or you'll soon see no content of value at all on the Internet. The letter in the FTVLive piece tells me Scott may have jumped the gun on the TV website itself being paywall'd (guessing it'll be INFORUM.com first), but if they indeed go through with it, it'll be a noble, if not necessary experiment to see if some of these small market stations not owned by Sinclair or Nexstar can stay afloat.

Honestly, that second VH knock off is pretty decent.

It's a great subnet - but it heavily relied on the CBS library for content, and even though the release indicates they'll still air programming from that library, I do wonder if that'll change--or we'll see more classic 20th Century FOX programming in the mix. Probably overthinking since Disney owns a lot of that library now though.