wabceyewitness

WABC took the rare step Wednesday of pushing back by 13 minutes the start of Jimmy Kimmel so they could stay on the air until the Mets won the NLCS Penant to advance to the World Series. The 11pm team ad libbed for about 5 minutes starting at 11:34 until the Mets officially won at 11:39. Eyewitness News stayed on air until 11:48 covering the reaction in throughout the city and in Chicago. Jimmy Kimmel aired in full once the news signed off.

That was such an awful promo especially given the fact that Channel 2 soon replaced John Bolaris with a Sam Champion look-alike.

Darla Miles was on air this morning.

Actually it did air on television and that behind the scenes farewell video is a longer version of the farewell video shown on air. The anchors singing, of course,was not in the actual promo but the words and tune certainly were and so were the start/end clips of the real promo shown in the tribute video. I've included them in this post. Also, if you search through this forum, you'll find posts from 2007 talking about it.

Also the "he is Sam Champion.." to the tune of Queen's "We Are The Champions".

Not outrageous just a different style of writing for a network evening newscast. For example, on CBS or even back when Peter Jennings anchored, you might hear a story reported this way by the anchor: "The weather in California is also making news tonight as wildfires spread deeper into residential areas. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the infernos and several thousand more are in danger. The biggest damage has been done in the city of Santa Clarita and that's where ABC's Pierre Thomas filed this report." Today, the anchor would say: "And tonight in California, hundreds of homes lost. Thousands more so close to those raging wild fires. The town of Santa Clarita hit hardest and ABC's Pierre Thomas in the middle of it all." More to the point - dropping a lot of articles of speech and verbs - and reported in a more urgent bulletin-type of tone.

Good. They have their work cut out for them now that Lester Holt is in command at NBC.

Awesome update! It looks like they are trying to be a serious worldly newscast again - let's hope the content matches the look. And I would love if they brought back the original music or updated it slightly - it would compliment these graphics so well.

Here's something you don't see every day: one local station advertising programming on a competing local station. In this case, WABC telling viewers they can catch Monday night's Jets game on PIX11. The game is an ESPN Monday Night Football game so must air on a local channel in the teams' home markets. PIX11 carries the local MNF games through a deal worked out with WABC and ESPN.

Wow that looks cheap and awful.

I'm really loving the new programming promo graphics that WABC has adopted (the ones showcasing upcoming episodes of Live, Rachael Ray, Jeopardy, etc.). I wish the news graphics would be upgraded to something a little more modern and similar to the programming graphics.

As usual, the Tuned In post offers no solid information.. Just what an unnamed "source" *thinks* might be happening.

Most likely NBC bought local ad time on your local cable operator. Cable stations give time to providers like TWC, Fios, etc to sell local ads.

They showed promos for it yesterday. Regular weekend evening team. Curious to see if it takes on the feel of the weekday 5 o'clock news and what they'll fill it with. I'm guess some extra time for sports and some more packages from the network, similar to when the weekend 11pm went to a full hour.

Have met and had the opportunity to work with him a number of times. Couldn't be further from the truth.

So far, I can't find any updated listings for WABC. We know that FAB Life will air 2pm but where does that leave Millionaire and second run "Daytime Jeopardy"? In Chicago, FAB Life is bumping "Rachael Ray" to overnights on WLS. In Philadelphia, it's bumping "Millionaire" to overnights on WPVI and canceling "Daytime Jeopardy". KABC is also dropping the second run of "Jeopardy" and moving "Millionaire" to overnights.

Much nicer!!

The networks used to do it that way but then research showed that viewers want to know what's ahead and teasing stories would actually make more viewers stay tuned in rather than tuning out if they weren't interested in the lead stories. If just starting the newscast with solid news that matters kept the average viewer watching, then that's what would be happening all across the TV news landscape.

Agreed. This is a last ditch effort. If THIS doesn't work then they must cancel and just give GMA a third hour detached from the main show. Low cost and will do fine in the ratings.

Noticed that during the GMA Eyewirness News Briefs, WABC now uses a rotating ABC7 / Good Morning America bug.

She has been on a few days here and there the last two weeks or so.

I'm guess Daytime Jeopardy is done. I wonder where Millionaire will move - back to 12:30 and cut the noon news back to 30 minutes?

Yes. Bill was brought on to takeover for Bill Beutel and left the weekends once Beutel stepped down from the 11pm anchor chair. Lee got bumped up to weekdays when ABC News made the surprise move of offering Sam Champion a new position as weather editor and Good Morning America weather anchor. Sandra has been on weekends since the late 90s.

Not to mention the fact that the average viewer calls them Channel 7 .. Not ABC7. They tried ABC7 Eyewitness News back in 1999 and switched back to Channel 7 a few years later after realizing ABC7 was not catching on. Now to refer to their web/social media presence as just ABC7NY is confusing for not only the average viewer. It even to those who know the ins and outs of TV news. They had a great brand in the 7online name. They should've just tried to make their social media names 7online to keep everything consistent and familiar.

Here's more information about Lori's father and his illness. http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2015/07/louis_stokes_diagnosed_with_lu.html As for Diana, seems like she will be out for the foreseeable future. She is living in an Maryland apartment provided to her and her husband by Walter Reed Medical Center which arranges housing for caregivers of wounded warriors.