wabceyewitness

A lot of different stories and pieces of information out there in this. What we do know is she was initially offered a buyout in 2008 and refused. Sometime after that, she signed a new three year deal set to expire in 2012 and it was made clear then that it would be the last contract WNBC would offer her. She hoped WNBC would change their mind along the way but in the final year if the contract when no renewal talks were offered, she began telling close friends it was her last year at NBC. She was being paid upwards of $2 million a year (some estimates say $5 million) and, in her final year, was anchoring just one 30 minute broadcast. Some reports say she seemed to have lost interest in the job, started phoning it in and NBC execs were not thrilled. Other reports say it’s just a classic case of a woman not being able to age gracefully on television. As we can see, her coanchor of the same age is still with the station in a high profile role.

It’s basically the isolation cam… used when an anchor has a close exposure that requires masking at all times when around others, or when is returning to work symptom free after 5 days but before 10 days and still requires a mask.

It was posted back in February, which is interesting since that is well after Brittany Bell joined the station. I don’t think Lee Goldberg is going anywhere. Perhaps Jeff Smith is departing, or Sam Champion signed a 3 year deal back in 2019 and is heading toward retiring or lighter workloads.

Based on comments on her instagram from other journalists, sounds like she is staying in the business. Probably getting an anchor position in another market.

David Muir anchored for ABC interrupting the 7:30-8:30 hour of Good Morning America on the west coast.

Kelly & Ryan is cleared in the 9am hour on too many ABC affiliates belong to different owners with different contracts. That’s one hurdle. The next hurdle is then getting affiliates to give the 9am hour to the network. Ripa was upset that Disney/ABC and Michael Strahan came to a deal to move him full time to Good Morning America and didn’t inform her until hours before they issued a press release. “Live” makes too much money for Disney/ABC and their flagship station for them to tinker with moving it or canceling it in favor of Good Morning America. What actually was under consideration at one point was Regis and Kathie Lee replacing Good Morning America in part or in full. This was in the late 90s after GMA ratings nosedived when execs made the decision to replace Charlie Gibson and Joan Lunden with Kevin Newman and Lisa McRee, and before they decided to bring back Gibson and pair him with Diane Sawyer.

they’re not even back to having everyone in the actual newsroom fully in person. There are still people working remotely, some not even in the NYC area and some reporters who haven’t been inside the station more than two or three times since the March 2020 lockdown.

Bill, Liz and Lee handled sports at 6pm, with a cameo from vacationing Ryan Field. https://www.facebook.com/BillRitterABC7/videos/when-ryan-field-is-on-vaca-and-sam-ryan-is-sick-the-rest-of-the-team-kicks-in-on/5146143688838296/

Bill likely has a very close exposure and needs to be separated if he’s not able to wear a mask. That’s a WABC policy.

It’s a “stand alone mini studio at WABC”, according to Bill, who responded to someone on twitter asking about it.

Great to see WABC continuing to promote station veterans with backgrounds in news to leadership positions. I’m sure she’ll be great and is likely now on a fast track to other executive positions within Disney!

Doesn’t seem like it. Ryan Field posted these photos from that area on Friday when the Stanley Cup visited ABC7 for a promo shoot and he also did Monday’s 6pm sports report from that area.

they most likely are but, behind the scenes, they have the option to wear a mask or the the station has reinstated indoor masking following the city and state health departments both recommending indoor masking again.

and being run seamlessly.

No, and in reporting about the stations new LI bureau at Hofstra, he was identified as “president of WABC and ABC Owned Television Stations”. I believe WABC is also operating without a news director since Rehan Aslam underwent emergency surgery last year and is still recovering and on medical leave.

they did this a bit before the pandemic.. looks like they’re trying it again and capitalizing on the distancing at the desk.

Pretty good get just after 6am this morning by Josh Einiger who was reporting live near the Poland-Ukraine border as Cardinal Dolan returned to Poland after a surprise trip into Ukraine. WABC dumped most of their 6am A block so Eineger could speak live with the cardinal right after he got out of the car transporting him. The breaking news report lasted about 7 minutes. https://abc7ny.com/josh-einiger-poland-russia-ukraine/11801114/

portions of all network evening newscasts are pre-recorded, including headlines and some anchor interviews with experts, newsmakers and correspondents. it’s great that Lester and David made it to the scene, but it didn’t add to or take away from coverage by the anchor being there or not.

WABC did do a brief update at the top of the 7pm hour saying they were awaiting the news conference and that it would stream online. That said, I’m pretty disappointed that they felt airing Jeopardy was more important. Obviously most news conferences are not something you interrupt programming for to carry live, but this was an emergency presser where new information was released that served the public. At the very least, WABC could have ran a breaking news crawl directing viewers to ABC7NY.com, but they didn’t even do that. It’s moments like this that your regular viewers and those that tune to you for breaking news depend on you to be on air and it’s your chance to showcase your commitment to serving the public. WABC gets credit for being on air most of the morning but dropped the ball in the 7pm hour.

Sam Champion* Although, Sam Smith would be a nice guest for both local and GMA.

If it were another public figure such as an actor who takes a leave of absence from a TV show or a singer who cancels concert dates, the press would speculate and demand answers as to the cause. There’s often a double-standard in television news when it comes to on-air talent, who are public figures, and their lives. Suddenly, the newsroom decides to respect a person’s privacy to the point of not even acknowledging anything has occurred.

CBS Evening News recently ran a story that aired over a month ago on CBS Mornings, offered no update and even trimmed it down from its original package. more from FTV Live: https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/3/24/recycling-the-news-at-cbs

This is what the set should’ve looked like when it first debuted. So glad the obnoxious tunnel and light pillars are gone. The rest of the studio still looks pretty much the same, so there’s a mismatch happening. I wonder if this is a temporary homebase while other changes happen? They’re certainly due for a set refresh.

WABC-TV appears to be suffering some technical difficulties. Viewers saw rare color bars and test patterns for the first 5 minutes of the 11pm news. It appears, however, that the newscast started as usual. When the test pattern ended, the newscast was joined in progress during the middle of an A block weather report. During regular weather around 11:20, the forecast segment was interrupted by a station promo that then aired again right after the weathercast finished up and Bill Ritter tossed to a break without any bumper headlines. The first commercials didn’t air until 11:21.