NBC 5 Chicago

WBBM debuted their VR studio today they are calling the weather sphere. Is this in their previous studio space?

After nearly 13 years with NBC 5, Lauren Petty announced on her Facebook page that tomorrow is her last day with the station. She is going to leave broadcasting and pursue a new adventure outside of broadcasting.

Wolf announced during his edition of Newsroom at 11am EDT that Pamela Browns show will debut on Monday in that timeslot.

Dana at the beginning of the show stated she is in Los Angeles.

I was wondering if this was permanent. Jessica has been doing weekend evenings for several weeks.

Most of the NBC O&O's use the NBC chimes for the extended forecast now. KNSD must have just jumped on board.

Doug Whitmire promoted from Assistant News Director to VP of News effective Aug 5. He replaces Jennifer Graves who retired a month ago.

Here are some more pics. I don't mind them. There is some depth to them now which reminds me of the HD era graphics (2008-2013) a bit. I was hoping for some new show opens to go with it. This is basically just a refresh.

100% agree with this. I actually watched WLS and WBBM more because of it. Brant and Pete are usually the ones that are in when these breaking weather events happen and they have excellent coverage. But with Scott it was a little lackluster.

Chris Jansing lead coverage at 1AM on MSNBC when NBC signed off.

Weather Unfiltered finally got some show headline intro and animation swipes. They basically are reusing Weather Undergrounds headline intro and just put Weather Unfiltered' s colors in it. The music is what weather underground used.

Jennifer Gray, who is meteorologist Chris Warrens wife, started freelancing at TWC. She debuted May 11. She spent 10 years at CNN.

Kind of underwhelmed by the Weather Unfiltered change. No real graphics like they implemented with Storm Center or with what they had with Weather Underground. There's no intro or coming up graphics or anything for the new show. Only a logo swipe is visible. You can see the new logo here. Maybe something more will come soon.

TWC is changing up its schedule. AMHQ has been extended an hour weekdays to 1pm EDT replacing Pattrn. Pattrn has been moved to weekends at 1pm EDT following Weekend Recharge. Still hosted by Stephanie Abrams and Jordan Steele. It was the same episode on Saturday and Sunday. Weather Underground is no more with a new show called Weather Unfiltered replacing it from 1pm-5pm EDT ending its 9 year run. The new show will still have Mike Bettes, Alex WIlson and Dr. Rick Knabb as hosts. They were teasing a new look and feel. I'm guessing just new show graphics and not a company wide graphics change which they've had for over 10 years now. Pattrn makes sense to move to weekends as it constantly gets preempted due to severe weather coverage. This may have also been impacted by the recent layoffs. Weather Underground has been one of my favorite shows. I think the new show is going to lean into Mike, Alex, and Dr. Rick Knabb's quirkiness, games, etc. more. I've always liked and appreciated that. It made their show fun than the a just straight forward here's the weather show.

Poppy Harlow exits CNN after CNN This Morning restructure.

I have been a fan of Skilling since I was young. He is a true legend in Chicago. I will miss his weather reports. Good news is he doesn't plan to go away completely and is not leaving Chicago. Here is Skilling's sign off. Here is Micah's interview with Skilling. Beautifully done.

Ok I thought it was just me! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think they added texturized elements. Diamonds, lines, and the stars are all 3D. It's noticeable in their set in the background and on the desk also in the L3. But they're still keeping with the same red, white, and blue theme. Its a subtle change. They also used a drone over the river in Des Moines which showed augmented reality graphics. Similar to what NBC/MSNBC does with Rockefeller Center during election coverage. It is more noticeable in the NY studio that Anderson uses. Seen here on this video on cnn.com.

Here is the info. Summary below. Quite the changes: 4:30AM-7AM - Anthony Ponce and Anita Blanton will anchor 7AM-10AM - Brian Jackson and Natalie Bomke Jake Hamilton will still contribute to the morning show. Syliva Perez will anchor Noon and First at 4. Terrence Lee will anchor First at Four with Sylvia Perez then contribute to the live desk at 5pm and 9pm. Tia Ewing will maintain her role as live desk reporter on First at Four.

Yes.

Pamela Brown is also pregnant. There could be a delay due to her upcoming leave.

I just saw a promo on CNN for their new CNN Saturday that debuts tomorrow: 8AM - First of all with Victor Blackwell 9AM - Smerconish 10AM - The Chris Wallace Show 11AM - The Amanpour Hour

It has been since I believe around the summer that the music was changed on the Local on the 8s to the jazzier themes. (I actually like them.) The squeeze bar seems redundant when you have the bar at the bottom with basically the same information. Yes it may have expanded capabilities but you have double information. At least it seems like that for the national feed. I have YouTubeTV . It shows current conditions for select cities with the radar at the bottom and cycles through tonight's forecast for those cities. I was hoping with them doing the retro8s hour and devoting a whole hour to it that they would maybe focus more on one of TWC's main identities and bring more frequent local on the 8s back. However, like me, more and more people are starting to cut the cord and are streaming. Getting the local weather on streaming isn't possible yet so I could see them phasing it out overall. In a couple of weeks (11/12) the current graphics and everything will be 10 years old. Yes, they have made tweaks but the overall package and icons will be 10 years old. They've aged well however a refresh would be great.

They're celebrating every day at 10pm with a new segment. Here is a little more information on how they're celebrating their 75th anniversary: This link shows each segment each day this week and you can vote on the top memorable story which they will show in a segment called Flashback Friday through December. Also a list of first for the television station which I found interesting. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/wmaq-tv-chicago-celebrates-its-75th-anniversary/3246257/ Here is an archive of video of their top stories they've covered: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/75th-anniversary-archive/3242571/

I think WTVJ's is a miss compared to their previous set. It's a very large and nice set but I think it is just bland overall like WNBC's. WMAQ, WRC, WCAU, KXAS and maybe even WBTS have the better sets within the group. There is more character and elements to their sets. KNBC's is starting to age but still held up well and had some character. We'll see if they get something similar to WMAQ and WRC and not the way of WTVJ and WNBC.

I guess weather isn't dead at NewsNation...