NBC 5 Chicago

Looks like they've extended morning coverage to overtake the live edition of Pattrn today.  There's an enhanced risk of severe weather but nothing like the past severe weather days so I'm curious why the change today. Wonder if WU will take over the 1pm hour for additional coverage and if there is extended overnight coverage or they just ended up scraping Pattrn for today. 

9 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

TWC wound up not doing extended coverage last night, despite the box in the lower right corner saying that they were going to do so.

 

Guess what, they're not doing extended coverage tonight either, despite the fact that there's a 10% tornado risk, and multiple active tornado warnings, including a confirmed tornado actively on the ground. They promptly went to long form at 8pm ET despite the circumstances.

They did break in twice so far to update the status of those storms. I don't know why they just didn't do another hour of Storm Center until things calm down then bring Carl in. Their severe weather coverage outside of their shows sucks anymore. 

Don't get me started on the lights. Half the time Storm Center is blue and the other half its yellow, like today. Then we got T-Mobile for Pattrn which I feel is way overboard than the other shows. 

Samantha Mohr is on tonight during Storm Center. I forgot she was a fill in again. They've been going deep into the fill ins this week for coverage. Yet they had Felicia on yesterday during Pattrn but Molly at the beginning of the week. It'll be interesting to see who's going to be paired with Carl for the late night hours.  But so far Mark, Jeff, Colleen, Samantha have filled in this week. Chris Bruin filled in for Alex Wallace on Monday even though Alex was there for the 40th anniversary. It's been an interesting week with the OCM's. 

Interestingly today they are not showing Pattrn at all and running live storm coverage with Jen and Alex during the noon hour. I suspect Mike and Alex will take over at 1pm for an extended Weather Underground coverage. They're already advertising extended coverage for the evening and overnight so I suspect an added hour to Storm Center and then Carl Parker will do coverage late night. Yesterday was a higher outlook for Severe Weather than today so I'm surprised they went this route however there is already a Tornado Watch out so maybe that's why. 

I've noticed this as well. Molly McCullum finally got upped to full time so I'm wondering if she took over Mark's spot. They don't see to hire a lot of full OCM's as they used to and they've seemed to be doing the Fox Weather route and have 3 OCM's on during their shows. I know usually its 1 Expert and 2 OCM's but Storm Center has 3. 

Tonight though is interesting on Storm Center. Chris Bruin and Jeff Morrow are on tonight. Last night it was Jacqui Jeras and Tevin Wooten, Chirs Warren was off. Normally Jeff fills in for extended coverage usually with Carl Parker in the overnight hours and usually just in the lab. Its nice to see him again interacting in the studio during a normal show. 

They do have a decent list of fill in OCM's that they tap during extended coverage. I noticed some have been on over the past few days.

They do have an OCM job posted on their website so maybe its like every other industry across the country where the job force is just not there. But they've had quite of few people leave and not a lot have been hired or promoted to full time. 

First Tornado watch is issued and bye bye jazz music. Indeed the alert music is playing. 

Looks like TWC en Español is using all the same music and graphics as the OG TWC from what little I saw of the stream. 

I was half hoping for today with the TWC en Español launch that they might do a graphics update across the board. They've been using the same graphics since 2013 with some updates here and there. While they have aged well I feel like now would have been a good time to do nice big update on the 40th anniversary. 

39 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

I fully expect it to be one day only, tops. They might even switch to Storm Alert music later today when the severe weather outbreak occurs.

I feel like the storm alert music is overused now. I remember when it was just for Storm Alert for hurricanes. I get sever snow storms or a huge outbreak but I feel they use it to use it sometimes. 

Also, I'm totally loving the jazz music back for the local on the 8s. I miss that. The only thing that stinks is the forecasts are only 1 min now and it was cool to have the longer 2 min flavors of the music back in the day. 

Looks like Anita Blanton debuted this week anchoring the 9am hour of Good Day Chicago and the 12pm newscast with Sylvia Perez. 

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=536128081216308&set=a.223779982451121

4 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

Nice catch! I didn't notice the watermarks before.

 

On a separate note, I recorded AMHQ today. Jordan was present, but Stephanie was not there. Colleen Coyle was filling in for her.

 

On Pattrn today, both Jordan and Stephanie are on the show. Jordan is wearing the same thing he was wearing this morning, so I assume this is still live/live-ish.

 

I didn't catch AMHQ any of the other days this week, so I have no idea if Jordan and Steph were there or not. Anybody know?

They were definitely live for the first hour today except for pre-recorded segments. Now the second hour the beginning was the exact same as the first hour but I didn't catch the whole hour to see if there were other live segments or just a complete re-run of the first hour. 

Is it original? No. However, I'm not mad at it. It is different and unique. I get what they're trying to do. It'll be how they implement it and use the branding that we'll get an idea of it better. 

3 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

It could also be pre-recorded. I have noticed over the past 4 weeks, there have been several days each week where either the later edition of AMHQ w/Jen & Alex or Weather Underground were moved into The Lab for an entire day. Last week, the Jen & Alex show spent Monday and Tuesday in The Lab, while Weather Underground has been in The Lab every single Thursday.

I noticed that too. I figured maybe they were doing updates or something in the studio. So, there goes another 2 live hours of weather on TWC. 

One thing I noticed and its small but the pillows on the couch change for what show is airing. AMHQ = Yellow and Blue, Pattrn = Pink, Weekend Recharge = Teal and Blue. Like I said nothing worthwhile but it brings a different touch to the shows when they use the couch in addition to the different lighting. 

TWC is debuting a new show today called Pattrn at 12pm ET. Hosted by Stephanie Abrahms and Jordan Steele. Info below from the email I got today:

EDIT: So the show is only an hour long with the next hour showing the same exact preceding hour. They go over hot topics in the beginning and have in-depth interviews centering on the environment and climate. Not much weather or forecast outside of the environmental and climate talk. Not sure if this is actually live or pre-taped. I think its live because they're using the main studio and the only time they'd have time to tape would be before AMHQ at 5AM. 

Something tells me WMAQ isn't going to get a weather center any time soon. They've finally started using this area over the past few weeks for stand ups in addition to the other side of the studio. I've notice weather has only been done by chroma key. Another thing when Leila is done with sports she joins Rob, Allison and Stefan at the desk but in the evenings the meteorologists still do not. Just found it a little odd if you have one but not the other at the end of the newscast or after their report. 

From FEDER. Joe Donlon moved from NewsNation to CBS 2. Effective May 2nd he'll anchor CBS 2 News @ 5, 6, and 10pm. Brad Edwards moves to CBS News Chicago streaming service and continues as investigative reporter. 

So this confused me as well. It's been a couple months since I've regularly watched but it was Scott Schneider and Anita Padilla from 4am-9am then Sylvia anchoring at 9am with Terrance usually doing in studio reports. Rosanne usually field reported or fill in anchored if someone was off. Sylvia also anchors the noon news. They even have promos with Scott and Anita for Good Day. So I don't know why they're wanting to do a rotation of anchors unless they're wanting to do something like WGN and figure out a A and B team to break up Good Day hours. Test the chemistry between everyone and then announce a full schedule. I know I'm speculating but I can't figure out why they'd break up what they already have unless they want to tweak it. 

43 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

That wouldn't be a bad thing.

It wouldn't be bad.. however it would be sad. TWC has been the original 24 weather station. What is has become is just plain sad. The only thing they've had great coverage of is hurricanes where they go 24 hours around the clock for days. They need to take that same approach to severe weather events. THEY KNOW WHEN THEY"RE COMING. I hope this is a wake up call for TWC to provide better service and coverage of severe weather going forward. Long form programing is fine. I like their shows but it should be later in the day or just on weekends. There needs to be more live weather coverage.  

With that said I've quite enjoyed Fox Weather and what they're trying to do. Their coverage of severe weather has outdone TWC a lot of the time. Once they get their staffing up and if they get on cable, they are going to be quite the competition for TWC if not supersede them. 

Per Feder, NBC 5 has hired Juan Carlos Navarrete as a reporter and weekend morning anchor. He'll anchor alongside Kate Chapel Sunday mornings. 

I'm surprised they just didn't make it Saturday and Sunday mornings. They haven't had a weekend morning team in awhile. 

6 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

As far as studio utilization, with this schedule change, all shows now take place in the main studio. (Weather Center Live previously took place in The Lab.) The only time throughout the entire day that The Lab was used was for two very short Dr. Knabb segments during each hour of Weather Underground at around :10 past and :43 past. For the rest of Weather Underground, Dr. Knabb spent the show in the main studio with the other hosts. It makes me wonder if they would consider ditching The Lab or just reserving it only for days that they do extended coverage in the evening/overnight hours.

 

Another weird thing is that the couch area is effectively the centerpiece of the main studio due to its location, yet the couch is only used for the second half of America's Morning Headquarters. I have to wonder if they would also consider using the couch for either the first half of America's Morning Headquarters or possibly for either one or both of the weekend morning shows.

 

The rest of the shows have to work around the couch area rather than utilize it, which effectively limits the types of wideshots that can be used during the other dayparts.

I noticed in the first hour of weather underground they kept the couch area dark and covered it up but it was in some of the wide shots where Mike tossed to Mark and you could see it covered up. They uncovered it but kept the area darker then the rest of the set for the rest of the show. 

The couch isn't a bad idea. I just wish they could have made that area more universal where the couch could be removed and other elements added for other day parts so it can be utilized more. 

I'm not really keen on Storm Center. I guess I had high hopes but I prefer either Weather Underground or Weather Center Live style format. But I also wouldn't mind old school format of the original Weather Center either with your region by region forecasts, travelwise, weekly planner, and Storm Watch/Tropical Update. Weather Underground took awhile for me to like but I think for me its the hosts. I like Mike, Alex and Dr. Knabb. 

At least with Storm Center this is the first update format wise we've had in awhile. 

Also noticed there seems to be a new portion of their set. This includes a seamless monitor where they have a couch in front of. Most of their big monitors in their studio are an array of smaller screens. So I'm not exactly sure where this is located.  It doesn't look VR to me but it could be. I know the original set that debuted in 2013 was demolished in favor of the huge green screen that they now use to show VR graphics. 

Ok found it on Twitter. The new couch section replaces the corner section that the original AMHQ used. 

The Weather Channel today is debuting Storm Center at 4pm(E).

Their description of the show:

Storm Center is a fresh new way to show you everything that’s happening in breaking weather throughout the world. Led by meteorologists Jacqui Jeras, Chris Warren, and Tevin Wooten, Storm Center will immerse you in shocking weather video and take a closer look at the science behind current weather events.

They're moving Weather Underground up 4 hours to 12pm-4pm weekdays. It looks like we're losing Weather Center Live. 

So their new weekday line up is:

AMHQ - 6am-12pm

Weather Underground - 12pm-4pm

Storm Center - 4pm-8pm

Programming - 8pm-6am

This is the first new show since Weather Underground began. I'm really curious how this new show will be. 

I think out implies being fired. She is leaving to spend more time with her family. 

1 minute ago, Georgie56 said:

Kinda sad that they’re going on autopilot from 12pm-3pm ET, considering TWC does live programming in those hours. 
 

 

I agree. If it was overnight I can understand. 

I think they need to rethink their 3 weather anchors they have per day part. If they condensed it to 2 they could break it up for each day part and have enough to go live for most of the day until Night Light. Maybe that will be their eventual goal but having them anchor up to 6 hours is a long time and maybe that was just because of the launch. 

Overall though I'm fairly surprised with their presentation over the past few days. They've stayed with severe weather when warranted. Gives me old school TWC vibes. They've done it right and it doesn't feel small market like Weather Nation does. 

Just now, Spring Rubber said:

Weird, and they just as quicky backed off of it and went back to normal. I think they're definitely toying around with "how RED to we want to go right now?"

They may just only be doing it when they're talking about the Nor'easter. As it is their WeatherAlert. When they're talking about the rest of the country it's normal graphics. 

6 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

Well, turns out Sky Dome is only from 9am-Noon ET. America’s Weather Center is the main afternoon block, apparently.

That makes more sense to me.

Has anyone been able to view the stream on their website? When I do I cannot get it to play. 

2 hours ago, TexasTVNews said:

Whose NBC O&O's left without the Look S?

WRC is the only one left now.