NBC 5 Chicago

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: "Meteorologists Stephanie Abrams and Jordan Steele are hosting a daily Pattrn show on The Weather Channel. Every weekday at 12pm ET, learn about the climate’s impact on everyday life, meet the people who are working to find solutions, and find out simple tips on how to live more sustainably. Come join us!" This new show seems to be 2 hours running from 12pm-2pm ET on my guide. It looks like Weather Underground and Storm Center are now only 3 hours long. So the New Schedule (in ET Time): AMHQ - 5AM-12PM Pattrn - 12PM-2PM Weather Underground - 2PM-5PM Storm Center - 5PM-8PM I didn't watch AMHQ early this morning so I don't know if Jordan and Stephanie are still on AMHQ and this new show is in edition to them being on AMHQ. Jen Carfagno and Alex Wallace still host the later edition of AMHQ. While a new show is cool and all, more LIVE weather hours in the day would be a lot better. I was hoping they would shift everything later into the primetime hours. The shows they run from 8PM-5AM debut new episodes on the weekend. You could keep the weekend heavy with shows in the afternoon and evening but keep LIVE weather coverage running through at least 10PM ET during the week but I digress... 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

WRC is the only one left now.

I too am shocked that she's leaving. I've always loved Zoraida in the morning. However in her absence when Michelle was in Tokyo covering the Olympics I really enjoyed Patrick and Lauren in the mornings. They had good chemistry and brought a little bit more fun in the mornings. I think Michelle does better with more hard news than mornings. I think she should go back to weekends alongside Alex and reporting at night. I think that would solve their morning and weekend anchor issues. It never made sense to me why they brought Michelle into the mornings and moved Alex to weekends and reporting in the evenings.

Zoraida came back today after nearly 4 months away from the anchor desk.

Do you know what day?

CNN Mornings

That's exciting. Jennifer has done great things at WGN and tried with NewsNation. Could we see an upwards climb of CBS 2 under her leadership? Time will tell, but I'm excited to see where it will go. WBBM has been really lagging behind all of the stations in Chicago for so many years.

This from TVNewsCheck. Alicia officially takes over for Andy on Aug 30th. Additionally, they hired Iisha Scott (from WCNC) as weekend AM meteorologist as well as weekday reports on community and weather-related stories. Her first day is also Aug 30th. I'm surprised they filled the position so quickly. This must have all been in the works for a little while.

I never quite understood why they needed two during the morning. Now, it makes a little more sense as to why if Andy had been contemplating retirement over the last year. Letting the viewers get used to seeing her in the mornings then when he does retire its a seamless transition. Or after having her baby she wanted to be more in the mornings then doing her marathon weekends of mornings, 5pm and 10pm. But like @jase said, you never really know with WMAQ. A new hire could shake things up.

I'm not quite sure but it looks like they are redoing the weather center again. This pic I saw on Lauren Petty's Facebook page about a week ago shows the background monitor sitting lower towards the ground and the background is different. Gone are the computers and cabinets. I also haven't seen them use that area on air for while. The morning team is together at the desk now and the weather team is at the green screen. During the height of Covid this area was heavily used in the morning as a anchor desk so they could be socially distant.

The one I was surprised and confused about was WVIT. Perfect opportunity to launch them with the new set. Their Telemundo station has them but not WVIT. There must be a hiccup or something to not switch over yet.

TVNewsCheck is reporting that Tonya Francisco and Amy Rutledge will be the hosts of the new Daytime Chicago show. This means Amy Rutledge comes back to WGN after being co-host of now cancelled "The Jam" on WCIU. It also means that someone will have to take over Tonya's weekend morning position unless they decided to go solo.

I really like this set. They did a behind the scenes tour of it and it's got great functionality and technology. Set is way better than what WVIT did. I feel WTVJ's studio lights are a little too dark or warmer than most sets. It looks a little dull on the anchors.