Geoffrey

CBS and Gayle King are getting hammered in the social media comments for this by fans. It might have been somewhat controversial last year, but now with Jeff Bezos cozying up to the current president and his dramatic changes at The Washington Post, this is a very bad look for a news anchor. She will no longer be able to report honestly on a major newsmaker, at least up until the launch, and she will likely feel indebted to him for the rest of her life. The question is whether CBS will be similarly tied.

"Ciritical" may be a bit of a subjective word but otherwise this is a pretty well known fact. Just because it doesn't fit someone's narrative doesn't make it an opinion or a bias. The fact that others reported the story without this fact doesn't prove your point. Context is important in any story, and perhaps leaving that important piece of information out of stories could be considered journalistic malpractice.

Plus is essentially a different broadcast. I doubt its existence takes resources away from the main broadcast, especially since they've already had a 7 p.m. streaming show.

Very nice new studio. ABC 7 finally looks fully modern with their presentation. I like that the skyline isn't just a plain old skyline, but seems to be somewhat artistic with some animated graphics mixed in. Anchors seem to be sitting close to each other. Michelle made mention of that at the end of this morning's farewell. They tried to show a timelapse of the studio's construction but they started it too soon and they didn't show anything of consequence before they cut away from it. Perhaps we'll see more of that tomorrow morning or Monday. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it used on other broadcasts,

My first thought was actually: Very Fox & Friends. Next step should be to get the weather graphics to match.

A few quick notes... CBS 2 is now using a bolder/wider font in the lower-third tab. I think it looks much better. Also, as the picture shows, Elijah Westbrook has been doing traffic lately. Guy Staniar, who was the regular traffic reporter but never appeared on-screen, has been out for at least the last four or five weeks. In the beginning, the usual off-camera fill-in, Anique Evans, was there. Then they had reporter Natale Duddridge do it a few times on camera, even at least one morning when she was also anchoring. (Natalie was the regular traffic anchor back when Alex Denis left, but then the station eventually dropped traffic for a bit.) Now it's been Elijah the last few weeks. I've heard them mention at least once or twice that he's "in for Guy" but it's been a while. Hope everything is OK. But I definitely prefer having the traffic anchor on camera. Also, now that Paramount/CBS are apparently about to be in a dispute with YouTube TV, they've been doing that ticker thing we've seen on other stations. (Does this show up only for YouTube TV users or does everyone see it?) They had a two-line version this morning but a slimmer one as of noon.

Meanwhile, over on Telemundo...

Not a fan of it. It's both large and also a bit hard to read the scores at times. Saw social media comments saying it looks unfinished and felt like an old PowerPoint presentation -- my thoughts exactly. For years, we were trending toward smaller graphics, perhaps adding more information but still everything getting smaller. Which is everything getting bigger these days?

I get that they're making a point of not being a daily newscast of record anymore, but I think CBS was too obvious about it this Friday night. Tonight's lead story was a surge in flu cases nationwide. The first soundbite for the top story was from an expert detailing the number of cases at her hospital this week, including the words "and it's only Wednesday."

Another new face on CBS 2 today: Erica Lunsford, who spent the last two years at WBTV Charlotte, is the new Bronx reporter.

Chris Welch anchored the earlier special report just after 10 p.m. Not sure if they had any in the 9:00 hour.

With Lester Holt and David Muir anchoring their broadcasts from D.C. tonight, Maurice and John remained in the studio, saying they'll devote much of tonight's broadcast to the crash. On another note, it's surprising to me that CBS let an apostrophe in Charlie D'Agata's last name confuse them when typing it out. Twice.

Interesting to see Kristine Johnson anchoring a CBS News Special Report on the DC plane crash shortly after 10:34 last night. Then Dick Brennan did the local tease at around 10:58, but Kristine anchored the local news solo, with Dick reporting from the newsroom. (Jessica Moore was already in DC specifically to cover the RFK, Jr. nomination hearing, which turned into covering the federal funding freeze and reversal, which then became reporting on the crash.)

I think they listened to our feedback. During the first break, the "world temps" started with the stock indices. And the camera shot was a little more active, with someone delivering scripts to the Maurice and John and the camera doing a 360, going behind the desk.

Very interesting stuff. Very detailed!

Actually, Kate Bolduan was Wolf's co-anchor for the second hour (at 6 p.m.?) for a bit. I'm not sure how "official" it was as I don't think her name was in the graphics and I don't recall her being in promos. But she was definitely there. This was until Kate was tapped to launch New Day with Chris Cuomo ad Michaela Pereira.

At 5:00, Otis Livingston was at Jets headquarters for the introduction of the head coach and general manager, and then he announced that Krystle Rich, standing next to him, is the newest member of the CBS New York sports team. She posted that she'll be reporting for NY, Philly and CBS Sports. https://www.instagram.com/p/DEyAg5jpTy4/?hl=en

Interesting first broadcast. No cold open tease. Just the open and right into the first story, which was talking with Margaret Brennan about the new Chinese AI app that scared Wall Street today. Then a 60 Minutes-like piece from Jim Axelrod on Chinese intelligence threats. CBS got lucky with today's news that made that story, which they had to have been working on for a bit, seem extra relevant. The new president who is sucking up so much oxygen everywhere else got about ten seconds of coverage during a headlines roundup. Lower-thirds are very different than anything else on CBS, and only seem to be used for talent. (I don't think lower-thirds need to be permanent on the screen but they can be useful for identifying people and places.) There is not even the small CBS eye on the screen. The circular CBS Evening News logo appears on the top left of the screen during video playback. The studio looks nice, but it feels like local news. They have this nice newsroom but chose to have that behind the cameras, not in front. Perhaps they'll make more use of the newsroom in shots later on. WCBS also mentioned that the set will feature augmented reality but I didn't see any of that tonight. During the first commercial break, they had some text headlines/teases on the bottom of the screen, some "world temperatures," and a small box showing Maurice and John in the studio. The camera just kept swaying from left to right and back showing the talent just sitting there. Not very exciting. Is it really necessary? Why does the logo say "Eye On America America"? Love that theme song. Is this the third time they've used it, going back to the 1980s? Definitely a nice first show. Still not sure I understand why they need two anchors. Wonder how fill-ins will be handled. Will be interesting if CBS stays the course or gets impatient in 6 to 12 months.

They switched to the new weather banners as of noon today. They also started using a new bug during wildfire coverage, giving viewers a QR code to make it easy to donate through the Red Cross. ,The way it slides on is elegant. Interestingly, it uses the CBS 2 logo instead of the CBS News New York one. I know it may be due to space reasons but it's still interesting because we've been led to believe the CBS 2 mark is being phased out.

At 12:05, it switched to the newscast in progress. I'm watching on YouTube TV. Perhaps they were taking the wrong feed. Strange.

Something strange is happening on ABC 7. It's currently 12:03 p.m. and they're airing GMA 3 instead of the noon news.

Alisyn Camerota signed off from CNN just before 5:00 tonight. (She was filling in for Fredricka Whitfield, but anchoring with Wolf Blitzer because of the Syria situation.) https://www.instagram.com/p/DDUsc5PxdVI/ She was great on New Day with Chris Cuomo and later John Berman, but CNN didn't seem to know what to do with her once she left mornings. (I believe she said at the time that it was her decision to leave because she was tired of mornings.) Personally, I really appreciated her coverage of Covid in 2020 when I was overwhelmed by watching too much news.

John Elliott's shift seems to be weekend mornings, plus Wed-Fri at noon. Yesterday, he did noon, and also filled in for Lonnie at 5, 6 and 11. This morning he was live in Lake Hopatcong, NJ to cover the snow for CBS Mornings, and he was verbally and graphically described as "CBS Saturday Morning meteorologist."

An end of an era. We all knew it would come one day, but wow.

Looks like both the NY and DC editions of CNN News Central are back to using the monitor walls the way they used to. I guess it really was due to preparing for election coverage.