Jase

It Appears LIV Golf Is Ashamed of Its TV Ratings on The CW

[ After holding six events this year, the breakaway league has stopped publicly reporting its viewership numbers ]

1 hour ago, Briella said:

It's literally what they have now with added rounded corners.

Disagree. It appears that they integrated (or simplified) things and eliminated having multiple separate boxes (a logo box, live box, time/stock box, etc...). In addition, it also appears that the rolling ticker is gone. It's a much cleaner look while keeping their core color palette (red, white and black).

Again, we have to wait and see how everything comes together.

I need to see these graphics in action before I can offer up an opinion. Nevertheless, anything is better than what they have now.

11 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

True, but Republicans like Joe & Nicole  that are highly critical of their party (which is more palatable to MSNBC's base). 

 

 

 

As it should be... Nothing is gained if you have Republicans always agreeing with Republicans. The same applies for Democrats. Honestly, what’s missing from the majority (if not all) of these 'political panels' are Independent voices. It's those voices that CNN, MSNBC, etc... should include if they truly want to offer viewers balance coverage of issues, people and events.

3 hours ago, mountainave said:

Respectfully, this comment makes it sound like you've never watched CNN's election coverage before.  This has been standard operating procedure for them for all large political events for at least a decade.  They have one host (typically Tapper) anchoring a panel of journalists and political analysts, and another host (typically Cooper) anchoring a panel of pundits.  One gives objective analysis while the other gives opinion from the left and right.  

Maybe they need to change their standard. It's not necessary to have that many people, imo, in order to offer balanced coverage of a non-election night event. Having a group in NYC (for example) and another in DC creates a weird disconnect. More importantly, neither group pays any attention to the other and often repeats the same points over and over again.

MSNBC has their small core group (lead by Rachel) and, I believe, FNC does the same (a small group lead by Bret & Martha). Their coverage tends to be a lot more concise than CNN. Given their ratings troubles over the past year or so, CNN could stand to do something different.

Lastly, while this isn't exclusive to CNN, pundits and most journalists have no clue of the needs/wants of today's electorate and still base their opinions and the like off of outdated ideologies.    

46 minutes ago, MorningNews said:

I like these moves a lot. Eva and Demarco have been great on GMA3 and Gio works really well with Whit and Janai.

 

ABC got this right.

Despite me pulling for Rhiannon, Eva is a decent choice. No surprise about DeMarco as he was always the male front runner. Good for Gio too.

27 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

 

This is a town hall for the Republican primary. CNN said the audience was full of Republican or uncommitted/independent voters. It was not meant to be representative of New Hampshire or America as a whole.  

 

  

 

These large panels are designed to get many different points of view, instead of hearing the same few people making the same few points.

I don’t think this event warranted having 12+ ‘contributors’ along with CNN anchors/reporters.  
 

Plus, there should only be one person (whether it’s Anderson, Jake, Wolf, etc…) leading coverage of an event at any given moment.

There is no need consistently jump back and forth between groups of people.

4 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

 

I thought Kaitlan did an excellent job maintaining her composure while fact-checking lies in real time and asking important follow-ups. It was a tough assignment and I feel gross for having watched it, but she probably told some Republicans watching it some facts that they had never before even heard.

 

And yes, she was the White House reporter for The Daily Caller, but if you watch her, you know she has always been tough and fair on the former guy. She was fresh out of college and got a job there. Don't hold it against her. Look at her work. She's excellent. (Yes, I am a fan.)

This should have been a one-on-one interview rather than a Town Hall. From the clips I saw, it came across as a debate between the two which in turn ended up being a disaster. Without question, this Town Hall likely alienated the few viewers CNN has during primetime and really hurt their reputation much like when 60 Minutes /Leslie Stahl interviewed MTG.

I don't understand this excessive need to offer individuals who are known liars, idiots, etc... a platform in the name of being fair/offering both sides.

And for goodness sake... what is with them always having a thousand and one people offering up analysis?  Couldn't Anderson and maybe two or three people handle things? 

I have mixed feelings about this... I knew WBBM was going to play it safe, but I'm disappointed they didn't take advantage of the new branding/graphics. They're treating things as if it's just another Wednesday (continuing to use/say CBS 2 News, no updates to the set, etc...) with a half-hearted mention of the new graphics and music before tossing to weather.

Such a wasted opportunity.....

This was used at the end of a promo for a special report to air tomorrow. It’s possible they didn’t get around to making a new one with the new graphics, etc... or they sticking with promos like this.

WBBM has made the switch…

On 5/1/2023 at 4:38 PM, TheNewsTV said:

And today there was America Decides, replacing Red&Blue on streaming.

 

This makes sense given they brand their election coverage as 'America Decides'. Best to have all things political aligned in some way across all platforms. Didn't care for the Red & Blue moniker, if you will, anyway.

1 hour ago, Geoffrey said:

New CNN graphics are expected in June. The article is paywalled but here's the beginning of it: https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-chris-licht-brand-refresh-ad-campaign-warner-bros-discovery-2023-5?utmSource=twitter&utmContent=referral&utmTerm=topbar&referrer=twitter

 

Elegant. Hmm.

A couple of additional points (from the article)....

"The extensive rebranding effort comes as part of a broader strategic pivot for the network previously known for letting its anchors sound off about politics under former CNN President Jeff Zucker. Licht's mission is focused on offering viewers a more centrist perspective over the long term as the network heads into the 2024 election cycle — and avoiding getting pulled into the outrage machine."

"Licht has asked producers to dial down the use of the descriptor "breaking news" because it is so overused it has lost its meaning, according to a memo obtained by Axios. He also discouraged them from referring to election denial as "the big lie" — preferring "Trump election lie" or "election lies" — because it was a phrase used by the Democratic Party, according to Mediaite."

'Zaslav has given Licht time to find his footing without the pressure of ratings scrutiny.'

I will say I like were they're going with News Central and their attempt to contain 'opinion' to certain programs. Also, what they plan to do with the L3s sounds intriguing.

3 hours ago, nickp said:

Greg Gutfeld's late-night show is unaffected by the WGA strike and will continue to proceed as scheduled

He doesn't have any real broad-based appeal. Those that like him are already watching him so he is largely irrelevant.  Now If we were talking about a personality like Joe Rogan, then that would be a different story.

I could see this strike lasting a while (maybe early/mid August) given the timing. If it started, say, at the beginning of the tv season, there may have been heavy pressure to reach a deal. My guess is that tv executives will drag their feet on this as long as they can.

On 4/30/2023 at 9:47 PM, Spring Rubber said:

Zouves was given this full weekend off after anchoring 7 days in a row from Sat 4/22 through Fri 4/28. Keleigh Beeson filled in both Saturday and Sunday of this weekend.

 

I'm guessing that during this upcoming week, we'll start to see the rotation of anchors on the 1pm-3pm ET block.

1 hour ago, Megatron81 said:

I think they should keep Zouves from 1PM to 3PM. I don't get why they didn't just move Rush Hour 3PM to 5PM than NewsNation Now I liked the title of a show Rush Hour why get rid of it? I wonder now that NN is all news M-F when they start to put more news on the weekend than the 3 hours for the slow build for news 7 days a week, at the end of 2024.

 

As I believe that little by little that news will be added to the weekends maybe come the fall or late 2023 with maybe 2 or 3 hours of the morning news just my opinion and I could be wrong on it.

Zouves was back anchoring 1-3P yesterday. It's 'possible' she keeps M-F, 1-3P for the time being and they have Beeson, Martin, etc... anchor the weekends. It didn't seem clear, to me anyway, that they would rotate people during the week. Best to have some consistency M-F.

I agree there was no reason to dump the Rush Hour name. It will be interesting to see how weekends will shape up by year's end.  

23 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

Didn't expect this two for one special today. This is just the tip, cable news needs further purging.

 

I'm not finding CNN announcing Lemon's departure, and I'm not finding fox announcing Carlson's ouster. 
 

 

CNN.com has the Lemon announcement posted just below the Carlson one. Not sure if they initially posted the video with John King announcing Don’s departure (John was clearly taken aback by the news), but the current clip has Pamela Brown making the announcement.

FoxNews.com posted the official video clip (with Harris Faulkner) announcing Carlson’s departure. Of course, you have to dig around the site to find it….

The Hill from DC. Studio looks nice.

Just a couple of pics of News Nation Now which originates from the main studio. I’ll try to catch The Hill if I have time later.

3 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

And he will be taking over on weekend mornings, starting next week, I think? Pretty much, anyway, as Iisha Scott's baby is due within 3 weeks, and when she returns, she will be moving to 11am & 4pm with Alex and Marion.

Surprised they promoted Scott to weekdays. Weekend mornings (or weekends in general) tend to be where mets at WMAQ languish for eternity until they quit. 

2 hours ago, TheRob said:

Your cable bill is about to increase again. Good for Dominion, though.

Fox doesn’t have any leverage and rest assured, both cable and satellite companies, if they’re smart, will use this settlement against them. 
 

With a possible Smartmatic settlement looming too; Fox could easily be out of close to 2 bil. (if not more). 
 

I’m sure Fox ran every scenario possible from a financial perspective before settling; so expect some serious belt tightening and cuts to happen.

33 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

 

So because they don't yet have an anchor for the 1pm-3pm block (which I honestly didn't see that coming), I get the impression that we'll probably see Natasha Zouves anchor three of the weekdays so that she can retain her weekend duties, and we'll probably see the rotation of correspondents anchoring on the remaining two weekdays.

 

I'm guessing the show generally won't be Chicago-based when those correspondents are anchoring? (I'm not sure which city each of those correspondents is based out of...please correct me if I'm wrong.

Martin (Dallas) and Shafer (Miami) are the only ones not in Chicago (or DC). Depending on how long this arrangement will last and how they work out scheduling of each person; it could be possible Martin and Shafer will spend some time in DC anchoring and not too far away from the regions they cover. Who knows???

8 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

It's possible that whatever plans existed for WBBM got heavily revised or altered as soon as Jennifer Lyons came in? Plus supply chain issues are still a thing...

She was named GM in 2021; so getting the jumbotron and streetside studio up and running was likely her idea. Doubtful supply chain issues are a problem given WMAQ, for example, was able to construct a brand new studio last September. 

Now that doesn't mean plans couldn't have changed, but it shouldn't take this long to construct a weather center.

37 minutes ago, Weeters said:

I could have sworn the WBBM streetside studio was going to become some kind of weather center annex, not a full news set...

Correct... reportedly, an additional weather center is being built. However, given the space (nearly 3,500 sq. feet), building only a weather center seems like a waste. Plus, it's been nearly 10 months since this was announced; so I think (or hope) something much grander is in the works.   

1 hour ago, WWUpdate said:

 

Applegate destroyed much of WBBM's hard-won journalistic reputation. After a short uptick because of the curiosity factor, viewers deserted the station in droves because its blood-and-guts, in-your-face style was simply not suited to the market--and WBBM never really recovered image-wise, its reputation as a serious news outlet in tatters. It's even more poignant that this was once the station of Jacobson and Kurtis, whose relatively sober, hard news approach was admired around the country. (Walter Jacobson ultimately condemned Applegate's approach and bolted to WFLD.)

 

Applegate is one of the people who ensured that WBBM no longer has anything close to the reputation that WGN or WLS have.

A lot of the station's history/legacy was tied to the historic McClurg Court building which they left some 25 yrs ago. Plus, they lost nearly all their veteran anchors and reporters over the years. Dorothy has been with WBBM for nearly 40 yrs, Suzanne is next with 28 yrs and then Ed, Jim and Dana follow with just over 20 yrs.

I do hope that they really take advantage of the new graphics/branding. Had they stuck with what they started during the 'CBS 2 Works for You' era; who knows what position they would be in today.

1 hour ago, Georgie56 said:

They might be wanting to debut them with the rechristened streetside studio, whenever it debuts.

From what I could make out when I walked past the studio the other day; no 'substantial' work had begun. Unless the new weather center is going to be really bare bones; it could be some time before the streetside studio is complete.