anchorman

Shiba Russell had joined WXIA "11 Alive", the NBC Station in Atlanta, as a morning co-anchor.

Rob is a pro, he will certainly be missed. He will be a great news anchor.

Wonder who will replace? Likely Laura Behnke but I'm just not sure if she's the BEST pick.. I think they should go through all possible options

History usually dictates that this is Laura's job to lose. It would be a slap in the face for her not to get it. She seems to fit in just fine with Bill, Liz, Sade, and Lee when Rob was off, so I don't see why WABC would have any issues with promoting her to the job.

Lots of drama queens on here.

As far as WCBS, I'm curious to see if they can pull off another 11pm sweeps win. Would be very impressive if they can.

How will they feasibly go without a news anchor? The news anchor is the easiest way for them to update the broadcast for the West Coast edition. Whenever news breaks Natalie (or Tamron) would update the 8am news update despite Matt and Savannah being on repeat from the east coast airing. Will Matt & Savannah now stick around on set to as late as 11:30am ET?

 

Also I'm very skeptical they'll have a third hour pairing of Al, Willie, Tamron & Billy. That's too much man. I almost guarantee we'll see a new woman brought along whether that be Erica, Dylan or Sheinelle (or dare I say Kelly Ripa)

Erica was demoted from Weekend Today and had to take a massive pay cut to stay at NBC. She's not getting out ok weekday Today.

Sheinelle doesn't have the gravitas they want for the 9am hour.

Kelly Ripa is currently getting paid insane amounts of money to host 5 hours of random yapping a week. Plus if she wanted to do the network morning show, she would have accepted GMA when they offered it to her.

They only possible scenario of yours could be Dylan, if they are looking to ease her in to eventually replace Al, but also make her more palatable other than just weather (a la Ginger Zee.)

Highly doubt we see much of Natalie on TODAY in her new role. If they want her to be live, that means she'd be appearing on today some time between 4am-7am. There's no way she's going to be on air at 4am to then host Access Live and then Access Hollywood later in the day...

Sounds like Russ was told he would have to take a major pay cut to stay, or was told his contract wasn't going to be renewed outright.

I'd say Kori is just temporary on weekend evenings, until his contract expires.

You realize the "minority" ethnicities of black, Latino and Asian are actually the majority in New York City, right?. Blacks and Latinos alone make up 53% of the NYC population; Asians another 12%. It's too bad you're not satisfied with the fact that the station's 4 weather anchors, 2 sports anchors and 3 of the weekday anchors are Caucasian or that WABC is trying to have a news team that reflects the audience it serves.

 

You've posted on here before about Camille Edwards forcing minorities down your throat. Please, nobody is forcing you to watch. You can change the channel to other stations. Be forewarned, however, some of them are even more diverse than Ch. 7 is. Maybe you're better off moving back to the 1950s.

Jeez, calm down there. You seem like one of those annoying social justice warriors. I can tell because generally they always end a huffy statement with a similar (usually copy and pasted) witty (or what you think is witty) line. In this case it was "Maybe you're better off moving back to the 1950s." I hope you were pleased with that one.

And you're off base. I'm for the BEST person getting the job. Whether that be someone who is black, white, asian, hispanic, or purple. If you cared to do any research, you'd see Camille is notorious for replacing well known talent with young minority hires, at the expense of ratings and viewer trust. She has done this well before WABC, it's her MO. As many have said, Shirleen is not here to anchor the noon news.

Could be. I raised the question because I wonder if a station in the #1 DMA would be willing to have a female chief sports anchor. If it's up to Camille, then maybe it would happen. But otherwise, I imagine there might be some apprehension about how viewers would respond to a female delivering sports on weeknights.

Laura is great. But honestly Camille will jump at putting a black male in that position.

Or Rob Nelson.. Who I'm surprised doesn't get much more airtime.. Camille Edwards better watch out cause WCBS is creeping up on them it seems and WNBC has a fresh start coming soon while I don't think it's enough to beat 7 you never know what will happen.

I think it's because Rob isn't "Camille's guy," in the fact that he came from network and was probably pushed a bit on WABC. I agree, he deserves more airtime. He's a pro.

We once speculated at great lengths the possibility that Rob would eventually transition to news while at WABC. However, the hiring of Shirleen virtually eliminated that possibility. It also essentially put an end to Rob filling in for the news anchors which he had previously been doing more and more of. So, if he indeed wants to transition to news, I guess this makes sense. Would be a loss for the team at a time when more instability isn't needed. Would also raise the question: what happens to Laura Benhke?

True. There is no way Camille would allow a white male to ascend to an anchor position. She'll shove Shirleen and a future minority male hire down our throats before that happens.

Macedo is good, a very solid pickup for WNBC. (If this is true, given Barmash's spotty history.)

Not that I thought Natalie Pasquarella deserved the promotion, but it's telling that they passed over both her and Kerry Barrett.

Dave Price is covering over at NBC Philly today.

if anyone wants to know where dana is here her post

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1722553691311832

Who has been filling in on the 6? Dick and Alice?

This was brought up elsewhere but does anyone here think maybe Diane is going to WNBC to anchor the 4:00 show?

I mean, it's possible. She's certainly capable and a good anchor. I just would think maybe WNBC would try and look outside the market for someone, but who knows.

What was so bad about Andrea Grymes?

The below poster sums it up. She's a solid reporter but comes off as an amateur anchor. Diane was the only person who gave that newscast a bit of credibility. WCBS could do much better in that time slot.

This is really disappointing. Diane made Andrea bearable and with Diane gone, I hope they take this as a chance to dump Andrea too. She's a great reporter but she just doesn't come off as natural as an anchor.

Maybe Erica can try her hand at the local level in NY. If not, I'm sure CNN could find something for her.

The higher ups had been grooming Sade up all these years until she eventually took over the 11pm. She has name recognition, Shirleen does not-yet. If they're struggling at 11pm, it isn't because of Sade, it's because of ABC Primetime. Removing a recognizable face for someone who hasn't been in the market as long will blow up in their face big time.

 

What ever plans Camille has for Shirleen is unknown at this point. Although, I wouldn't put too much stock into Camille right now, with the way things are going at Ch.7. The Lisa Colagrassi situation and sliding ratings are going come back to bite her...

I agree. Right now the 11pm suffered a minor slide in ratings and were thrown off their perch. It shouldn't be viewed as a huge deal--maybe a one off. However, if ratings slide even further, I bet Camille would be out before any major talent is pushed out.

Trust me - they didn't bring Shirleen in just to anchor the noon news. Camille has much bigger plans for her - she was her "baby" at WPVI - and Camille brought her along to WABC.

Shirleen will have 2 hours at the desk by the end of the year.

I agree. Maybe not about Shirleen having 2 hours at the end of the year, but that for sure Camille has larger plans or Shirleen. Let's also not forget that Camille will shove minority hires down your throat until you gag.

I honestly don't think anyone will leave but certain roles will be swapped.

 

Shirleen: promoted from noon co-anchor/early evening reporter to 5 & 11 pm co-anchor.

Sade: bumped off 5 & 11 pm to noon co-anchor/early evening reporter

Diana & Liz: same roles as they are now.

I don't see how they can justify moving Sade off the 11pm unless they have another rough sweeps. Sade is young and a minority, just like Shirleen. Ideally, Camille wants a minority to fill both spots on any given newscast.

It seems like WABC is trying to get more exposure for Shirleen than anything else.

Camille Edwards is going to destroy this station.

Today is Diane Macedo's last day at CBS 2.

 

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Sad to see her go. She made Andrea Grymes tolerable. WCBS should use the opening to develop a new male anchor. They have no depth at the position besides Dick Brennan.

Jim Dolan just tweeted that he is returning to air after eight weeks off. Anybody know why he was off for two months?

I saw that too, didn't even realize he was gone. And Jim is great, one of the best reporters WABC has. From his previous replies, it looks like he is playing coy as to why (understandably.)

This ain't nothing new. Katie Fehlinger have filled-in at Channel 2 before.

Since she was doing weather, I get that. But for traffic, it's kind of weird.

It also seems to acknowledge WCBS' lack of depth.

according to a facebook post on alex denis's page Kyla Grogan will be filling in for her when she is out on Maternity Leave

A meteorologist from CBS Philly filling in as traffic reporter? That's weird.

I wouldn't be surprised if WNBC utilized Stefan as Chuck's primary fill in.

Neither would I. That's quite the disparity in age, though.

No wow on Gus getting passed over. Not sure why you and some others are so high on him.

 

But this doesn't bode well for David and/or Rob. No way WNBC keeps 4 male anchors in the afternoon/evening rotation (I think even three is too many), unless Chuck's planning on retiring soon.

 

My guess is Kerry Barrett or Natalie Pasquarella will likely join the evening rotation as well (replacing Shiba).

Whew, settle down there! Yes it is in fact surprising, since many say this newscast is just a placeholder, considering NBC is already looking at syndies for 2017. Calm down.