tvtime07

4 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

I’ll believe THAT when I see it. The story is largely sourced from a staffer present at a meeting in which the McKimmons didn’t even say a word.

 

This feels like spin to hide a massive bloodletting at KUSI and merger at the KSWB building. Nexstar’s purely a bottom line company and there’s no reason for them to maintain two distinct news departments like this. At the same time, they can’t have everyone at KUSI quit in protest over the actual plans.

I agree with you. It's a little bit laughable but expected, they're pretty much calming the waters in the eyes of their workforce (and in some respects the public) in the midst of a merger. 

So they say the KUSI brand will be "preserved", but that feels rather ambiguous in my eyes.

Kinda sad that KSWB has to move out, they have the most handsome on-air set and backlot out of all the stations in San Diego, hopefully there's no downgrades when they become neighbors with KUSI. 

I do love how the article had to include that KUSI will be receiving upgrades and a new set too (Thank goodness).

I sure hope KUSI/KSWB will a similar set design to what KTLA and WPIX has, that would be so classy. 

35 minutes ago, sfomspphl said:

 

It's probably more well known and recognized, but it's a polarizing brand from the political slant. 

 

People who watch KUSI news tend to be fiercely loyal to it, not interested in the other stations. They like Dan Plante's rants, Brandon Stone's quirks, they miss Dave Scott's wandering on air. And the other way around, there's a sizable contingent that would refuse to watch anything KUSI related. But Steve Cohen did an interview last year that said some large percentage of households tune into a KUSI newscast any given week or month. From what I heard recently KUSI is very strong at 10 and 11pm, - jockeying for #1, not sure about morning, and guessing evening is muddling along. 

 

Would be nice if they could find a way to keep a KUSI identity, but without Steve Cohen as the news director (doubt he's staying around) who will prosecute the hyper-local coverage and angles, and let even longshot local political candidates come on to be heard. The sale price might indicate advertisers stayed away but maybe that's just a function of having no real prime time or sports $$ presence. 

 

Living in the market, KSWB is 'just another station' - perfectly fine product that works any number of places, and exists because of lead-ins from sports and network, but at least for me not appointment viewing since the same product is on 3 other stations. I probably won't watch much local news if KUSI drifts to a more traditional coverage format, and goes for less colorful, quirky personalities. But that might not matter to Nexstar or profit margins.

 

 

Heck yeah, but San Diego always had that political slant for some reason...  One America News Network calls America's Finest City home. San Diego has always been deemed more conservative compared to our neighbors in Los Angeles. 

KUSI does have that slant. Heck, I remember when the late weatherman John Coleman would reject global warming, KUSI dedicated specials on that topic alone. One check of their Instagram, and you can totally see where their audiences' allegiance is. This alone kinda tells you what people like: https://www.kusi.com/kusi-news-dominates-2022-san-diego-union-tribune-readers-poll/

If anyone misses Dave Scott, he performs jazz weekly in fine dining restaurants at Rancho Santa Fe and Escondido. This just made reminded me of Ron Burgundy and his jazz flute.   You stay classy San Diego.

I agree with you on KSWB, it's come a long way since it they got their Fox affiliation; their early days were quite shaky but they've built a brand for themselves. My PR tips for Nexstar, keep KSWB's hip brand and KUSI's name and quirkiness, dump the right-wing bent.

3 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

As @Samanthapointed out to me, this outright eliminates KSWB's main competitor, there are no newscasts on KUSI that don't overlap with KSWB. Because of that, the chances KUSI maintains any sort of separate operations is very, very small; in the case of Indianapolis, WTTV and WXIN have to have separate news ops because of the nature of their affiliations.

 

Of note, KFMB-DT2's contract with the CW (reupped in 2021) runs through September 2026. So either Nexstar said what they said under the impression Tegna is planning to opt-out of their CW contracts, or they are forcing the issue for Tegna. Otherwise I cannot understand why Nexstar just turned KFMB-DT2 into a lame-duck CW affiliate for three years.

A few thoughts came into my mind... would Nexstar go with the KCAL route and just rebrand everything KUSI News? Nexstar paid $35 million for it and I just don't see it going away, it's a brand that is well known in San Diego; getting KCAL'd would seem to be the most cost-efficient, there wouldn't be a need for separate branding packages and it would reduce redundancies. Both brands already use red, white and blue in their branding. Just use KSWB's good looking studio and graphics and KUSI's iconic theme music together.

Merging of the two talents/staff from both stations: let's face it, this is going to happen, but if they mirror this to KTLA's situation in terms of cumulative hours on air: 15+ hours on weekdays, 8+ hours one weekends, then maybe there might be room for everybody?

I also wonder if Nexstar will move any of KUSI's syndication offerings over to KSWB so it will mirror Fox O&O stations? KUSI always got many of the programs that would usually air on Fox O&Os: TMZ, Extra, Jennifer Hudson, and Sherry.

Also, it's probably a good thing for Nexstar to have an additional hub for Newsnation in San Diego being that it's so close to the border. Nexstar is also getting into local sports, I can see them airing KTLA's Clippers games locally and possibly steal some of that local Padres tv rights from Bally.

54 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

Welp, there are about to be a lot of anchor changes at KUSI AND KSWB (and a lot more than that); Nexstar is buying KUSI.

Yeah, this would be a major change! When KUSI picked-up LIV Golf from Tegna's KFMB a couple months back, I knew something was up. This article suspects that KUSI will be a CW station when the affiliation becomes available: https://www.nexttv.com/news/nexstar-media-agrees-to-acquire-kusi-tv-san-diego-for-dollar35-million

It will be interesting how news operations will merge. Both stations have completely different narratives; KUSI is more conservative-bent and has a news set from 1990s while KSWB's Fox 5 News has built up a cool, So San Diego vibe and has one of the best news sets in the area in my opinion. Will the stations adopt one news brand? Will there be simulcasts? So many questions. 

Yesterday was definitely an interesting day. When the Dominion stuff came out and unflattering things that Tucker had said about Trump as well as antisemitic and misogynistic behavior amongst his tv staff, it made me wonder if his days are numbered. Fox News took out highly-rated Bill O'Reilly who was still their flagship personality at the time in 2017, so they were bound to take Tucker off if they felt like he would tarnish their brand further, so it didn't come as a surprise to me yesterday. For me, Fox News will find a heir for the timeslot, they have a stable of personalities that could take over the the timeslot and I have no doubt viewers will continue to watch as long as the pundits continue to say things they like to hear. Watching Fox News is pretty much a political pep rally 24/7, it succeeds because people cling to charismatic personalities that validate their world view.   For me, that Dominion trial should have proceeded if we really wanted to see actual damage to Fox News.

Also, Tucker Carlson is unfortunately prime to take on political aspirations in my personal opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if his team is already looking into that. He has a huge following and this situation makes him somewhat of a fallen hero in many people's eyes. So the media has to be careful and take things seriously, we don't want another Trump 2.0. 

12 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

That's a normal thing. My affiliate airs this every morning coming out of the final break of the morning news. She doesn't have a newsy role, but I'm guessing she has the availability to provide these pre-recorded previews throughout the morning.

Yeah, I feel bad for Ginger. I don't have live TV but I sometimes stream into GMA on Hulu and they always cut the weather forecast segment, which I never understood, you hardly see her (or whomever does the weather). You realize how much her role was cut through the years, I remember when Sam Champion had a prominent role when he was on the show and he would do segments that didn't have to deal with weather. 

1 hour ago, Action Newsroom said:

Damming indeed. That is some gross, salacious, embarrassing and unconscionable behavior lead by an inflated ego and a self-serving drive for more airtime. And the fact that executives at the time of these communications just let him off the hook each time is just as terrible. If this won't lead to his termination or resignation from the network, nothing will.

It's indeed sad. I've never been a fan of Lemon just from how he presents himself on television, I always found him as arrogant and annoying at times. His style of reporting is why I don't appreciate the state of cable news. This Variety article just confirms he is a toxic person to work with as well. I was really surprised when he wasn't let go last year, but with CNN This Morning's ratings in the toilet, CNN should cut their losses with Lemon. 

Oh yeah, the Romero/Mester mess was darn awful and shouldn't have happened, they should have properly given Lynette a nice farewell even is she was leaving for a competitor, it wouldn't have blown up amongst viewers and Mester would have kept his cool and would probably be there today. Then a few months later the favorable 5 Live gets cancelled... looks like one bad decision after another for KTLA, thank goodness at least one good thing happened in the past several months: the set redesign looks beautiful. 

Unless anything unflattering comes out, sounds like ABC is just fulfilling Marciano's contract with them, which means they'd probably not renew it. They literally found a replacement for him on GMA Weekend. The writing is on the wall. 

3 hours ago, TheNewsTV said:

Technical problems caused CBS Mornings to be from Studio 57 instead of the traditional 1515.

To this day, their move to Time Square has been pointless. If you're a new viewer to the show, you would have no idea that they were broadcasting at "the crossroads of the world". They would have saved so much money if they stayed at Studio 57. 

1 hour ago, Georgie56 said:

Ryan Seacrest is leaving Live, and Kelly’s husband Mark Consuelos is his successor.

 

 

Looks like more changes in the syndication world, this time to TV's number 1 daytime talker, I wonder If Disney tried their hardest to have him stay onboard. I can't really blame Seacrest though, he's a busy guy and the back and forth during Idol season must be really exhausting. Kudos to him being a hard worker, but his personal time must have been quite limited. I really thought Ripa was going to pass the baton to Seacrest in terms of succession.

Consuelos will be a good match with Ripa, but if they both "retire" at the same time years down the road, then it will ultimately bring some instability and more questions about the future of the Live franchise, it is a personality driven show that needs chemistry; I wonder if Gelman has started mapping out possible successors already. Heck, since they are a couple, Ripa and Consuelos will most likely be off during the same time period when they go on family vacations together, so they will most likely have trial runs with matching up people when they're off.  It does gives GMA3 an open possibility of taking over the slot as well if that show can get their act together.

Personally, I would have preferred someone like Josh Groban taking over, he was my favorite when he tried out all those years ago. 

Over here in San Diego, LIV will air on independent station KUSI instead of Tegna's KFMB/CW San Diego. Wondering what's KUSI's angle on all of this, are they trying to slowly get the CW affiliation? KUSI is a stronger station and a loyal (and wealthy) following. 

The weird thing about this is that the CW San Diego has acquired sports programming before, as recently as last fall: https://www.sdloyal.com/news/2022/10/18/sd-loyal-playoff-match-to-be-broadcasted-on-the-cw-san-diego/

Here's the announcement from this morning, the anchors look and sound "so excited": 

1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

Well, ESPN won't be on the block, but Iger all but telegraphed that Disney is close to offloading their majority stake in Hulu.

 

 

Disney definitely owns a significant amount of brands, so if they do sell-off Hulu,  they can re-route content from FX, ABC, Freeform, 20th Century, and Searchlight to Disney+, that's what they've been doing internationally. Makes you wonder if Universal would want to go all-in on Hulu and ditch Peacock altogether. 

I feel like most people forget Disney has partial ownership of A&E Networks (50%) and VICE Media (16%), I wonder if any of those will be re-evaluated at this time, or if they're fine being silent partners with those entities, those two ventures haven't been really integrating under Disney, I'm surprised ABC News hasn't partnered with Vice News on projects. 

6 minutes ago, TVLurker said:

man they should just sell 33% to Fox Corp. and call it a day. much easier than offloading an investment you spent millions of dollars on.

I do wonder if Fox would invest in some of Hulu again, they did recently renew their relationship with them: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-30/fox-renews-deal-to-put-prime-time-shows-on-disney-s-hulu-service

10 hours ago, iron_lion said:

Lara's role has been really undefined and sporatic since Josh left and especially since Michael joined.

Yeah, ever since the program shifted to an emphasis on the main trio: Robin, George, and Michael, it seemed like everyone else (Ginger, Lara, Amy and Jesse) played the second and third fiddle. I can see Lara making more of an impact now to fill the void left by Amy. 

Seems like ABC News president is now on thin ice in regard to her handling of the Robach-Holmes situation: https://www.thedailybeast.com/abc-news-bleeding-from-self-inflicted-wound-after-gma3-love-scandal?utm_campaign=owned_social&utm_source=facebook_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow&source=TDB&via=FB_Page&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_campaign=owned_social&source=TDB&via=FB_Page&utm_source=facebook_owned_tdb&fbclid=IwAR0ypak1qfZrSjWEE6Hkojj6vv5bpoViK1V5MmVrAwEbYL2IHyh4NfWaU6w

50 minutes ago, FiveNews said:

Does anyone know if the Weekend Morning News has settled on Doug Kolk and Lauren Lyster as the new permanent anchors? I ask because I notice the Weekend Morning News mugs were updated today. In addition to Doug and Lauren, regulars Megan Telles and Kacey Montoya were on the mugs as well.

 I noticed the mugs too. Have they made it official?  I'm not really a fan of the current weekend morning cast, unfortunately, the show feels so stale now. 

I'm also disappointed that 5 Live has ended. Kudos to Sam, Andy, Rob and Bobby for providing a very personal, unique program. My wishful thinking hopes that the 5 Live team would co-host the upcoming KTLA News 4pm hour together, they can do a traditional newscast with 5 Live elements in between. .

4 minutes ago, Drew said:

They are both good anchors but their future is now in cable news only at least for several years since the broadcast networks will not touch them. I wonder if their buyout of their contract will still have a non complete clause for a year or so. Amy should have stayed with NBC News Group. 

Like I said previously, CNN would be wise to pick them up for primetime. Their chemistry is dynamic like Joe and Mica. 

I do wonder if ABC/Disney made TJ and Amy sign an NDA? 

19 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

I don't think many of us expected this outcome when this all came to light. Perhaps it was a result of some of the additional information they uncovered, but I have a feeling a lot of the reason they are out is the way TJ and Amy reacted. It seems as if they went to war with ABC and that's never helpful if your goal is to stay employed there. Plus they seemed to lack any ounce of discretion. Fairly or unfairly, they became too big of a story.

Yeah, when this began, I thought they stood a chance to continue, but I forgot how cut-throat and dramatic it can be behind the scenes. This has all the makings of a cheesy Lifetime limited series. The online tabloids have suggested that Lara had always had a beef with Amy and Robin didn't like how this incident could tarnish the GMA brand; it's also noted that Robin neglected to mention Amy much in her memoir, so I'm pretty sure these tensions boiled up backstage between personalities.  

I agree with you, I do feel like TJ and Amy should have gone private with their relationship in December, having them kissing on that pier last month just didn't help their case. But maybe they both realized they had nothing left at ABC at that point, so maybe that was part of a publicity stunt. 

ABC News is in an interesting time, they've had a number of promising on-air talent leave: Tom Llamas, Cecilia Vega, and now TJ and Amy. I do wonder if they plan to poach any talent elsewhere, Robin Meade or Jeff Glor?

The recent TMZ article suggested that Amy has mishandled alcohol, which I think was far-reaching for HR to put into their mediation session, but I always wondered if drunk Diane Sawyer ever got into some trouble: 

10 hours ago, iron_lion said:

 

 

The headline makes a point of saying the intern was 24, which is old enough to make your own decisions. TJ aside, I notice we're infantalizing 21+ year olds alot these days. I'm sure their stunted independece (living at home, having children & marrying later due to the economy) plays a big role this growing image. 24 isn't as smart as you'll ever be, but it's certainly agebale enough to decide wether or not you want to sleep with a married co-worker, mentor, superior or whatever position. 

https://nypost.com/

Indeed! Unless she had some sort of mental disability, which I highly doubt, she had an idea of what she got herself into when started relations with a married man. You're old enough at 24 to make a choice, it takes two to tango. 

Yeah, it's not looking too good for TJ with the series of alleged relationships he had during his time at ABC. DeMarco Morgan seems to be his eventual replacement.

I still do think that TJ and Amy can make waves with their own hour at CNN, they definitely have chemistry on-air that could make it an interesting and dynamic hour on television. It would definitely bring eyeballs to CNN. 

This smells like NewsCentral all over again. Looks like KCAL News will be the primary local news brand, @cbsla is no more on Instagram. This news station will be confusing many viewers as I don't think it the public will realize that "CBS 2 News" is obsolete. 

32 minutes ago, MorningNews said:

I don’t see a situation where ABC gets rid of both, if anyone is at risk it’s T.J. for his propensity for banging colleagues. Even then, that seems like an unlikelihood. Were the dynamics of this any other than two seemingly happily married colleagues slyly messing around (basically has Dailymail not blasted it as an affair) then I think GMA milks this romance for all it’s worth. GMA3 is likely but I don’t see the two of them back on main GMA together though it’s anyone’s guess. 

This is the same network that airs the longest-running scripted medical drama where doctors bang each other all the time and the network practically placed 4 hours of their fall primetime programming to show singletons dating each other in a tropical resort in Mexico, where they have a legendary "boom boom room". For a media company that has embraced sex-positivity in its programming, it's sort of hypocritical that they would be taking the so-called moral high ground for their employees. If their investigation finds that no company policies were violated, let Amy and TJ go back to work together I say. 

6 hours ago, mountainave said:

I can't explain the decision to bench them anymore than anyone else, but this went all the way to the level of Bob Iger, who's now back as Disney's CEO, so it was not made with haste. I'm certain they consulted with PR & Public Affairs, and knew the likelihood of external media attention.  As I've previously said, I agree that relationships between non-subordinate colleagues are private matters so long as they don't become workplace matters. Godwin acknowledged that their behavior (as it is currently known) did not violate any policies.  Still, it sounds like this became a serious workplace distraction once the affair was brought to light which is itself an issue executives must deal with as well.  Moreover, Holmes and Robach surely had to meet with HR, Godwin, and perhaps others at the company, all of which is time consuming and distracting if you're also preparing for and hosting a show the same day. There may also be more to the story that we don't know, and the decision to bench for a few days may have also been a "warning shot" to Robach and Holmes to mind their behavior.

 

All in all, many possibilities, but ABC is not the JV team and I'm willing to believe there was a fair rationale for the decision.  They were not terminated.  It would not surprise me to see them back on air on Monday.

Yeah, it looks like Disney is playing it safe, taking their time to see if anything else comes out and making sure company policies weren't violated.

Again, I go back to the Joe Scarborough/ Mika Brzezinski situation and how they've been able to continue on. 

At the same time, this type of buzz has brought GMA3 to the forefront, the media can't stop talking about it. Disney execs have to realize that they are chartering new territory and must realize that this relationship is going to be part of the dynamics of the program going forward; if TJ and Amy are indeed falling in love, that kind of energy will indeed bring in viewers. Morning news viewers will eat this up.

If anything, if Disney decides they can't take distractions, TJ and Amy are perfect for CNN, give them some sort of show with them together in primetime, it would bring in eyeballs and interest and bring relevance to the network. 

On 11/5/2022 at 11:12 AM, Newsjunkie24 said:

 

Knowing the way revivals are big these days, I wouldn't be surprised to see Whose Line come back eventually, plus of how cheap it is to produce. Maybe ABC can give it another go alongside its other game shows.

I'd love ABC to revive it, heck maybe they can make it LIVE so it would bring more interest. I wonder if they've been thinking about it, they've had Wayne Brady compete on Dancing with the Stars on Disney+ this fall and he hosted the American Music Awards on ABC last month. It would be cool if they made him as the new host and incorporate new talent while mixing the legacy talent from time to time.

What are all your thoughts on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough? This is pretty much the same situation, just without the pictures in the Daily Mail (which I have no problem with personally since they have been separated from their partners). Mika and Joe are still doing fine all these years on MSNBC. 

Always thought Holmes and Robach were the future for main GMA, but this event makes things very interesting indeed. They always had good chemistry on-air, but it seems like things sparked off-air.  I wonder how ABC will position this? Will viewers care? I think if they come out in the open and be truthful about what happened, I think most viewers who are already invested in GMA3 will be okay with it, I think some morning viewers will actually welcome it (might even help with ratings). They weren't in an affair like the tabloids are saying, it's 2022 and they've been separated from their partners since August. 

32 minutes ago, CLETVFan said:

Does anyone see NewsNation content and programming popping up on The CW?

Very likely we will see programming powered by NewsNation, I can totally see crime documentaries and other news magazine specials (in the vein of how TMZ has been doing primetime specials on Fox) being part of the lineup. 

Kinda sad but not shocked that Mark Pedowitz is gone. He did a lot of good for The CW and kept the network's relevancy. It will certainly be interesting to see where Nextstar will take The CW, would love to see some sort of original programing continue. 

1 hour ago, FiveNews said:

#BoycottKTLA is on Twitter. While I may not agree with how KTLA handled the Lynette situation, some of the folks on Twitter do not understand how a TV contract works. Plain and simple, Mark violated the terms and conditions of his contract, hence his departure. I really wish viewers understood how the intricacies of TV news works. I'd like to engage with some of the viewers on Twitter, but I know it would be fruitless.

The thing is, morning television is such a communal experience. That's the wonderful thing that KTLA Morning News has been able to establish all these years and why they have been unbeatable, these news personalities become part of people's daily routine, viewers invite them into their house every single morning as they report news-weather-traffic-entertainment-and-everything-else, KTLA gave viewers a window to the world and interpersonal bonds are developed in the process -- Lynette connected with many viewers, and to have her 24 year career as a respected broadcast journalist end with a short and lackluster announcement was hurtful to loyal viewers, it's as if their family member was evicted suddenly.

Listen, I totally understand the roots and protocols that human resources and management have to abide with, but it's this by-the-book nonsense that people have an issue with. All of this could have been prevented if management came to their senses and gave Lynette a dignified manner to say goodbye, just at a PR standpoint at the very least.

Did Mark Mester make a mistake for going rogue on live television? Yes, putting out dirty laundry last Saturday was disrespectful and was not professional.  It's an unfortunate circumstance but it makes me wonder why management did not do anything to ease or prevent the mishap. You have a coworker who is totally heartbroken that his work partner wasn't getting her dues, he posted on his public social media that he will share his view on the matter, but did management try to find a solution to resolve this issue?

At the end of the day, are your employees robots or humans? There has to be a reason for this mass exodus that's happening at KTLA, Mark was probably at a boiling point.  Mark's career will be fine, he's not damaged goods; the public sees this as a person who was sticking up for his fellow colleague, he will get picked up somewhere, his career is bright.