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As I've said before, if they try to cut Windy City Live in half, they might as well cancel it. Rachael Ray is the likely victim. Also, management has said (take their word for it or not) that WCL, Inside Edition and Jeopardy! are safe in their time slots.

I think they were supposed to switch to Stimulus entirely, but like WLS with those cuts in '07, WABC backed out and stuck with the standard.

Remember when there were rumors back in 2010/2011 that the newscasts would start using the 2007 Stimulus cuts that WLS had previously rejected? Heck, I think some of these station IDs are in the rotation. I know I saw one on their revamped stream last week. [yt]szncRPhMXI8[/yt]

Who anchored the mothership tonight?

http://espn.go.com/chicago/radio/show?showId=ws

He's done worse without issue, especially this was pretty much self-deprecating. He went on the radio minutes later and they teased him about it because I tweeted his remark to them.

"I'm bringing my own 'Reporter Potty'." -Mark Giangreco And this was on the mothership, not the radio.

http://deadline.com/2015/04/abc-world-news-beats-nbc-nightly-news-ratings-record-ends-1201405351/ Keep in mind, 'Nightly' is no longer adding on the overnight rebroadcast ratings. That aside, both shows were way down, likely due spring break and the religious holidays.

It's just coming out now on Twitter, so I haven't yet seen any articles, but many sources confirm that 'World News Tonight' won the total ratings battle last week; first time in 5.5 years (during Gibson's home stretch).

Hmm. I thought I had heard that Selip's #2 (I don't recall the name) was moving into the position, with little fanfare and no search.

With lifestyle reporter/resident chef Wayne Johnson being fired from NBC 5 last week after 9 years, the station announced that celebrity chefs will begin appearing on the 11AM news to cook their restaurant's most famous dishes. This is obviously the direction the station is going that Wayne claimed didn't include him. What interests me, though, is that they're allegedly installing a full kitchen on their set. unless it's going to be some removable piece, I have no idea where they're going to put it. http://www.robertfeder.com/2015/04/06/celebrity-chefs-get-cooking-on-nbc-5/

Per Stacey Baca on Twitter, he's another shot of the graphics package. I'm guessing whoever designed the look tried to mimic the main station logo and turn it into a 3D object, but appears much different when returned to flat positioning.

Get ready. It's coming... Yes, that's a different version of the Circle 7. I don't know why, because it looks like crap, especially on a small scale.

Not gonna lie, I read that as 'Elpa So Proud'. I'm probably not the only one.

New weatherman joining the station ... [yt]8E2sH3m_hR8[/yt]

That's a flawed plan. There are so many other contingency plans they could opt for, including using Zoraida at 4:30pm, instead of at 10. It really makes no sense when you consider how they handled Stefan's weeklong evening term...unless Z is only doing this today. Either way, it makes Judy Hsu's day/night fill-in shifts look like a cakewalk.

No notable changes at 4 o'clock in the February books. As always, the vocal minority has the loudest opinion.

Hosea and Judy are anchoring at 4, and I'm so confused at what time it is.

The plug it at the end of the 6pm show, with a similar graphic that they use to promote the 10 on the 7 show, and the morning news at 10. Otherwise, the promos for the newscast run several times a day in the rotation with the weather and morning show plugs, but mostly during the early evening news block and especially during Wheel of Fortune at 6:30. WCIU also runs a bunch, and even alerts viewers on some of their sub-channels at the top of the hour. Back to my point before, I'd best compare it to NBC's mentality with Leno in primetime; it will perform best against repeats and weak competition. Besides, I don't know the balance of cost of producing news versus the Tyler Perry syndies in replaced, but the ABC 7 product might be more advertiser-friendly, even if with similar ratings. I'd also be curious to know the kind of numbers KABC pulls at 7pm on LA56. Again, I don't know what people were expecting. Anyone who thought it would unseat one of the 5 networks on a nightly basis would be out of their minds.

Was anyone thinking that this was going to set the world ablaze? I'm a little surprised that it hasn't improved on what it replaced, but it hasn't declined, at least. I'm also interested to see how the broadcast will do in the summer against repeats, subpar summer programming, and baseball (which isn't appointment television like Bulls and Hawks games). I do wonder what the deal is in terms of who gets to pull the plug and when?

There are some unusual reporting assignments this afternoon. Cheryl Burton is on reporter/breaking news duty during the 4 o'clock show, a role that would normally be filled by Chuck Goudie, and not unlike what she does at 10. This week, however, Goudie is in Baltimore awaiting the arrival of Jesse Jackson Jr, who was released from prison in Alabama (with Paul Meincke on that scene) to a halfway house in Maryland. Meanwhile, I-Team producer Ross Weidner is trailing the former congressman's entourage en route to Baltimore, and he made (what I believe to be) his on-air reporting debut today from the station's vehicle. I doubt he's joining the on-air side permanently, and was clearly very nervous when talking with Alan and Judy (who I'm now convinced is Linda's main back-up at 4), but all made for some unusual arrangements, anyway.

WABC and WLS both started doing that recently, as well. It's a feed that's very similar to what's seen on the WatchABC service.

WABC has started showing ads and promos during their breaks over the last week or two. The big thing I'm noticing is that the whole streaming presentation is incredibly similar to the WatchABC stream, with most TV ads replaced with station filler, the sports scores during that segment, and a holding pattern logo filling the remaining void until the show returns (and, in turn, showing the last second of the OTA commercial before the newscast returns).

Here's a doozy. This is a documentary produced by WBKB Chicago in 1967 looking at the corruption and poor conditions within the Cook County Jail. Hosted by a 33 year old Joel Daly, this aired the year before WBKB would become WLS. Some of the content is surprisingly graphic for its time, including violence, drugs, and sex, and it's certainly a sharp departure from the "Happy Talk" Eyewitness News format that the station would help pioneer soon after. [yt]lHTvvzozBnk[/yt]

I said it before, I'll say it again. When David became Diane's primary sub and assumed both weekend shows, it was glaringly obvious that he was being groomed for a bigger role, be it GMA or WNT. To prevent any speculation and avoid having too many top-tier anchors, they went back to 2 weekend anchors, who (especially in Cecilia's case) were merely general assignment correspondents prior to this role. Also because of that, you sure as heck won't see them fill in on the weeknight broadcast on a normal night. Thanksgiving or Independence Day? Maybe. As I see it, I'm guessing Robach, Vargas and maybe Harris will be the main subs for David. Also, whether or not David's available during MAJOR breaking news, keep in mind that George supersedes everybody (though it likely wouldn't be a formal WNT, just the time slot).