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I don't think any fleet would be complete without a NEWS TANK. I'm talking to you, Central Europe and Middle East. #notkidding

ABC 7 is hosting a debate with the Republican candidates for governor on Thursday night. Moderated by lead anchor Ron Magers, it's going to be aired live on 7.2, in late night on Univision's WGBO, and on Friday night at 7 on the mothership. But none of that matters, for the most important part is the THE OLD ELECTION MUSIC IS BEING USED!!! Pardon me for a moment... F*ck. Yeah.

Jimmy Kimmel did 11 o'clock sports on KABC Monday night, because it was apparently 'National Rob Fukuzaki Day'... [yt]MUr4Skq0w_A[/yt]

Meanwhile, at NBC...

I vaguely remember the Fox partnership, but I couldn't vouch for the CBS union.

The paper's partnership with NBC 5 is ending, and ABC 7 is partnering with The Chicago Sun-Times for weather coverage. http://www.robertfeder.com/2014/02/10/suntimes-com-adds-abc-7-weather-updates/

It's a day ending in 'Y', there's a good chance Diane is off. At least it seems that way. However, as someone who thoroughly enjoys David and George, her absence is rarely a bad thing to me.

The 'Start Here' era promo graphics are FINALLY gone... [yt]Iqs5SkG3jHw[/yt]

A midnight update seems highly unlikely. Remember, in 2012, they still had Nightline in the post-news spot. Now that it's Kimmel, they're not going to break his show in two.

Going back to the issue of who will replace Diane, it seems like Mr. Stephanopoulos is a draw when on 'World News'. Perhaps it's a fluke, but there is now evidence (that could come into play at negotiation time) that the flagship program CAN and HAS seen a ratings increase with George at the desk, albeit for a single night. http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/george-stephanopoulos-wins-on-three-different-shows-in-the-same-week_b212656

Ryan Chiaverini will also have an interview with GMA's Ginger Zee from New York.

Here's a good one, a rare find on YouTube; the headline cue and open to 'World News Tonight' from late 2005 (August 17th, in this video). This was when the program was without a permanent anchor, after Peter Jennings' death and before the doomed Vargas/Woodruff pairing. Damn, even without Peter, I miss this era of 'World News Tonight' so much... [yt]RuBOFLnGQNc[/yt]

What about an hour of Millionaire at 3 (double showings are fairly common in many markets), and expand the noon news to an hour?

I'm just talking about what I've noticed for WLS. It's been done before where weekday afternoon meteorologist Mike Caplan has come in on a weekend afternoon to provide back-up for Phil Schwarz, and the only recent time I recall Phil taking a backseat was when he had been on all day and chief Jerry Taft came in to relieve him. As for the Sunday night anchor scenario, they did have the weekday team do the 10pm show when the NATO summit came to town in 2012, but that's not surprising since the weekend anchors had been on for most of the afternoon. And in regards to special Sunday events, WLS seems to have enough confidence in the weekend anchors that they always do the late show after the Oscars and such. In Chicago, the weekday-crew-on-a-weekend trend is something only the CBS, NBC and Fox stations stick to. I can't remember the last time WLS did that on a big primetime event night.

The mid-forecast hand-off is nothing new. I will say, I don't really like that Tracy was given the lead role, as this is Troy's broadcast, but that's neither here nor there. I do have to disagree with you about the tag-teaming being pretty much unnecessary. Now, I don't like being a know-it-all, but I think my (limited) weather training/experience gives me a bit of insight in this kind of situation. As it is in my classroom, as it is in the weather center...two pairs of eyes are better than one, plain and simple. Do they both need to be on-air? Maybe not, but when their putting their maps together, looking at the systems, bouncing theories around, multiple personnel is invaluable. A little unrelated, but Tracy actually came to our class this week and talked with us about that middle ground, where the training and the on-air forecasting meets. Having the ability to work with someone else, getting into a discussion only helps them get better. In fact, she had such a good time, that she'd like to come back, sometime. [ATTENTION: shameless self-promotion.] They were filming a segment with our lead professor, for a special that will air in a few weeks...and I'm likely going to make an appearance.

According to her Facebook page, Linda will be back on Monday. I dry run sitting at the desk today was successful.

Ice desks are soooo last week. The ice green screen is where it's at now... http://www.newscaststudio.com/2014/01/29/ohio-station-builds-ice-chroma-key-wall/

WGN in Chicago isn't, either. I don't it's something they have much of a say-so in, as the CW has been very (somewhat) strict in allowing pre-emptions of their programming than the WB ever was...though it mostly applies to sporting events.

Wasn't that experimental week with Oprah? If not, I'd guess it would be Mary Ann Childers, as she was doing the 4:30 show at that time. It's hard to figure out these things with WLS, as everything is kind of blurry from when Fahey Flynn died in '83 to when Drury and Kalber joined the station in '84.

Any idea when her anniversary falls? I want to say it's much later in the year.

Yeah, she pops up on one or two Saturday nights a year. I mean, Jerry's been on vacation every other week lately, and they've been working Mike like a racehorse, so she's next in line...especially if anyone's job is on the line. Mike or Jerry will be in tomorrow night, as they implied that Troy will be solo tomorrow morning and Tracy will be on at 4 AM Monday.

Not that it entirely matters, but it is somewhat of a reflection of the show's success...GMA has surpassed Today in total followers on both Twitter and Facebook, also being the first of the morning shows to reach 2,000,000 on the latter site.

I don't think so.

ABC News gets credit for this one. Here's the opening to the very first edition of 'World News Tonight' from 1978. It features Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson, Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters and Howard K. Smith... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151985497989818&stream_ref=1