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[Station ditches talent opens] "Booooooo, they suck! No sense of tradition!" [Station updates talent opens] "Booooooo, not good enough! These are crap!" This new open is absolutely fine. The fact that they're using existing shots makes keeping talent opens a more viable option, in the future.

Note, this is the first time in 20-plus years that the co-anchors aren't intro'd in the same shot, which is surely a distancing measure. That said, these exact same shots could be spliced into the new graphics. Assembling these opens should be a fairly simple cut & paste job.

I'm not holding my breath about ANY of this being finalized, but let's slow that down, anyway. wcco the 4.mp4

You sure about that? Really, I don't know. I'm just going off their website.

If Nexstar wanted to pivot to more wholesome programming, targeted away from the young, coastal elites, THIS is always an option... https://www.facebook.com/WGNMorningNews/videos/798205484699227/

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. All this.

I've moved all the set posts to the dedicated thread, so we're not carrying on two conversations at once.

"I don't like something, so instead of just not tuning in, it shouldn't exist for anybody."

The #1 station in the #1 market (their preferred moniker) has largely lagged behind its sister stations in rolling out new streaming options. KTRK, as an example, is now going live, in some form, until 10am. Others added up to 2 hours of daily streaming. Last I checked, WABC offers the fewest hours of weekday news of the O&O's, with the only known additions being at 6:30pm, and what, maybe 30 minutes after 7am? (Someone correct me on that.) Point being, there's totally room for growth, and only 4 meteorologists has already felt low for both the market and the fellow large-market O&O's. It's time.

The rest of the O&O group, save for Raleigh and Fresno, have AT LEAST 5, if not 6.

Or maybe, JUST MAYBE, they're finally adding a 5th meteorologist, even if she doesn't carrying a regular show assignment. Besides, as much as we love speculating, there's no reason to not take the chief at his word, for now.

It shouldn't be too much of a surprise, as that set design seen elsewhere, while obviously attractive enough and totally serviceable, is over 5 years old.

The difference I remember hearing, when compared to Chuck, is that Sue wasn't as willing to do more than just the 11, whether it was adding a show, filling in, or other programming. Chuck was willing, as he was still doing 2 shows.

Ernie. Not Earnie.

I'll bet money that KABC's 7pm newscast either immediately continues or is quickly resurrected on their streaming channels, but that's for another thread.

I've actually found the 7pm to be Cheryl Burton's best newscast, because I always thought she'd be better-suited for a looser, more conversational, morning-like format. That said, I still agree about her, overall. Scott not being in the studio makes the banter difficult, and I think Larry and Phil are okay on the show, but Greg and his chemistry with Rob is definitely the star combo. As for the morning hour, I don't watch it as much as the early morning and 11am, but I've caught Terrell stopping himself from cursing on the OTA newscasts. It's all about finding a balance.

I know some of you New York types don't like to venture outside your little tri-state bubble, but you might want to check this out. The "CBS News [City] Now" duopoly branding is going out to almost everyone, with KCAL as one notable exception.

Until the graphics debut, there is zero reason why it deserves its own discussion in the individual station threads. Besides, WABC's inability to be trusted with their own look is one of the reasons why a group-wide package is necessary.

And since there's been uncertainty about what the final logo designs are, for the O&O's, as the "creative" types online keep throwing out Frankenstein-like creations, here they are, once and for all.

Mandate as in "everybody will be getting this," but the toolkit idea makes it clear that execution might vary. Of course, that could be concerning when it comes to the WABC's of the world, in how they might screw this up, but that also means you might see a variety of open styles, and even different color schemes or in-news brands. This will/should not be a 100% same-for-all product.

Fox signed on for Hudson, in the largest markets. The only show NBC has picked up for it's O&O's next season is the daytime strip of Dateline. And this would explain why KNBC wasn't on this list. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2022/04/20/dateline-sold-in-more-than-90-percent-of-the-us-as-the-hit-true-crime-series-returns-for-its-sixth-season-in-national-syndication-944110/20220420nbc01/#:~:text=The sixth season of "Dateline,WRTV Indianapolis and WDRB Louisville.

Alan was off all last week, likely just vacation time, while Cheryl, Rob, and Judy were on. None of them are in the building now, and all anchors are back to full distancing, so I'm guessing there's an outbreak. Judy likely cleared testing, but will still be quarantined. A similar thing happened earlier in the year, when Alan was at home for a week, then fully-distanced for another week, at the desk.

Depending on what all they plan, of course, the coming 9am newscast would seem like a solid candidate to originate streetside.

I think there's definitely a possible gray area, with how it was worded. Just a weather center is definitely a possibility, but my reading took it as set PLUS expanded weather center. I guess we'll see.

It's been 5 years since they debuted the group-wide set, so one would think that they could opt for a new design. That said, if it were laid out like the original 2008 set, they could totally fit the current set pieces into that area, while expanding the weather center, like Lyons is promising. As for what value there is in making this move, ultimately it's an investment in the visibility of the product, but only because they couldn't get any takers for the space. Because they have it, they're going to use it. I doubt it's much more complicated than that.