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They did a tease at noon ahead of the first broadcast, and a talent shot showed only the 4 anchors, so I'm guessing they're not testing Kate and Don as official parts of the team, and unless Lauren is leaving weekends, they might opt for a rotation of the weekend people. When the dust settles, I bet we'll end up only seeing Ukee and Jessica for the headline read at the bottom of the hour, the two alternating days.

Here's the debut edition of the 4pm news. It appears that Ukee left the program after the first block, and Jessica only appeared to deliver headlines at the bottom of the hour. Kate Bilo provided a weather hit in that same A-block, while Lauren Casey delivered the 2 full forecasts.

So, Tracy and Phil were in for Mark this weekend, while Larry and Tracy (tonight) were in for Phil. Figure all that out. I swear, they have a crazy weekend like this every August.

Tracy was on yesterday morning, and Larry took Phil's shift last night (alongside Elgas and JR, oddly enough).

What midday newscast anywhere has more than 2 midday anchors at one time? I know some stations have a rotation with weekend anchors, but that doesn't count.

I don't believe they did it on Monday, but GMA resized their lower thirds for 16:9. They're lower on the screen, as well, and they're not as tall as before, either. They don't seem as clunky, as they're better-proportioned and the text isn't so condensed, but they apparently didn't let the stations know about revised ticker placement. With this look going on 3 years old, I thought they might be closer to a new package, but they did heavily modify the 2012 graphics just a few months before the overhaul for the 40th anniversary, so this could just be temporary.

Presented without comment.

Sunday Night Baseball's Jessica Mendoza.

So, a press release is out where WGN is claiming victories and 2nd place finishes in every slot but 10pm, mostly in the demo, but I have one question; like preempted network newscasts, are they omitting baseball-shortened/completely dumped 4pm hours in these numbers? Either way, I can't imagine that their success at 4 isn't due to more baseball lead-ins. Either way, I'm guessing these summer numbers aren't so off of normal performance that we could legitimately say that Chicago's Very Own is also Chicago's #2 News. [MEDIA=twitter]1022948774803587072[/MEDIA]

Sarah's on the morning show. She literally made the announcement there.

By my count Rivera is only 28 (went to school with my best friend's wife, same grad class). He seems to be on a good track. One thing I picked up on in the last few months are his mannerisms. Dead ringer for Krashesky. As for Stacey, I agree that she's a little extreme in her light and serious delivery, but I think she does the former better than Jordan and the latter better than Burton.

Remember, they also tried Dan, Adrienne and Whit Johnson as a 3-person team a few weeks back.

Interesting, the new video display on the ABC News set was only temporary. The smaller, flat video wall that was set closer to the desk was apparently just a placeholder while a new, curved, seamless display was installed behind it, replacing the vertically-mounted monitor wall.

They mentioned it at 5, they all had a fun moment, and that was it. You clearly don't like her, so why do you care?

And Tanja Babich got married last week. Betcha no one's going to bitch about it when that's mentioned. Only Cheryl.

Nothing new, but there will be another 9pm Cubs telecast on the Circle 7 this Saturday night. The real surprise comes in how they're handling the primetime preemptions. Because ABC is running a 2-hour documentary from 8-10, the "late" news will air at 8pm that night. As far as I know, that is a first. I'd assume the network show will air immediately following the game, unless they have something else up their sleeve. http://abc7chicago.com/entertainment/program-note-revised-programming-lineup-for-saturday-july-14--for-cubs-game/3753209/

Feder mentioned Hosea's surgery on this, the anchor's 61st birthday. https://www.robertfeder.com/2018/07/12/robservations-abc-7s-hosea-sanders-recovering-abdominal-surgery/ Update: They wished him a happy birthday on the 4 o'clock news, saying that the surgery was related to his previous cancer treatment.

This week's edition of "Jim Gardner is a National Treasure":

Phil takes the 5 and the 7 (from Larry), while Larry takes the 10. Standard procedure, now.

He wasn't on for a few weeks, so I checked him out social media, and it seems like he went in for some abdominal pain around the 20th of June, which led to exploratory surgery. He came home just after Independence Day.

With Rob off, Hosea home from the hospital, and Alan on assignment at the border, Ravi is doing every show this week. Even though she worked this morning, Karen could've filled in at 4 yesterday, or Cheryl could've gone solo at midnight, but Jim and Larry had worked from 4, too.

Nope, 9pm central game in San Francisco. Nowhere to put the news than after.

It was so nice of ABC 7 to pick up another limited season of "Eyewitness News at 10 at Midnight", after WGN canceled their version of that program.

Many of the CBS O&O's male anchor benches are thin.

He already did, but I'll be damned if I post the link.