MorningNews

It’s not necessarily about building a viewership base. They want the property to destroy the institutions.

Just generally his presentation has declined significantly in the last few years. He tries to improvise but just meanders until finally tossing to the reporter or their package. It’s clumsy and distracting.

It’s time for Bill Ritter to retire entirely from his anchoring duties. Or they need to strictly prohibit him from going off script when reading a story.

4pm is probably my favorite newscast on channel 7. Liz, David and Lee have that classic channel 7 chemistry. Weekend mornings when Toni Yates is there with Michelle and Dani are a close second.

Noticed a TINY promo running claiming to be #1 morning newscast in April. Didn’t catch the disclaimer at the bottom but good for them if accurate, keep WABC on their toes.

They’ve done that on TINY for a few years now it seems, going back to the pandemic. Actually WNBC rarely brings in a fill-in for their newscasts - 11am, 4, 5, 6 and 11pm as well as weekend TINY often go solo when one of the anchors is off. Not all the time but more often than not.

He was a heavy tweeter just a few years ago but has largely gone silent on socials which I assumed was because of his age. This is hard to see but to your point an inevitably. I also haven’t seen Brokaw publicly in a few years.

Thankfully ABC doesn’t seem to be as feckless as you believe they should be. If Jimmy can’t make the joke about their age gap, then why did Trump make a similar remark about the age gap just yesterday? This ridiculous capitulation and self-censoring is frankly a very idiotic suggestion.

One very interesting aspect of this to me is how deeply unpopular the administration has become relative to last September when ABC suspended Kimmel over the Kirk thing. They were also spooked by the public’s reaction then. I really hope Disney can be a trigger for corporations and institutions all over to stand up to this excessive bullsh*t. Also this was the Brian Stelter reporting I referenced earlier:

I watch a lot of ABC and definitely haven’t gotten the impression of state run media. Kind of absurd to claim that of the network employing Mary Bruce, Rachel Smith and George Stephanopoulos who are fearless in their pursuits of truth through all of this administration’s lies. On top of that, Disney has pretty immediately signaled they won’t be rolling over. Brian Stelter even reported this afternoon that Disney has signaled to station groups that contractual obligations to carry network programming will be enforced.

This is the hollowed out Times Square Studios as of today. I don’t believe there’s been an announcement on future plans quite yet and up until a week ago the remnants of GMA’s old studio were still in place. Sad sight to see.

So does Henry DiCarlo do the 7-11am hours now with Kirk Hawkins doing 4-7am?

What exactly is their long term strategy here? 1 anchor for the entire evening slate of newscasts?

Yeah I’ve seen some of it. It’s really a shame but perhaps we’ll learn more soon. Sounds like layoffs are coming to Disney.

I can’t remember her name but is the weekend forecaster still at ABC? Samara Theodore I believe.

Similarly, the week before when George was on vacation it was Robin and Michael with no third anchor. Sam, Ginger and Lara playing a bigger role in the second hour. They’ve been in second place since November so I imagine they might start getting creative to try and spark some momentum.

I tend to agree. George and Ginger remain the bright spots of the weekday show for me. I love Robin too but they need new blood. It feels like a real shame to lose talent like Janai. I’d be very happy to see Sam, Lara and Michael make prompt exits.

Janai seems to confirm via her Instagram post last night that she won’t be returning to air for a farewell. That’s despite reports that she’d be on this weekend. Doesn't sound like that particular decision was her choice. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWr608kj1Bt/?igsh=MTE2czFlczc3aWlhNA==

Wow this one is shocking. Did they provide a reason behind their decision to not renew Janai?

Side note, is it just me or do all the segments I see from their street side studio have really poor audio quality? It’s so hollow and echoey, even in the scenes they showed in that segment from back in 2013.

I have admiration for his work but I don’t necessarily think he’s the greatest fit with Symone Sanders Townsend and Michael Steele when I’ve seen him fill in. Still he’s done a lot of solid work for the network over a decade.

WABC’s on-air appearance before 2024-2025 was shameful. The graphics before standardization were awful. The set they were on from 2006-2011 was one of the worst. Praise to whoever took over and invested in the visual identity of the nation’s #1 news station.

Breaking that “Weeknight” trio up is a risky move. Their chemistry is exceptional and has been since they were on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Bummer.

Haha the Tony era is nearly over. They’re starting the rapid set changes already which is where they always begin. And while I don’t think CBS is necessarily trying to compete with NBC or ABC for viewership anymore, headlines like this can’t be going over well:

What newscasts are Chris Cimino on?