mountainave

Part of the problem is that the anchor front-lighting is too dim and the skyline background is too bright, so there isn't enough contrast between foreground (ie, the anchors) and background. But a more subtle issue is that the height of skyline graphic is misaligned such that the heads of the anchors are directly in front of the dark buildings rather than the blue sky, again leaving insufficient contrast between foreground and background, giving the appearance of darkness. They should get rid of the ticker (or move it to the top) and drop the background image down. You can see how this was less of an issue with the prior set:

The second hour was hosted from the studio.

AC360 has been covering the war with Iran extensively and, in doing so, experimenting with different formats – tonight with a new newsroom-style studio. The desk with condenser mics evokes that which is commonly seen in podcast video recordings these days. Note the lack of suit jackets/ties as well. My screenshotting isn't working, so forgive my low-quality screengrab...

With Paramount Skydance now poised to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, there exists the prospect of Bari Weiss overseeing CNN.

https://www.detpress.com/abcnews/pressrelease/perry-russom-named-abc-news-correspondent-and-wabc-tv-weekend-morning-co-anchor/

Josh is joining MSNOW as senior transportation and aviation reporter: https://deadline.com/2025/12/ms-now-new-hires-ines-de-la-cuetara-1236645731/

To that end, 60 Minutes aired its first interview with President Trump since the last one that resulted in the lawsuit, and it's very clear that a shift has taken place at the program. Norah O'Donnell conducted the interview and, to be fair, she didn't lob him softballs, but there was very little in the way of follow-up questioning or challenges that the Stahl-era 60 Minutes is -- or was -- known for.

Josh Einiger, unfortunately, is leaving WABC.

No other great place for this but Phil Lipof left ABC and took a job at the NBC affiliate in Denver.

GMA essentially phased out its use of Times Square. This was no accident. It's expensive, there are security concerns, and most importantly, they've known since at least 2018 that they'd be moving from Times Square and wanted to gradually make Times Square less central to the broadcast so viewers didn't feel like they were watching a completely different show after the move once this day came. Ten years ago, the anchor desk sat in front of a "window" overlooking Times Square, multiple live segments and weather updates occurred in the Times Square plaza, and Times Square audience interaction was a staple of the show. Today, they could move the studio to Oklahoma and you wouldn't notice a difference.

Not sure what to make of your unnecessary hyperbole, nor did anyone suggest a "grand conspiracy." I simply pointed out that while Disney PR told People Magazine that this was intentional, I suspected it wasn't. You essentially just restated what I already said -- there was likely a delay necessitating it. That's all.

Well sure, but you showcase the brand new studios you just built. Not a random office building atrium.

Call me a skeptic, but unless Bob Iger's ego is as fragile as Trump's, I don't buy "we wanted to show off the 10th floor of our new corporate building" that none of their viewers care about. Sounds like a post-hoc justification for unforeseen circumstances.

Sam Champion confirmed the producers want to change up the GMA3 format and try different things. He and Lara are subbing in intentionally.

Never understood how Joy Reid was able to sustain a career in broadcast -- in liberal media, no less -- after posting a series of bigoted and homophobic/transphobic posts on her blog, then denying she wrote them and claiming someone must have hacked her, and after an investigation involving the FBI (yes, the FBI) proved no evidence of that, she still insisted she had no recollection of making those posts. Would have respected her more had she owned her past views, apologized for them, and explained why she was a better person now, rather than inventing stories and wasting the time and resources of the literal FBI to investigate her lies about being hacked. But since she never took responsibility for that, I'm not sorry to see her go.

Gotta love a show called "Live" being taped two weeks in advance.

Interesting concept but a little weird when the majority of the shot highlights empty desks and powered-off monitors.

CNN's new lineup premieres today.

Just announced: Gayle King is going to space on a Bezos Blue Origin flight with Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry, and others.

Kristin Thorne left WABC earlier this year to be an investigative reporter and host with Law & Crime, focusing on true crime.

Will be an opportunity (or unexpected obligation) for the network to reconsider both talent succession planning and show format. Will be interesting to see if the show maintains a three-anchor format by just replacing Strahan and moving on, or if we see a return to either a two-anchor format a la Charlie-Diane/Diane-Robin, or to more of the ensemble format (Robin, George, Josh, Sam, Lara) that jettisoned GMA to #1.

The new studio will not be street-side in the way it currently is. As wabceyewitness said, the move is planned for this month. Not sure what the latest plan is, but in the absence of unforeseen problems, I would expect the new studio to debut beginning with the weekend broadcasts.

It's a conscious effort to air mostly features at the expense of the day's headlines. The strategy is seemingly multifactorial: 1. Try to tap into the same audience attracted to the style of 60M and Sunday Morning 2. Cut costs. Flying correspondents and their production crews all over the country every day on a whim to cover breaking stories is expensive. As to the question about whether the show will be anchored tonight from the site of the plane crash, the reporting on CBS's strategy suggests they'll opt for correspondent-led field coverage over anchoring the show remotely, again, because the latter is expensive. I could alternatively see them sending one anchor to lead coverage from the field while the other anchor stays in studio to anchor the rest of the show, which wouldn't be as costly, but otherwise predictions are that the anchors will remain at the desk. We'll find out tonight.