TVLurker

I don't really think Brian Williams screwed himself per say. He was moved to MSNBC and left around the time politics and journalism became perverted and sensational. I know he did stuff for Amazon during the election, the most important question is why would he go to Amazon who was partially responsible for getting Trump elected via The Washington Post not endorsing either candidate? And I know Amazon is a division with a bunch of companies owned by Jeff Bezos. He left MSNBC on his own terms though and is still presented and represented as a legendary journalist at NBC News. If you really want somebody who totally screwed himself over. Look no further than Matt Lauer who is persona non grata at NBC. The day after his last show was basically the news anchors of Today at the time talking about his firing over sexual misconduct. There are still videos up featuring him on the official Today channel but aside from that, NBC News does not mention Matt Lauer at all, only reluctantly because Matt is a large part of the Today's show history from 1996-2018. Almost 3 decades of content that features him. I don't think anybody misses Matt anyways. YT comments that mention him are either pounding on him for his treatment of women or semi-nostalgic for his tenure. I say semi-nostalgic because I haven't anybody say that The Today Show needs Matt back, they just like those days when Studio 1A actually had people in it.

CBS purchasing WANF would save them a lot of money in the long run since they have an established news department and other departments relating to community involvement. CBS by moving to WUPA not only has to spend money on a news department but also build up the station to be on equal footing with WANF. I doubt CBS is going to put in the time and effort into WUPA. The move to WUPA is going to be disastrous for CBS in the long run. Prepare for WANF to become a WHDH like juggernaut.

WGBH has been using the Arthur fist meme as a symbol for their cause to keep PBS and NPR on the air. It is symbolic for many reasons. In the context of Arthur it was a part of a story that teach kids about anger and taking accountability but out of context it is powerful, it is a message against Trump that public broadcasting will not go down without a fight. The tariff's may be causing people to hesitate in donating but I'm guessing members here have a lot of disposable income. Why not donate to keep PBS and NPR alive?

I've stopped following the legal drama since it has become a game of pong. And I'm not talking about ping pong, I'm talking about Pong for the Atari 2600. I believe due to CBS's inability to focus on priorities that money could instead be invested in as well as the lack of money that parent company Paramount Global has, that Sony will be the victor. CBS should just walk away while they have the chance. Not only would it keep a shred of dignity in the relationship between Sony and CBS but it would also prevent a disaster involving those shows and CBS owned stations that carry said shows. But no, CBS will never walk and those shows will go to their competitors out of spite. I don't think any CBS owned stations who rely on those shows will ever have a ratings advantage again.

I second this as well. I don't think CBS would want to wait for an opportunity to buy WUSA when said opportunity also is tied to buying either all the other stations or other reasons that might not sit well with CBS. (I don't know what the various real life reasons could be, be gentle.) If I were CBS, I would either find a way to buy WJLA or failing that, any of the UHF stations. The UHF stations option is scary because it will set a precedent that networks no longer need reputable stations with news departments and a history of serving their community. If WWJ, WBTS and the pending move of CBS to WUPA has shown us anything, it shows that the networks are starting to come to that conclusion, even ABC has even started to follow CBS's lead and NBC's partial lead by taking the affiliation from WPLG and putting it on a subchannel of WSVN. When CBS decides to strip WUSA of it's affiliation for a station that nobody knows or cares about, anarchy will arise and it won't be good for the viewers of those TV stations of which the networks are starting to screw around with.

It makes sense with Tom doing both Top Story and Nightly News at the same time, why move from different floors and studios when you have it all in one. What intrigues me the most is how they manage to make Studio 1A look different for all 3 shows. Of course the Today logo on the side ruins the illusion but I'm impressed none-the-less.

Gray has really put a lot of work into WANF to make it into a valuable station. Why CBS did not acquire WANF I do not know. Then again, I don't even know the logic behind taking the CBS affiliation and putting it on WUPA in the first place. I get that they own the station but they have to put money into WUPA to bring it to at least the bare minimum for a CBS affiliate like say... news department and such.

Canada never really cared when CHCA and CKX shut down. The increase in station shutdowns in Canada this past decade is really demoralizing for the broadcasting industry in Canada as a whole and I don't know if their industry can fully recover.

An unexpected lowpoint from what used to be a respectable network. What is the purpose of this video anyways?

What choice do they have though? It's either that or paid programming. I would say color bars but I doubt it would turn a profit.

I don't believe there's no real loss for WANF when it comes down to the wire. The station has always been the underdog ranging from the initial affiliation swap in 1994 when WAGA became Fox and CBS moved to 46 after buying 69 just in case. Throughout WGNX/WGCL/WANF's history has been several attempts to beef up the news department to get viewers away from top dogs WAGA, WSB and even WXIA when all three stations were competitive in the market. Gray has been nothing but supportive of WANF to the point where the ratings were higher than WXIA which suffered from both lack of investment and a lack of care when it came down to not only it's news product but how the station was treated. CBS' intention to move to a station they own was solely for monetary reasons. CBS' investment in WUPA will also be significantly lower than WANF, WXIA, WSB and WAGA combined. What CBS did was a real slap in the face to Gray who owns several key CBS affiliates, a lot of them the top dogs in the market. I'm lucky that Gray and CBS managed to keep those stations affiliated but for how long? We're really reaching the point of no return where the affiliates/ownership groups are not treated with compassion, both WPLG and now WANF can attest. There's nobody to blame but companies who focused on getting rid of regulations in the broadcasting market, I doubt any of them recognize the damage that occurred under their watch and are basically laughing their way to the bank as we speak. WANF has more positives than negatives when it comes to the situation they're in, I have full faith that WANF will come out stronger without CBS.

I do not get modern broadcasting trends. Normally you would affiliate with the station that provides a benefit in terms of audience and stature and it's been that way for decades until up to this year. The WPLG affiliation switch in retrospect was definitely a sign of things to come, the networks have devolved from strategic alignment to focusing on the bottom line which happens to be money and nothing else. I have a feeling CBS is considering even more affiliation swaps with the stations that they own. I wouldn't be surprised if KTSW became a CBS owned and operated station. I would try to figure out the sense of it but of course it's Shari Redstone who's actions make no sense whatsoever. Good luck to WANF, I have a feeling their independence is going to net better ratings then whatever WUPA can come up with.

@GraphicsMan I've grown to appreciate Austin Reed. A lot us in this forum thought he was some hotshot who bragged but had no talent, that was based off of seeing a newscast with a very low budget and weird music choices, especially during the weather segments. I still remember Sexual Seduction by Snoop Dogg playing in the background while a weather map of Fresno was shown. I and others were shocked with Austin Reed made an account a few years back to address criticism of the newscast that was airing at the time, he was really annoyed and frustrated with his initial posts but what struck me was that he wanted to take the profession seriously and even made attempts to make the newscast better in the process taking our criticism to heart. It's sad that the newscast was canceled by the station due to factors like them wanting the station to make a huge profit. They did not care about the product at all and only saw you as filler that was immediately made irrelevant when the station decided to fire the people who made the newscasts. Terrestrial TV is on life support at this point in time. I have ideas on how to run a terrestrial television network in a way that can actually stand up to not only the other TV networks but to streamers as well. Like how the TV networks valued streaming over a terrestrial television network, I would value terrestrial television over streaming with my terrestrial television network. Even I am having doubts that nothing anybody could do would make a difference in the terrestrial television medium we grew up with. With any company you must pump absurd amounts of money to get results and the results don't work then your company starts to fail and when your company starts to fail you become broke and you are forced to get another job that is lesser than the company you once ran. I still carry on this idea because even if it doesn't really pan out, I would at least like an opportunity to prove that the terrestrial TV model is still viable as a medium. If you're asking, none of my plans involve a streaming service or a film studio. Those combinations worked well initially but soon became ultra disruptive to the point where the only content you will find that's good is on a streamer that you have to pay a monthly fee for and you can't even share the accounts with other households for the sole purpose of making people give them more money. Having either a streaming service or a film studio to me is ultimately detrimental when it comes to traditional TV. ABC, NBC, CBS and even FOX get less attention when it comes to content and investment and their owners also own a streaming service and/or a film studio, it's is also more absurd that we do not have traditional TV transmitting their content in 4K60 with HDR and Dolby Atmos which is part of the ATSC 3.0 standard. It's all reserved for the streamers and a lot of movies that are on Fandango at Home. I'm tired of seeing other countries broadcast traditional TV in 4K60 with HDR and Dolby Atmos, we are the United States of America for crying out loud, why are we stuck on a standard that was first developed around the millennium and has never really substantially improved after. TV is stuck at 1080i/720p with 5.1 surround sound and some 480p/i channels that may or may not broadcast in widescreen and it's just pathetic at this point. 25 years of ATSC 1.0, even the NTSC standard that was introduced in the mid 40s/late 50s was able to have color in the 60s, stereo sound in the 80s and surround sound and closed captioning in the 90s. That analog standard has managed to have more innovation than ATSC 1.0 and it's lasted longer than even ATSC 1.0 and that transmission format is still going. I'm sorry for going off topic, so yeah... It's really terrible what happened to you. The broadcasting industry has become absolute shit, all the consolidation that went on was crazy and it's possible the current FCC could actually allow more shit mergers that reduce choice until there's a few left. Scripps is on it's last legs and was the first channel group to do lazy automated newscasts which Sinclair and Bryon Allen soon starting doing. TEGNA is still doing a lot of local programming, Grey is still taking care of it's stations and even Nexstar is doing some positive things with WPIX, WGN and KTLA and even KRON which was at one point the least watched station in San Francisco due to Young Broadcasting's ridiculous mishandling of the station. Those station groups may not have started to automate their newscasts but it's getting to a point where they're considering it. Every broadcast group also has to deal with the networks reverse compensation fees that have grown to values that don't really represent each network's value and also have to fear about a plan B if any network decides to leave traditional TV entirely for greener pastures like their own streaming service. The impending ESPN streaming service that will contain every bit of ESPN including the live sports is seen as a benefit by cable TV companies but harmful for cable TV itself. Nexstar and others rely on retransmission fees that both often create disputes around and things will get to a point where cable TV companies will have every bit of control when it comes to rejecting what TV channels get to be on it's systems, that includes Nexstar which has a cable channel called NewsNation of which is profitable now but in the long term is unviable solely cause the channel relies on retransmission fees that cable companies have to pay as part of deals with Nexstar that use local stations as a bargaining chip. Call me crazy but I really believe that in a year or shorter, the landscape will change in a way unseen since the 1994 New World affiliation deal except there's no real winner here. There is going to be one broadcast network that will call it quits thus leading the way for others to follow eventually, there will be a lot of TV station closures that will ultimately be worse then CHCH and CKX combined, there will be a slim number of broadcast groups with Scripps, Sinclair and Bryon Allen eventually going bye bye and a small number of mergers that ultimately create monopolies similar to radio groups like iHeartMedia and Audacy. In short, it is really going be a shitstorm out there. I hope Austin Reed makes it out okay, he really has his heart set on the TV journalism profession. I also apologize for those who had to read those long nerdy paragraphs.

I'm actually waiting for the point where I can buy Nexstar stock. Right now it's too expensive. I don't know if anybody really wants a linear broadcast TV network anymore, doesn't stop a man from dreaming right?

I honestly don't think anything can save CBS at this point nor the parent company as well. Skydance or not, Shari Redstone has dug a grave deeper than the one Larry Tisch dug prior. There is no savior coming to rescue CBS. Westinghouse doesn't exist anymore and I don't think any people from the Westinghouse era work at CBS anymore. To think that CBS' resurgence was all because New World, Scripps and others got group affiliation deals with their respective networks. Funny that Scripps (the only one still out there that his history with the 1994 affiliation swap) is on the brink of extinction as well as CBS. Just goes to show that the short term is not going to be as beneficial in the long term.

It is amazing how far both Viacom and CBS have fallen as companies compared to their peaks in the early 2000s. If you compare the channels now to then, you would see a drastic difference in both the effort put in and how they treated their respective channels legacy and history. CBS has always skewed to an older audience but the shows they're airing right now are ridiculous, almost every drama they air ties into law enforcement in such a way that it would make right-wing America proud. There are barely any comedies on CBS anymore and one of them is just a continuation of The Big Bang Theory cause franchises sell. CBS sports only has college basketball, golf and their prize possession the NFL. That's a far cry from when CBS sports had more going for it and that's 20 years ago. NFL is also the most expensive sports package there is and I do not think Paramount Global is smart enough to even realize that. There's short term financial benefit in not having the NFL but that is small compared to the huge losses of losing the NFL. There have been nothing notable about CBS News since 2016. CBS Evening News has burned through more anchors and gone through more creative changes than both ABC and NBC's respective evening news programs combined. Gayle King is the most notable name they have and it's from the morning program that they put more attention to than any other news program on CBS. 60 Minutes has also gone downhill when CBS News took over the program a few years ago. There was a time when it was it's own independent division within CBS, to see that gone is heartbreaking. Tradition, values, legacy and integrity don't matter at CBS any more. To the beanheads, it's just a brand just like Nickelodeon is a brand. Off topic but I really don't like how Paramount is going to ban episodes of South Park not because they have the prophet Muhammed in them but because they focus on topics like LGBTQIA+ of which somehow has become as controversial as the prophet Muhammed. I don't think Trey Parker or Matt Stone care at this point, they haven't even said anything about Elon Musk who actually voiced himself on the show. For a show that prides itself with saying things people don't have the balls to say, they've really not said or done anything that's really out there at this point.

At least Larry Tisch managed to give CBS the image of a pristine broadcaster. CBS looks so much like a network that rests on its laurels, just like all the other networks that Paramount Global owns. I really believe CBS will be the first broadcast network to cease operations at this point, especially considering the turmoil that every department in CBS is going through. CBS News has always lagged behind it's competitors but never has it been this desecrated and ruined. There's no "pride in it's coverage, history and integrity" anymore, all because Paramount Global couldn't manage itself to save it's own life and now needs to merge with Skydance to survive. ABC and NBC have been affected by Trump but never have I seen so much damage done to them than CBS. Disney and NBCUniversal have made wise decisions when it came to cable negotiations and shutting down cable networks that dragged down the company in the US at least. NBCUniversal also made the wise decision to spin off their cable properties except for Bravo as Versant. Paramount Global has not bothered to shut down any of it's vast amount of cable networks that barely matter or do well at all. Even flagship cable channels like Nickelodeon are not given the care or attention they need at all. I don't think any of the new shows that Nick has announced will make it to a second season, it's all SpongeBob now and that has been milked to death but it refuses to die. Sure there's The Loud House and various preschool programming but how long can they milk it for really? Even Warner Bros. Discovery is highly considering spinning off their cable networks as well. Never have I seen a company so grossly incompetent and mismanaged than Paramount Global. I don't think Shari should of taken on the job at all.

I think the boat sailed around the time when Ann Curry was gaslighted out of Today and when Trump became president in 2016. The peak of the plaza was in 2012 during the 60th Anniversary of Today. That was the last time the show really valued the plaza and the initial legacy of the streetside studio. I don't think anybody really values or cares about the plaza anymore except for the diehard Today fans. The main show has been split into 3 distinct shows. The main show, the 3rd hour and the last hour. I understand that morning shows aren't really the hot commodity they used to be but damn I can't believe Today is just two hours long now. How is Today with only two hours, 3 distinct versions, significantly low viewership compared to even 2012 and a lower budget supposed to incorporate a plaza of people, the sole thing that was a defining feature, into its format? Al Roker doesn't even interview random people in the plaza anymore so what's the point of keeping the plaza and incorporating it into the Today show? As much as I want the plaza to stay, I feel like there will come a point in time where the plaza will be retired. I know they will celebrate the plaza's history and final day with a bang at least considering how important it is to the show's history in the 50s and 90s but after that, will anybody really miss the plaza?

I blame the Canadian media landscape for this, it wouldn't of happened had companies like Bell, Rogers and Shaw/Corus not payola the lawmakers but money talks so whatever.

How did that go exactly?

I blame all the companies who focused on profit instead of trying to make broadcast TV last.

So basically they've become "Early Today"...

nothing else. the syndication market is D.E.A.D.

WSVN has real competition now.

They have ulterior motives that are more than just money. WB especially.