NYNewsCoverage

Well looks like WCBS is having some technical problems trying to get their 5pm newscast up. It's been about 15 minutes of straight commercials since Judge Judy ended. The anchor's are tweeting saying it is in fact technical problems and to stand by. They just actually fixed it now, so the news is finally up. It started pretty shaky though, with the anchors' mics going through the videos, among several other technical problems.

I saw a clip of this mornings news online and realized they were showing a live shot of 42nd street as the backdrop. I know they did it during the storm too. Hope it's permanent cause it's 1,000,000,000,000x better than the normal background

They still use that godawful generic backdrop at night though. Hope they change that too. The one they first used when they debuted the set wasn't bad, not sure why they had to change it.

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This live camera is my favorite, though. Looks so professional.

I only watched a few mins of their coverage today but I gotta say the scroll bar they were using was much better than the blue and orange one they normally have.

Totally agree. The blue/black mashup looked much more professional. It was the one that they typically use during the 'sports desk.'

yeah your really late on that one

Yeah she already started last weekend (Janurary 9th). What I thought was strange was that she took a vacation this past weekend and was off. Typically when you first start at a job you get limited vacation time so I thought it was strange that she would already get a whole weekend off after only being on the job for really 1 week (1 weekend plus the reporting stories she did during select days of the workweek).

Former NBC Connecticut anchor Shirley Chan did a report on WPIX this morning. Suki welcomed her to the show.

Did anyone see the 6:30? How was it? Any opinions?

Yeah I caught a little of it. I mean, it was good, but nothing overly special. Just a regular newscast.

Chris is on again at 5. Seems there might be something to this. Maybe Maurice will move to the network or 6 pm show. Perhaps Chris has his contract up soon and is threatening to leave if he isn't put back on evenings.

Let's not jump to conclusions. Someone asked Chris why he was doing the 5, and he simply replied that Maurice is under the weather and not feeling well. Either way I don't think Maurice would leave WCBS primetime news in the number 1 market for the network unless he was to take Scott Pelley's gig. And I don't see Scott Pelley stepping down quite yet. And I think Dana's pretty happy with the 6 solo.

I really hope this newscast succeeds. Kaity and Brenda are going to make a great team. I'm happy to hear it will be hard news and not entertainment and fluff. It's too bad they don't have a more suitable anchor with John at 5 and 6 (if Jodi stayed it would've been good) if Tamsen were to be let go or leave I'd like to see either Lisa Mateo orKirsten Cole be promoted

I totally agree with what you said about Jodi. Sure she was trashed upon at first since she replaced the legendary Kaity Tong and Jim Watkins, but her delivery was much better than Tamsen. Honestly I wasn't a huge fan of Jodi's delivery during the old PIX news at 10 but I think that was only because she was told to present the story in a certain way. IMO, If Jodi were to come back, PIX's ratings would get a boost.

On a side note, I've been thinking, what if WPIX created a syndicated entertainment/talk show? I mean, they have Tamsen, Suki, and Oji for starters. Sure, Tamsen is not a great anchor, but she would be an outstanding entertainment show host in my opinion. They could have a lot of different guests talking about the latest celeb news and viral videos and trends. Tamsen is a good host, but she is miscast as a nightly news anchor.

Also Kala Rama started today at PIX. I believe her first day is tomorrow on the anchor desk. Based on what I've seen of her, I like her delivery. I think she'll make for a pretty good anchor alongside Craig Treadway.

I found this really interesting interview with Kaity Tong from the Joan Hamburg show. In the interview, Kaity talked about her new 6:30pm show, saying it's going to be straight news (not really entertainment, not viral videos) and very localized with emphasis on the entire area. Maybe it will be like the old 6:30pm show, which I remember was VERY hard news, almost with too much urgency. I also found it interesting how they talked about the news women that wear sleeveless dresses, and the hot young anchors that are put on the air despite their unprofessionalism (almost like Tamsen in a way).

Here's the interview:

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Marvin Scott anchoring a regular newscast tonight (with Narmeen Choudhury) for the first time in....I don't remember.

Chris Knowles is named the EP for the 6:30 newscast

That's interesting. Just read this tweet, which PIX11 liked:

.@PIX11 has named Chris Knowles as Executive Producer of mid-day and new 6:30pm newscast

Maybe they're starting a new midday newscast too that they haven't announced yet?

Chris Wragge made a rare appearance on CBS 2 News at 5 today as Kristine's co-anchor.

Not a bad pairing. I wonder if Craig is off, maybe Anthony and Kala will anchor together (Anthony has anchored on PIX once before, I believe it was the friday of July 4th). It would be pretty interesting to see a husband-wife anchor team! Like the days of Pat and Joe Harper.

I guess the focus shifts to who they will replace Kaity with on weekends. I hope they create a new anchor pairing. They could promote from in-house, but it wouldn't hurt to hire someone, maybe someone from another market.

Found the first promo with Kaity and Brenda

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In my opinion, the fact that they're starting a 6:30 newscast must mean that their 5pm and 6pm ratings are good enough.

According to Rich Graziano on facebook, the PIX11 News at 6:30 will premiere on Monday, January 11th.

I think a weekend morning newscast should be their next priority. It also makes me wonder with Kaity rejoining the weekday team 5 days a week (even if it's just for a half hour); will she still be able to anchor the weekend newscasts? I think if she does she should at least get a co-anchor (I still think Craig Treadway deserves a promotion- he's been at the station too long, and he and Tong have proved to be a great team on the holidays). Mario Diaz is another option.

Wow. That's...surprising! I think Kaity and Brenda should just get the whole hour at 6pm honestly. At least that's the way I see it happening (I hope) if this 6:30 hour does well. I was honestly thinking Harry and Kaity for years, but this is just as good of a team IMO.

Noticed WPIX called in Tamsen and John to cover the presidential address. Not sure if it was really necessary, I don't see why they couldn't just have Kaity do it. They even said that Kaity will be back anchoring the news at 10.

Janet Wu to join WCBS

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/janet-wu-to-join-wcbs/159585

Erika Martin did the weather on WCBS yesterday morning. I know she also did the weather at PIX for a short time.

Did anybody see the segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver "What In God's Name Are They Covering On WCBS News At 11?"

LOL here's the link..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5wgR60ls9c

I got to admit, CBS 2 does come up with ear catching headlines to preview their 11pm feature story.

Finally! So glad to see her back and well. CBS 2 is not the same without her.

Am I the only one who isn't a fan of the Suki/Kori pairing? I don't know what it is, Suki has gotten a lot better from the really bad era at PIX 11 when she was paired with Frances and I am actually a big fan of Suki's now. I just don't like Kori and I don't think Suki is a huge fan either.

Kori and Suki are polar opposites. Everything Kori feels, Suki feels the opposite. When Kori works with Lisa Mateo, everything's great. When Suki works with Dan Mannarino, everything's great. I agree Suki and Kori don't work together. I honestly saw Kori do a solo breaking news shot once on the Staten Island Standoff a while back, and he was so overdramatic, it was cringeworthy.