ns8401

Looks like 5 needs a new ND: http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wmaq-news-director-named-head-of-digital-at-wtvj/180260

That ticker is kind of annoying... the bug is quite nice though...

Your biggest flaw is that you make logical sense... I suggest you remedy that ASAP...

No changes to the actual set that I can see but they did some significant lighting upgrades... it's much brighter now and looks much better for it.

WXYZ is apparently tinkering with their main set... they have been using their ancillary set since Saturday. This plus their new VO makes me think there may be some changes when the VIZ switch finally happens which may be soon...

Ronnie Dahl is leaving WXYZ to work for the ATF. She came over from WJBK in 2013.

Karen Drew adds the 530 to her duties. She currently anchors the 4. Both begin November 14th.

Yes... it's usually Sunday thru Thursday... Sunday is the highest viewership of the week.

Kimberly Gill was hired to replace Carmen and Carmen has been doing scaled back hours for a couple years. Never a question or contest for her replacement over there.

WXYZ personality John Kelly has died at 88. He started at WJBK in 1965 and went to WXYZ in 1970 and spent the 70's alongside Bill Bonds as the original anchor pairing for Action News. He also hosted the talk shows Kelly & Co. from the mid 80's to mid 90's and Good Afternoon Detroit in the early 80's, both on Channel 7.

Live or taped?

Promotions... Katie Kim to Investigative Reporter Regina Waldroup to full time General Assignment Reporter http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wmaq-promotes-2/177918

Weekend News = Experiment Theatre...

A few reporter changes at WXYZ: - Jane Park left WXYZ in June to be a full time mother. She had been there since 2014. - Camille Amiri left for WJBK in June. She also came in 2014 (second stint at 7). This is her second stint at FOX 2. Gino Vicci has joined WXYZ from WNEM in Saginaw. His debut was last Thursday. He had been at WNEM since 2012 and was a producer at WDIV before that.

The whole company is a large dumpster fire...

That's more like corporate overruled him.

And you honestly think the News Director and GM had no input?!? That doesn't seem realistic...

The same goes for WXYZ and now potentially WEWS... Not even close to what the original idea was. It maybe a sign Scripps realized their idea was a dud. I get that. But it's hard to fix a dud without just throwing it out and starting fresh.

They should just spend the .99 cents to go normal and keep news. If it works in Milwaukee let them have it but where it doesn't work cut your losses. It's only good business sense.

It wasn't in the best shape when they got it either...

That would be basically correct... They are in an apparent transition from Rich Van Slyke to Brian Lee as VO so their marketing is very spotty right now. There hasn't been a new ad series for The NOW since January outside of a mention in a promo for their 4-630 block that aired for most of July and August. XYZ does its best to minimize Scripps presence for viewers so the KMGH stuff always feels out of place. The only thing worse is Scripps national investigative reports they are forced to take every once in a while. No Scripps logos on set, no unnecessary mentions in copy. Nothing. Tip of the cap to the ABC hired GM for keeping that tradition alive. I hope whenever they get a new set the lighthouse doesn't stare at me every day... What are WEWS's ratings in the evenings like these days?

In several there markets it's doing significantly worse than the program's it replaced... In those markets it's a dud. Detroit and KC come to mind. Detroit gave up on promoting it. They tried for 2 years and it's stuck at around a 2.3. That's a full point lower than Dr. Oz had. Their 5pm that relies on The NOW to be a lead in is down 2-3 points with it. The 6pm is down 2-3 as well. It's profitable... Maybe. But it's killed ratings and revenue down the line...

Cheap, that's all I can imagine. The theory around here is that they'll scrap the brand and keep a standard newscast at 4 with normal branding kind of like WDIV does but keep the hour length rather than 30 minutes that DIV does.

ABC Digital has released version 5.0 of its iPhone app for the O&O's. Noteworthy here is an all new weather section and some video index improvements. The compulsory bug fixes are there as well.

The thought "Why is a news channel running Oprah?!?" Comes into my mind. At least I envision a viewer asking that. Channel 5 or just 5 should have been their overall brand if they were desperate to go away from their old branding and needed to not gum it up much...