ns8401

A few notes...

- New hire Tanja Babich (WSYR) made her reporting debut last night. I first saw her this evening, though. Solid reporter, good looks, not an airhead, seems like a good hire...now let's see her at the anchor desk. As we all know, anchor chemistry has always been a hallmark at Channel 7.

 

- I've been thinking about the possibility of an anchor switch. Now, it's been reported (a poorly kept secret) that Ms. Babich has been hired to do more than report and fill in. It should not come as any surprise that she is expected to find a permanent place at the desk before the year is out. The big question is where will she land? Frankly, I'm not sure. There are a few possibilities. Now, all of these are potential vacancies, not necessarily positions for Tanja, just positions that might open up. I do think that should any weekday anchor changes be made, any of the four weekend anchors are in good shape to move up the totem pole. Should that be the case, Tanja will land on Saturdays and Sundays...

Do you mean this one? (I edited it down to the relevant parts, I didn't see any others mentioning her) I see the word evening but no mention of Ravi unless it was another thread? Just trying to keep it all straight here.

Like I said, she and Ravi are good together, so it went well. A thirty minute show doesn't necessarily lend itself to a ton of banter or interaction, but she was okay.

It's not a big thing, she just walked on him a bit and probably should have paid more attention to the count, the graphic was an oops. Where did you say they were good together? I hadn't seen you say that, that's why I ask.

 

You can easily banter in a thirty minute show if you pad it out a bit with a cushion to factor it in, you can even throw balled up paper if you want.

If you are in an unfamiliar spot (like working with Ravi) it's not as easy to get a rhythm. I also do not know ABC7's blocking structure and what extra time is built in, it's not usually much. So when you get to 30 seconds and she tries to banter it's gonna clunk because he was trying to get out, they barely made it but Ravi saved it. I wonder what the blocking is like at her old station in Syracuse, my guess is that it isn't as tight.

Caught the last few seconds, that close was very awkward plus the graphic at the end was from the story not the copyright one. Live tv is fun stuff. I'll have to wait to see her at 10 I suppose.

 

Mike's dad died. That was enough to occupy his time. Phil was on vacation, and Jerry was using some saved days off. Tracy actually addressed the issue on social media last night, and it kinda sounds like she stepped up to the challenge, and volunteered to take this shift. As for Troy, he was apparently at the station, but it sounds like he would've taken over coverage in the early afternoon if necessary. Why they didn't just give him the morning show on Thursday and/or Friday, I don't know.

 

That sucks about Mike's dad. I'm surprised they didn't have Jerry come in or that he didn't come in voluntarily, very nice of Tracy to cover the whole thing. Perfect storm of absences but at the same time can't imagine why they would not use Troy. It almost seems inhumane. Hopefully she gets a few days off to recover.

 

I think Jerry, Mike, and Phil all caught a little March Madness.

 

Probably, sounds like Phil got stranded on a beach. Why not use Troy? I'm sure he could handle it.

 

Well, Tracy's back for a second night, as teased ahead of the 4 o'clock show. Phil tweeted earlier that he was on a beach all week, and just got back this afternoon. This all still seems to be kinda odd to me.

 

At this rate she's been sleeping at the station.

Not saying that at all about Alan and Kathy, I'm just saying they are both relatively stiff anchors. They both do a great job but they aren't exactly chatty or super lively and bouncy. That's the thing about abc7, it can be ridiculously good and it can be rediculously stunted, stilted and stiff, kinda get one or the other. I would never say Alan or Kathy throwing it to Chuck doesn't look a little silly when they say it. Some of the scripts are a little bit overly formal and repetitive too, same lines every day like clockwork for throw overs, I wasn't so much saying it's awkward. You have to go to that New Years special for that (it's still hillarious anyways).

 

That may be why WGN is starting to win mornings, they are looser and more fun as a group. Remember the 7 in the morning ad? Trying to make them more relatable. It's also that abc7 had become a little stale, things have to evolve and change over time but I think they leave things go too long there, like the last graphics package, 8 years is a long time for a graphics package to live.

 

Don't expect Hosea, Judy, Roz and Tracy as a team to last the rest of the year. I keep hearing that Tanja Babich is in line to kick Judy out. That would be a dumb move but ratings are down and idler seems like a guy who doesn't always get it right. Tanja is ok but her "Tanja Babich ABC7 Eyewitness News" is hard to decipher because it's said way too fast.

 

This is an outsiders perspective from somebody who watches a hybrid that's closer to WPVI in style but like abc7 In format so it was never as formal at all. But I have watched years of abc7 as well and done my homework before reaching this conclusion.

Edited to remove the material that I accidentally posted without completing, the full length post is below.

Couldn't edit my above so as to that video that finally worked for me, that was all on Kathy, Cheryl put the info out there and she didn't pick it up or do anything with it. She dismissed it "whatever it means we like it" and kinda gave a snotty sign off. So it was going ok till Kathy took it, the banter before that was fine. It's awkward because nothing was done by Kathy to tie it up nicely before they signed off.

They say that mostly because she is cold and the banter on abc7 is so light and formal that it never really gets loose. You do get loose with Ron Magers, he can banter and joke and he and Cheryl work relatively well together. That 6pm show with Alan and Kathy is good, but both of them are very stiff and dry so it's awkward in itself.

 

I always cringe when Chuck Goudie says something that merits a transitional discussion and one of them says "ok chuck thanks!" And then off they go to the next thing. I remember when Detroit went bankrupt and I was watching Chucks report on it and the financial troubles in Illinois and he said "as a native Detroiter it pains me to see Detroit like this". Surely that merits some kind of response? Nah just "ok chuck thanks." That's missing an opening for more insight right there.

 

I'm not suggesting things get to the overly silly stuff that goes on at wxyz in Detroit (they were throwing wads of paper at each other after sports yesterday when the sports guy didn't pick MI or MSU for the final four, the female anchor is a MSU alum and jokingly didn't like it I guess. The lead anchor looked like he was under attack and was leaning way back with his arms up saying "We'll be right back" as he was ducking under the desk as they went to commercial). It was funny and at the same time really odd. Loose is a relative term I guess.

 

That would never fly at WLS but it could be a bit less stiff with more concept that these people like each other and aren't just forced to sit together, the eyewitness news format was nicknamed happy talk after all.

I would bet she just came in a couple hours early. Anyone know if she was there on the 6pm?

 

Yes. They NEVER have a sub at 6pm unless both Liz and Bill are off and at that, they still get someone to solo.

 

That's interesting, I am surprised that in market #1 they would solo anchor a weekday newscast at 6pm. Usually I see that at 11 (or 10 if it's CT) in places like Detroit and Chicago where I spend the most time and see the most news. They usually carry over the anchors from previous newscasts like 5pm. WXYZ still runs a 7pm newscast so the sub may carry over to 6 and 7 and then have a solo 11pm show. Although with Dave Manney from WNBC at the helm now that has ceased and an anchor may do 5, 530, 6, 7 and 11.

I'm not completely up on WABC but are we talking solo-anchoring 6pm in the past and it being interesting they are not or? Sorry for the silly question but this is interesting.

They should work around it the way WXYZ does and just call it the "7-Day Forecast" or even sometimes just "7-Day". "First Alert 7-day Forecast Powered By Accuweather" is too much of a mouthful.

 

How well would "7 First Alert Weather" by itself work there? Or does it have to have ABC attached to it? Everything here in Detroit is branded as plain 7 despite the fact that there is an ABC logo on the circle 7. They supposedly did some research and found using ABC 7 would have confused the heck out of the viewers, who identified it as 7 first and ABC 2nd. I don't know how WLS's viewership sees the relationship between the network and WLS.

 

And before someone says I know WXYZ is not an O&O any longer but it is run as one because there are still some managers from the ABC days hanging on there and their new ND is from Bill Carey's O&O revival era from the early 2000's.