nathannah

Nothing new to say about the Bally/FanDuel scoreboard this year; everything remains unchanged. Rangers network board is nice, and unusually with the Twins now MLB-P&D'ed, instead of an RSN bug, the Progressive logo remains on the top right of the screen at all times in addition to being the presenting sponsor. Not unusual for radio now, but a first for TV coverage in this age.

It's the Paramount way to create an MVP; a 'minimally viable product'. They've already cut MTV and Nickelodeon and their other channels down to a bare existence of certain shows, and are now just doing the same with CBS. No more Grammys, Blue Bloods minus the weight of Tom Selleck's contract, international imports from Ten and Five, soaps from Atlanta, and now CBS Mornings in the equivalent of an average Nexstar studio space with network and stations using the same themes and design language. We are seeing in real time how much they can cut from CBS before they get comparisons to CW/Fox.

This is really the year CBS is being starved; we're getting yet another Yellowstone spin-off too and they already cut 2/3rds of the FBI's to allow another one to start up. But this is on Paramount for instead of contracting with someone you know will stay in Hollywood for several seasons, hiring a comedian at the height of her career who makes much more in touring host the show. I can't blame her for walking away when it seems like the format and limitations of broadcast TV just never worked for a show that started on cable, a very hands-on management trying to file every edge of their network down to satisfy the FCC to get the Skydance merger closed, and a certain heiress that needs to have her nose in everything who just needs to be given FU money and told to go away already. I already sense that Taylor and the writing team was getting network-noted to death to not comment about current political events (which they sadly won't do for Colbert, who I've just stopped watching because it's NOTHING but that) and just had no further appetite for the show. As for the timeslot and local stations, it'll either be sitcoms, tabloid news shows, CBS's cheapo syndicated game shows, or infomercials. Nothing new or creative is going there.

Not a moment too soon, because I think they ran out of breaking news in the 8am hour this morning.

Whenever Fox starts their streaming service (and since WITI is Fox-owned, they basically carry everything non-network outside the TMZ shows and Fox First Run filler on FoxLocal...and said filler is on Tubi anyways) and Disney decides to offer an ABC feed to Hulu subscribers without a Live TV add-on, it feels like we're marching towards that inevitability. And unless you're a Harvey-era Feud superfan who must watch all 12 episodes offered daily, why does the CW need stations in the first place outside of propping Perry's ego? I can get NBC through Peacock and CBS through Paramount+ and if Spectrum gets tired of paying Scripps more money for "YouTube playlist" news and advertorials, I'd be fine if those stations go away. TV stations really just need to get into a 50s radio mindset and begin to adjust to a world where scripted programming is in the past and the networks will only offer reality, news and sports content from hereon out. That seems to be WPLG's mindset now, where there's little upside when ABC seems to be spending less on affiliates and more on being a barker channel for Disney+ and Hulu.

I just don't see WSVN and Fox parting ways, especially now that the Dolphins get many more games on 7 with cross-flexing and the snowbird crowd happy with their college sports coverage, along with the rare Marlins game (and don't forget the World Baseball Classic, whose de facto championship home site is Marlins Park). There's no benefit for Fox to go to the Scripps pair on 35 or 39 at all, WSVN provides them enough resources in the market, and you know very well that promotions department is beyond psyched to put a new spin on a "Power of Two" marketing campaign, especially in football season. And simply I don't see WSVN interested in individual team rights for the other sports like WSFL is. And I disagree about Fox's lack of scripted programming, they're just more judicious and selective now about what shows they roll out (Doc and The Cleaning Lady are both pretty good and perfectly tuned for a Miami Fox station). They know they don't need to compete with Netflix and that's how their primetime feels like; we're still far from a subpar lineup comparable to UPN or MyNetworkTV.

Speaking of stations that are strong as independents, we'll see what will happen in Miami now because the bombshell just dropped; WPLG is done with ABC as of August 4th. Meanwhile right after that, we already also have an idea where the network is headed; it's getting subbed to WSVN's second sub; Mods, I think this needs to be broken out to its own thread.

And it makes sense considering their overall competition is a Scripps disasterpiece in WRTV and post-Dispatch WTHR stuck in Tegnaization. Both stations have to deal with whatever corporate foists upon them, while WTTV is just bonus ratings and revenue and WXIN is pretty much left alone by Nexstar and has a solid news operation and coverage across the day. It's pretty much a "Luigi does nothing and wins" market as the others flail around. Same with Miami; outside WPLG and the Spanish stations, WTVJ and WFOR are subject to the whims of whoever's in New York. I will say though I'm impressed by WDAF's new presentation; the older one was fine but just never felt real cohesive, while the new package just feels big-market and more defined with a full theme. ETA - Forgot to account in WISH-TV which is fine, but being associated with Allen stations outstate trickles down to them and as an independent, they can only do so much to stay competitive. But at least they are compared to WRTV.

Meanwhile its sister show True Crime News is one and done as part of a secret experiment to see how generic a TV show title, drafting off a better show's reporting, and how little promotion you can get away with to try to get a second just as anonymous season.

I know it's just a break but I think I'd just stay on-air rather than putting reality as the priority on the Weather Channel during a weather event.

Guess the only question is if they go with new call letters to leave the Winston era behind entirely; if they do hopefully they just don't do a dull CW tie in (because WCWC for "CW Cleveland" is uhh...remember that Les Moonves said there was a good reason it wasn't called The WC ), and maybe grab WJKW as perfect symmetry (to go in effect on September 16, the 40th anniversary of the return to WJW) if they can get those calls (WJCW would work if they just have to put in a CW reference).

Just because FNC has been able to bodge together their own weekend lineup that somehow works for a 'rusted remote' audience doesn't mean that MSNBC or any other network can do it when its competition is sports or event programming. We're talking about an audience that probably still wants Lockup to somehow return, and do we really need yet another Sunday politics show? Also with the late night hosts having long gone to Monday-Thursday, I expect the rest of the industry (including daytime) to follow the same model. We don't need a Maddow Friday show outside when it's required.

I'm really going to miss that opening zoom-out that just shows how absurdly tiny that studio is for a network-quality live show, even after the studio-sharing with EWN ended. It's always night and day to see their yearly Dolby show or other on-location weeks such as the recent Palm Springs week where they can spread out. I'm hoping at least that the GMA set is less clashy with all that metal and those goofy frosted panels and so much blue. I'm hopeful everything with the lighting and display on the new set is temporary and a new network-wide scheme is introduced with GMA's move, which I can still see happen. The big problem with ABC News is that set is heavily-used so they may have to keep it darker to hide marks and not expose too much to an average viewer about its overuse.

Closing the circle on local broadcasters (love that they have the home opener); WITI has broadcast Brewers games of course, but only as part of Fox telecasts. Now every commercial station in the market (not counting WVCY of course) has at least had one year airing games locally since the team came to town in 1970.

WVTV is very likely going to be the lighthouse 3.0 station for Milwaukee by default (they stepped on a rake selling WCGV for the Sinclair/Tribune deal that failed and the only other station, WMLW, is sharing with low-power WBME-CD), so in technicality Sinclair is just waiting to make all the deals to get their subchannels on other stations and Rincon is de facto just holding a license and submitting FCC paperwork for the station's issues.

WDJT has their replacement for Sam Kuffel; JD Rudd, who recently left Spectrum News WIsconsin, popped up on this evening's newscasts and the temperature was appropriate enough to note.

More likely it's just as usual for DirecTV; test channels go up, they're tested for a bit and then they disappear and it's nothing to worry about. Planning for all situations and making sure everything works in public view. But I don't think it would be Hearst, who is a bedrock 'must renew ASAP' group for NBC (they wouldn't have done the Gulf Coast News rebrand now if they weren't confident of keeping NBC); most likely it's one of the more tenuous groups like Allen Media Group, which we all know the issues with and where it's a coinflip if the monthly affiliate dues are paid out.

Now wondering if "What's Brewing WI" even gets to the air; you know WTMJ wants it for the ad revenue, but is it even enough to sustain basic production and staff costs?

You could say they finally transitioned to who they were meant to; a fine comedy channel. It always seemed to be trending that way even early on with the other Sinclair networks stuck on drama thanks to Me and Antenna/Rewind and Laff getting most of the sitcoms.

Has anyone seemed to lose their local weather conditions lately on the channel? My Spectrum system has local SD conditions but no HD equipment, and through the Spectrum app they have been carrying the Milwaukee conditions in HD, but in the last week they've disappeared and been replaced with the national feed only. Hoping this isn't Allen cheaping out; I know they really want to stop the local on the 8s but this is the worst way to withdraw it.

This looks like NewsNet with an actual budget...very, very tired of virtual studios and minimalist graphics which aren't explained well. They thrive with experts discussing stories on their own with just a basic screen or touch panel. Nobody needs this.

More sponcon on WTMJ to replace Scripps News in the 3pm half-hour starting on March 10; It's a Morning Blend extension titled What's Brewing Wisconsin. This time the twist is they're doing advertorial segments...on location.

You definitely need to ask permission and credit appropriately in the description, and be kind about it or remove the video. 'Credit to everyone' might be fine for a 10 year-old's Roblox video but you're already playing with fire with compilations without credit; there are others in the space that have ruined it for everyone and just swipe without mercy, and it's always rude and uncalled for.

Good thing is that they'll definitely have feedback from on-set and viewers and begin to adjust accordingly. The best thing about a fully new facility is that you will know in real time what to adjust and the viewer doesn't have the old set in mind to compare to the new now. Can't wait to see the newsroom flashcam if they have one.

"LA Live" is trademarked in itself for the downtown complex and it's easily assumed that they want to avoid any confusion with the network schedule by just going with "Fox 11 Primetime" (it's on channel 13 so you can't use that), so it gets its own bespoke branding; they'll probably figure out something better in time.