Greggo

Considering Mester praised Drafs at least twice that I can recall in that 5-minute rant, it seems pretty clear she was likely going to allow some sort of goodbye and was overruled by corporate. Maybe pre-recorded. Who knows? After yesterday’s stunt, yes, Drafs probably is pissed — and rightfully so — because she got dragged into this on air. He even showed a picture of Drafs with Lynette! It makes her look bad, like she doesn’t have control of her staff. Unfortunate all the way around. I will say it is interesting to see how the others reacted. Telles seemed uncomfortable but supportive. The two fellas were just plain awkward, with one not saying a single thing and the other rambling for a short bit before getting cut off.

Some odd last-minute changes at KPRC/Houston, made by the new GM who just arrived from KSAT. With less than a week’s notice, Houston Life gets demoted to its old spot, 1p, starting Monday. It was just announced on air today. The show had been on at 3p. But the changes start earlier, at 11a. The Midday newscast gets shortened by 30 minutes. A day-old episode of ET airs at 11:30a, instead of 12:30p. The noon news expands to an hour. So still 90 minutes of news, just in a weird configuration. I’m not really sure why they insist on running the ET repeat. Just do 2 straight hours of news. Putting it in between two newscasts is … bizarre. Anyway, Houston Life as said above airs at 1p, where NBC News Live was supposed to run. Now, NBC News Live will air at 2p (Is there even a live feed at that hour?) and Dr. Phil is at 3p. NBC News Live will kill the afternoon momentum, IMHO. Anyway, this is all dramatically different from the schedule they had been promoting just days ago.

An update on KPRC: Their online listings show Dr. Phil slides ahead an hour to 2p on 9/12, taking over the DOOL slot. NBC News Daily will air at 1p, where Dr. Phil had been airing since locally produced Houston Life moved to 3p.

CMG headquarters is on Peachtree Dunwoody Road. Even after the Apollo deal, they are still based in Atlanta.

Like atlnews2, I love how they say they’re the hometown station owned by a company based in Atlanta. Guess they forgot about WSB

I think most affiliates would prefer to do an hour at 9/10 and keep the 35-minute show at 10/11. Several Fox stations already do this. (In fact, WAGA goes from 10 to midnight.) If someone is watching ABC or CBS prime and prefers the late news on the NBC station they’d have to make a tough choice. Same goes for if they watch local news on the CBS or ABC station and then like to switch over to Fallon. Another tough choice. Also, re: the list above … KABB and WOAI may be a duopoly but KABB produces its own 9p news with its own anchor team on its own set. The two already compete against each other in the mornings so this wouldn’t be anything new.

As previously reported by another poster here, KVUE/Austin has picked up Tamron, which hadn’t been airing in Austin since it was dropped by KEYE. (Even though her hometown, Luling, is in the Austin DMA.) Interestingly, it won’t be airing in Ellen’s spot at 4p. Instead, they’ve stuck it at 2p. Daily Blast Live, which had been at 2p, moves to 3p and Inside Edition/Extra move from 3p to 4p. Not a great lead-in to the 5p news, IMHO. I foresee a drop in ratings.

Kelly airs at 3p on KRIV with a second run overnight on KTXH. Moving to the Dr. Phil spot on KPRC (1p) would be a demotion. Also, KPRC has indicated they are looking at expanding Houston Life in the near future so, if that happens, the 2p hour currently occupied by Days and soon NBC News would slide to 1p. Houston Life would expand into the 2p hour, leaving no room for syndication, whatever it might be.

WGCL also stole another investigator from WXIA a few weeks back: Andy Pierrotti. Looks like Gray isn’t messing around when it comes to making CBS 46 a contender.

I’m sure affiliates are loving the fact they are getting this news (officially) just a month before the new season starts, long after 22-23 syndie deals were locked up. I don’t see many large market, non O&O NBC stations sticking with the new, replacement newscast longterm.

Wow. How early are these newscasts being recorded? Karen recently moved to a “family friendly” shift, doing the 11a and 4p newscasts for KTVT. The whole point was to be able to have dinner with her kids. (She did evenings for years, before moving to mornings.) So they must be recording these in the middle of the afternoon. Like 2p or 3p.

KPRC within the past few days has started airing a second run of Houston Life at 1:05a instead of a second run of Dr. Phil. I really, really hope they replace the 12:30p one-day-delayed repeat of ET with something else. You’re already airing 90 minutes of midday news. Why not just go for a full two hours?!? Tamron hasn’t resurfaced in Austin as of yet, which is weird because her hometown, Luling, is in the Austin DMA. Maybe KVUE will pick it up to replace Ellen.

KTXA previously tried airing news from 7p to 9p under the name TXA 21 News. The numbers weren’t great and it was yanked. If they couldn’t get decent ratings in that slot, with zero competition, there is no way they will be able to pull a respectable audience at 9p up against juggernaut KDFW Fox 4. KDAF CW 33 already learned that lesson under Tribune leadership … although I suspect Nexstar will relaunch a newscast in that 9p slot at some point since that is their home market.

KXAN/Austin is expanding its 430p newscast to a full hour this week. Jennifer Sanders will anchor, in addition to adding the noon news to her duties following Friday’s departure of Amanda Dugan. First-run Jeopardy and Daytime Jeopardy will air at 3p and 330p. (First-run Jeopardy had been airing at 4p on KXAN.) Dr. Phil, which had been airing at 3p, slides to 2p, and displaced Rachael Ray gets bumped to 3p on sister station KBVO (MyTV). Daytime Jeopardy had been airing at 530p on sister station KNVA (CW) and is being replaced by a 4th run of Family Feud. Family Feud will now air for 2 straight hours on KNVA: 5p to 7p.

Interesting news about the news in Dallas: The Spectrum News 1 North Texas feed will be simulcast over the air on Weigel’s KAZD. This will air around the clock, 7 days a week — except for a break on the weekends to show E/I programming. The financial arrangement isn’t entirely clear — is Spectrum paying Weigel or is Weigel paying Spectrum? I can’t see this getting many viewers, but who knows?!? https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/6/28/moving-from-cable-to-broadcast

KPRC in Houston recently posted a help wanted ad for their lifestyle show, “Houston Life,” that said it would expand in 2023. It’s already an hour, so it stands to reason it could soon be 2. 2 hours strikes me as a lot for a station the size of WALA.

They’ve been paying rent on it so I guess they finally decided they should put it to some sort of use instead of just flushing money down the drain. It was up for sublease for about five years and they had no takers. If they did a somewhat standard 20-year lease, they’re stuck there for about six more years.

Who is that VO guy?!? Awful!

Current 4p anchor Keith Garvin has been named main anchor at KPRC/Houston. He’s been with KPRC for 10 years and knows the market well. Keith will shift to the 5p, 6p and 10p shows, replacing Kris Gutierrez, who abruptly left a few months ago. No official word on who will take over at 4p, but I suspect current 11a and noon anchor Andy Cerota will add that show to his duties instead of reporting for the afternoon newscasts, like he does now. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/06/08/keith-garvin-named-anchor-of-kprc-2s-evening-and-late-newscasts/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=kprc2&fbclid=IwAR34kdsOEU0lwe-giDjxXQw1UE5th_-JOwP0KPiHbdztrZaVk53XSkAZGNs&fs=e&s=cl

It appears those rumors from FTV and others about Sinclair moving KFDM/Beaumont to WOAI/San Antonio aren’t true. KFDM broke ground on a new building today, which will replace the current one, which has been condemned by the state as part of a freeway expansion project. KFDM is moving to the opposite side of town from where they are now. Building will open next year. https://www.facebook.com/79318758755/posts/pfbid02mSyNoF7zsEBMuX4VfAiEWTQVYNbpF29BtFuJzzRUqiQMzsEuamjvAX2dfgWTRGWVl/

Considering it came right after the end of May sweeps, it may very well have been related to ratings.

You can pay to license it.

A couple changes from Texas to report … Former Fox 26 Houston chief met Jim Siebert, who abruptly left earlier this year, has resurfaced at WeatherNation as a VP. https://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2022/04/dr-jim-siebert-joins-weathernation.html In Bryan/College Station, several changes at top-rated KBTX. Evening co-anchor Karla Castillo has shifted to mornings, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. She fills one of the two seats vacated recently by husband-wife anchor team of Josh and Kathleen Ninke, who both went to WAVE in Louisville to report. The other morning anchor seat is posted online, with reporter Fallon Appleton filling in on an interim basis. Castillo’s evening co-anchor seat is also posted. The station said various reporters will fill in for her on the evening shift for now. The station has also revealed it will be replacing Ellen at 3p this fall with an hourlong local lifestyle show that will be called The Three. (Not only will it air at 3p, but they are also Channel 3.) Jobs are posted for a host and a producer. All four KBTX jobs are listed on Gray’s career website, along with several others.

Gut-wrenching. They had just announced she had gone to hospice hours earlier. This was a horribly aggressive cancer. At least we know she is at peace now.

I believe this was initially known as the WMC package. I couldn’t initially remember which station debuted them. It has been bastardized heavily since then. WBTV has the same opens as KPLC but different L3s. WBRC has different opens but the same L3s, just red instead of blue. So I guess we could still be somewhat surprised. We know based upon the weather graphics shown above that WVUE is going blue. So maybe a custom open and the WBTV L3s? That wouldn’t be too horrible. Still was hoping for more tho.