MisterBill

Some clown replied to Jill's FB post today, accusing her of leaving early and not being on the air to report about today's major traffic mess. Jill replied that she has a full-time job and is only doing WPIX as a favor. Interestingly, he accused her of leaving at 8:15, but she said that she leaves at 7:15. Very odd.

I check LinkedIn and social media to see if the folks have updated their position info there.

No, was never announced as the replacement. And she hasn't changed anything online. Maybe just an extended trial or simply a fill in when Emily wasn't available. But she hasn't been announced as the replacement, either. Alex Lee is changing jobs, so maybe it's going to be her.

So, just when it seemed like Adelle Caballero was the permanent traffic replacement, we have Emily West this week with no mention of filling in for Adelle.

That voice sounds almost digitized, although it is excellent quality if it is.

A friend just posted on Chris Cimino's FB page that he will be doing morning weather on WPIX starting 1/17. Not sure if that will be the entire morning, or just the early morning, or what. Wishing my good friend Chris Cimino much success on his new meteorology gig at WPIX starting January 17th after a relatively short hiatus from morning TV - tune in for your morning weather update!! I’m looking forward to it!! That's actually her stage name. Her real last name is Leberfinger. Alexandra Leberfinger (Alex Lee) | LinkedIn And her Linkedin photo is tagged #opentowork, so I guess she was (is?) looking for a job. Job titles Anchor · Reporter · Co Host · Host · On Air Personality Job locations (On-site) New York City Metropolitan Area Start date Immediately, I’m actively applying Job types Full-time · Contract · Part-time

Brittany Bell did the weather from home on Friday.

That was what I originally thought as well about the "last week" comment. But now she's now posted two days of the CBS newscast and gotten congratulations in the comments from friends and co-workers. We'll have to see what happens next week.

Alice Gainer has moved to CBS News, or is in the process of doing so. She posted a video of her doing a CBS News Flash today, and had posted a photo of her with the caption "Last week @cbsnewyork" five days ago. Ironically, she just anchored the Saturday night local newscast last weekend. IMHO, they really did her wrong when they cancelled the separate WLNY News at 9PM and just turned it into an abridged version of the WCBS newscast with the same anchors. Glad to see that she's getting an opportunity with the network.

FYI she was on Monday night.

And now the missing piece of the WFH puzzle is out -- Audrey Puente posted that she has Covid. Update - she did the weather from home tonight. She subsequently posted on IG that it was day 11, and she was now Covid-free.

I did not see the story that was referenced, so I don't know exactly what it said. But from her IG profile, it seems like she is mostly a CNN person, not NBCSN. which would likely have been freelance. Olympic and Paralympic host, CNN Sports/HLN/AKC contributor. Always game for good story & ️ :@cnn @cnnsport @hln_be @americankennelclub @nbcolympics Personally, I'm going to wait for something more definitive before wondering about people moving around. I have never been a big Bruce Beck fan, despite all of his awards. I was always a big Len Berman fan, and I actually like John Chandler. We'll have to see what changes, if anything.

She's doing the Olympics for NBC, so I guess it may be related.

Maybe Monday, but not since then. And Ines is doing traffic from home, and she just posted this on IG. Maybe one or both tested positive but are asymptomatic, so they can continue to work from home.

Really? Raegan has been doing morning newscasts this week, at least at 6am.

Maybe Maurice and Kristine were exposed to Covid? Or just on vacation.

Mike Woods did the weather from home on the 10pm news tonight. Update -- Ines did traffic from home today.

Given the comments on that post, it appears that she is the replacement. I did not watch, did they welcome her? I noticed she was also there one day last month (and mentioned above) and had posted a picture then. Maybe that was her tryout.

Right, Jill Nicolin is still on PIX, and she's not the official replacement, at least not yet.

Morgan McKay has joined Fox5 from Spectrum News in Albany. Apparently, Teresa Priolo also worked for them before joining Fox5. Not exactly sure how her last name is pronounced, I heard her say it some unusual way earlier.

I'm guessing that 6-7 is a major competitive time slot, and they want their #1 team then. I've noticed that WNBC has been advertising TINY segments during the evening news, claiming that the show starts at 6am, when obviously they're on at 4am. Also look at how Fox5 has Bianca Peters in to co-anchor the 6-7am hour.

Are they REALLY that hard to find? What sort of skills are required other than knowing how to pronounce Van Wyck and Koscuiuszko and knowing the basic roads and how to point to a map? As for a seasoned veteran reporter, Alex Denis and Marissa Torres came from out of town and did fine jobs on weather and 2 and 11, and I'm sure there are other examples. And Natalie Duddridge is from Canada and was doing fine on 2 before they dropped traffic when Covid hit and most people stopped commuting. Most people can just use Google Maps or Waze to direct them around traffic problems, and that information will be much more current than your TV traffic report. As for weather reports, while the big name meteorologists go a great job, the fact that someone like Jill Nicolini can do a credible job on WPIX shows that you may not really need to have someone skilled in meteorology to do them all the time. Nothing against Jill, I just don't think that she has much knowledge about weather.

Lauren Scala (@laurenscala) • Instagram photos and videos After over a decade as the Traffic Anchor on Today in NY, I’m hanging up my hat! Retiring from reporting on the AM commute. This was my choice and it was a hard one because I love my Today in NY family so much! Not seeing them everyday will be the hardest part, but it’s time to get more sleep and embark on some new adventures. The great news is I will still be part of the @nbcnewyork extended family. You will still see me popping up on Today in NY and New York Live sharing stories about all the things that make New York so special. (NJ and CT too)! So consider this my two weeks notice commuters. My last day reporting traffic will be 12/3. Much love to you all and a much sappier post to come on my last day.

Is it really cheaper to run news instead of a syndicated show they already bought the rights to? There are a bunch of people you have to pay for that extra 30 minutes compared to close to nothing to rerun another sitcom.

That's consistent with how they were handling things when Bianca had a temporary co-anchor. Maybe that's when viewership is heavier and they feel that they need to have co-anchors.