MediaZone4K

Barbara Walters fills in on GMA alongside Joan Lunden (1992). Always interesting to see big names fill in on other broadcasts. .

Genuine question: as some people have asked before, why didn't CBS shift the network affiliation from KCBS to KCAL?

I did definitely notice a shift to more serious content towards the end. Sometimes Katie came off a bit snotty like when she told Britney Spears "I told you to stop calling me ma'am" or the Ann Coulter interview. It also seemed like sometimes Katie let her political bias is bleed into her interviewing. Maybe it was because Diane had a long career before the morning time which allowed people to accept her in an evening role?

I'm assuming the justification for this is to force people to watch local newscasts live on TV? If they counted the streaming numbers, wouldn't that not make a difference? Plus, being online opens up your viewing audience to anyone anywhere in the country, such as residents who out of their market but looking to see what's going on back home.

Katie Couric's book has been out for a while now and I just got around to reading the chapters about her time at CBS (which she didn't enjoy). Aside from citing sexism, she seems pretty dumbfounded about what exactly went wrong during her tenure. I think it was the shift to softer news and the Katie's Notebook/Talk Back op-ed segments for starters. Largely, it was the belief that her popularity in the mornings would translate to the evenings. Thoughts? Comparibly, I don't recall Diane Sawyer's nightly run being as criticized though.

I see your point, especially because Joe and Mika are doing well after their mini scandal. To be fair, 'Frozen' sing-along 'Deals and Steals' GMA is not a serious news cast. GMA3 even less serious. ABC News is fighting to protray an internalized image of Good Morning America that isn't in line with reality. Agreed. We live in a time of increased public scrutiny. These days, companies knee-jerk reaction is cave ito public pressure, forgetting that this is an era of short attention spans. A new media frenzy surfaces every week. It also seems like people who double down and stay the course, rather than retreat, are the ones who survive cancel culture. Translation, ABC should've kept them on the air and allowed this to blow over.

I had my doubts given past celebrity talk show failures but these two shows much like Kelly Clarkson have proven to be solid.

WPIX (and WABC) have the aesthetics of a lesser market. At least in WABC's case it's always been that way hasn't ever affected its popularity. West coats stations like KTLA, KABC and sonmewhat KNBC continue to beat NY set wise.

Going back to news, another issue I see is everything feels contrived. Local or national, tv news outlets appear to be going extra hard to seem like they care about the viewer or are invested in the comminity. Be it through excessive hours of news programming, overly dramatic weather coverage, ornate graphics, or gimmiks, it feels forced. I watched an Australian newscast from the 90s and it struck me how raw, no nonsence and simply news oriented foreign broadcasters like the BBC and SBS were, without being boring. Even the "feel good" story at the end about a man duplicating his grandfather's flight across the English channel comes off as a magazine piece rather than cheesy or selling false hope. Even now, foreign countries like Jamaica with a lot smaller production values deliver a much more straight newscast than what we get in the states today.

Wow, no more "CNN Newsroom" on the weekdays presumably, and nothing on this list originating from Atlanta.

It compares to WSVN in terms of newsroom set. The camera movement definitely tops 7 News. As for newscast content, I'd need to sit and watch more indepth for comparison. I do like the bits witt in the news writing that I've seen though. Again CNN should definately take a page from City TV.

LOVING the camera movement in the '99 and '95 broadcasts. Getting a very WSVN feel from those tapes. CNN take notes.

IMO this would have been a better package to stick with. That light blue bar below the logo just needs to align with the light gray headline feed box.

Standing vs sitting works depending on the station, and the set. On WNBC and WANF it looks off, WNBC especially beecuase if the awkwardness of camera angles. WWOR and WNYW did the standing format very well back in the 2000s, especially because they had a more dramatic tabloid flair to their presentation.

Rare find, WABC 5 & 6 PM News, 1999. Late era Bill Beutel.

Exactly!!! Well, here we are in January and exactly what was propheseised has occured.

Didn't mean for this to turn overly political. I'll humbly say that I liked Norman Lear's shows, I will agree that Sanford was the most funny, and I dont think everything rural had to be purged from CBS' line up. A mix of rural and urban humor would have been a nice balance. Tv shows can make social statements, it's art. The issue to me is when EVERY show gets political, when shows get too preachy, or one political line of thinking is dominant in most shows. For example, I watch South Park if I want biting social satire but when I watch Martin I just want to see a comedian and 4 friends get into light hearted antics. If I watch a razor commercial I just want to be sold on how "amazing" the product is, not given a social commentary on the state of masculinity. The politicizing of everything has turned people off from tv.

Uniformity isnt all bad. It's cool seeing an identical format with different faces when going to another city. But I dont mind a middle ground, uniformity with traces of uniquness. For example, KDKA has the standard CBS get up, only their little twist is the black and gold graphics. Staions could have a standardized set perhaps with individual takes on colors or set per market. Maybe even a different version of the theme. ABC's O&Os have achieved this and they're largely winning. CBS hasn't achieved a winning formula to warrant a standard format acoss stations.

There was a time I felt sad at the decline of tv, therefore overjoyed at the prospect of classic tv reboots. Now that I've seen the stale writing and political heavyhandedness on revivals , it's best they're left in the past. Its like Hollywood is out of ideas or is so dissatisfied by today's world, that they'd rather look to the past for nostalgic comfort.

It all comes down to personal taste. The current O&O look is not great but this isnt much of an upgrade. For me, grand well composed themes like The Enforcer, ABC's Cool Hand Luke, or NBC's the Mission are timless as apposed to techno gumdrop beat sounding pieces like Tega does. Exactly. There is a perception that most mobile viewing takes place on a smartphone as opposed to a tablet, computer, or full blown smart tv. I still dont get the notion of why mobile must = flat. Even the glossy graphics of yesterday still hold up well on small screen phones playing old youtube clips. But again, it all comes down to personal preference.

The graphics look very generic: big, white, flat, and boxy. As someone wrote earlier, it looks like a local cable news operation such as NY 1. The enforcer theme should remain, it's iconic and powerful. I hope more local stations don't go the Tegna route with video game sounding themes in an attemt to seem "hip and digital".

Ultimately, what is the endgame? Cable and broadcast shutting down entirely? Tv networks like ABC converting soely to free ad supported or paid subscription streaming services offering live sports or live news at fixed times, and producing shows that release a new episode at midnight on "Day X" every week? We're already seeing CBS O&Os demphasize channel numbers which is a sign of linear tv's growing irrlevance, even in news consumption. They're basically saying "what does a channel number matter if your watching this online?".

Inside Story (1984) covering big name local news anchors like KABC/KCAL's Jerry Dunphy and WTVJ's Ralph Renick.The aforementioned men had competing philosophies. Renick advocated for giving the audience hard wide ranging news, whether they or media consultants like it or not. Dunphy believed in giving the audience what they want to see -- within the boundaries of good taste-- as ratings keep a station alive. It's amazing to see anchors like Dave Moore & Charles Kuralt's concern for journalistic content as far back as its prime--the 80s! Imagine what they'd think of today's local news. One thing that Kuralt and Moore needed to realize is that substance is prime but decoration attracts viewers. A good tasting cake must first look appealing to entice the eater. Elements like set design and graphics may seem tivial but still matter.

At the end of the day, I have a feeling layman viewers are going to be saying "I saw it on Channel 2 News last night" whether they watch the news on TV or online.

The placement of the word "news" affects how smoothly the brand rolls off the tounge. Example, KPIX. "CBS Bay Area" rather than "CBS News Bay Area" allows the branding's use outside of newscasts, without having to cluster in the call letters. "CBS BAY Area News at 5", "CBS Bay Area News at 11". If we are de emphasizing channel numbers, I'm sure call letters don't really matter either on an o&o station. "CBS News Bay Area Evening Edition: 6PM" is a paragraph. *KCAL is a different story as CBS is the secondary brand*