MediaZone4K

Earnie leaving was so quiet. Did WCBS or WABC give it a mention?

I'd take AMC & OLTL back with good writers in the 1/2 hour format at 1:00. Due to financial reasons many have addressed, thats unlikely.

I like Michael Strahan but he's not needed at crowded GMA. He was good with Kelly Ripa, but Ryan Seacrest is working out fine. Another issue was that GMA 3 was just another face in the already saturated lighthearted--opinionated banter--current events--games and celebrity guests talk show circuit. But hell, I can stomach them over The View. Had Kelly Ripa decided to leave LIVE instead of Michael, I could definitely see Kiki and Sarah working out as his co hosts given their chemistry.

Strahan, Sarah & Keke had good chemistry. I think one weakness was the program being disjoined from the first two hours of GMA. Since OLTL and AMC were axed the time slots have been unstable. Yet, ATWT and Guiding Light's repalcements The Talk & Lets Make A Deal have some how managed to last a decade now.

WNBC always had the best sets and graphics in NYC (minus studio 7E and 3K maybe).

Studio 3C looked good when it debuted back in 2012, and was a definite upgrade from Studio 7E. 3K however looks cheaper in comparison.

Wouldn't want to see Bookman and Toress broken up.

How long are some of these morning news anchor shifts? I've been seeing Mary Calvi introduce the Phil Murphy press briefings during Y&R at 1 pm. Being that AM anchors shift would start prior to 4:30 a.m. , I would have assumed that they'd be off work by now.

Come to think of it, home boradcasts wold have been a great idea all along. Then again, there could be logistical issues (if any).

With the internet (which includes WCBS's website) functional 24/7, and both WABC & WNYW having 12pm newscasts, plus WNBC at 11am, WCBS temporarily omitting a 12pm newscast isn't that critical. It might reflect on some less than stellar internal management as some suggest, but it's nothing that serious. I will concede that should a situation like this arise again, WCBS, including the other stations/networks need solid contingency plans for backup studio space. Did people really take time out of their day to call the news station because regular news presenters weren't on air?

Looks great! The main desk & backdrop tops that of channels 4, 7, 5 and 11's sets.

It was a joke on the irony of the situation. There was so much controversy here surrounding studio choice and outsourcing their newscasts only to have the broadcast ultimately end up on the sidewalk. It's humoros to see how the crisis has forced big network broadcasts to improve by filming from the simplest of locations. Ultimately they got on the air and that's what counts.

I'm about a month late but...in regards to the Gayle/Kobe situation. The cancel Gayle, revoke her black card, social media push is extreme and an overaction. This situation displays how rapidly the court of public opinion flips these days. Everyone loved Gayle after the R Kelly interview but were quick to cancel her after the Lisa Leslie interview. It was also irresponsible of CBS to selectively post that part of the interview online with a clickbait headline given the rush to judgement nature of social media. However the backlash isn't unwarranted. Gayle basically interviewed Lisa because she was Kobe's friend, then invalidated Lisa's responce about 'not seeing that side of him' because she was Kobe's friend. So why ask her? Gayle's questions weren't outrageous, the issue is a matter of time, place, and person. If this was an ESPN round table talk on Kobe's life, that's one thing to bring up the charges, but asking his good friend about it merely 2 or so weeks after his death was insensitive. She and Norah are good at their jobs but you can see their bias coming out on many occasions. It showed when Gayle kept attempting to invalidate Lisa's answers on Kobe's allegations. Furthermore, Jada Pinkett Smith framing Snoop Dogg's (unnecessarily vulgar) comments as an attack on all black women when they were very clearly aimed at Gayle, was an overreach.

They're on the sidewalk tonight, is the struggle that critical

Said the same thing to myself, would love to have so many of them back. Sadly soaps have displayed poor writing & budget in the past 15 or less years so we may face the same dilema as bad talk shows. (BUT) If we were to reboot any soaps Id say bring back 30 min reboots of All My Children and One Life to Live, if NBC could get the rights. They have a decent amount of fanbase and momentum left behind them, and the 30-minute format should help cut down on the actors and overall budget to deliver better produced programs. But again from that pesky business perspective networks most likely wouldn't do it. The other hour in the gap could be filled by bringing Steve Harvey's talk show back. He was better than a lot of the newer talk shows, and that's a safe bet, because if I'm not mistaken he had decent ratings. (Kelly Clarkson's show is surprisingly not terrible though). I'm sure NBC wouldn't do that given the behind the scenes production dispute.

I get the business perspective. IDK if others agree, IMO the reason there is a call for axing the last two hours is from a content POV. Unfortunately in broadcast news these days, quality and profitablity seem to be mutally exculsive (CABLE NEWS). I'll agree that yet another generic talk show isnt the answer. But as you both pointed out they will most likely go with the cheaper option.

They handled everything pretty well. All in all WCBS was able to do newscasts (even if they originated from California), and give their audience information. They average viewer most definately couldn't tell the difference (and couldn't care less) if they were watching news with anchors from CBS 2 or CBS 5. If there's a silver lining to this, it was cool to see how WCBS improvised given the situation and even more interesting to see O&O anchor talent from elsewhere in the country. It could have been worse and a break from the ususal routine now and then is always intresting to see.

I could 100% get on board with that (I'd prefer Craig & Hoda as the co-anchors though). If the fourth hour should remain, I'd axe Today's Take, rebrand Hoda & Jenna as Later Today ('The Today Show After Show'), give them a live studio audience, and have them do the show from the plaza (on weather permitting days). The plaza has been really underutilized in the past few years. The current Today show is no prize but its a bit better than the OTT tabloidness of GMA.

If anything they need to shorten Today and improve the 7-9 block. The content is already dumbed down enough in the first 2 hours, even worse in the following two. IMO, networks need to adopt a less is more attitude given how satuarted the market is, and how much quality seems to be suffering in the name of quantity (especially cable news).

Pat Harvey!!

Wish I'd have caught this Live. Its always interesting when the newscasts are forced to improvise in situations like this, to keep the show going. You almost counldn't tell the difference as the LA studio looks almost (if not) exactly the same as New York's.

It made no sense for him to leave GDNY, unless he was forced out, still unclear on the circumstances.

The warm lighting looks good, compared to the washed out HD of the other stations. If anything WCBS can at least boast about their studio.

Why has GD Wakeup has such a revolving door of anchors over the years, compared to the 4:30-7 slot on the other stations?

MSNBC & Fox included! They aren't prizes either, but apparently obsessive and endless Trump coverage works in their favor compared to CNN. IMO It would be interesting to see a hard international focus on CNN compared to the America focused coverage on most US news media.