MediaZone4K

My asessment.... Walter Cronkite leaving was the impetus. But Dan Rather was a capable anchor with a broadcast just as good as the competition. Someone had to be third place so I suppose it was just his lot. Bob Schiffer was excellent, and I think he should've stayed on until his retirement in 2015. Katie Couric introduced too much soft news and formatting changes like commentary which probably turned viewers off. Scott Pelly was too stiff and he did not have enough personality for the evening news versus a straight laced program like 60 Minutes. Jeff Glor wasn't really given a chance, and he wasn't a household name. I suppose people found him plain and unremarkable so they didn't tune in. Nora O'Donnell was good in the mornings but like Katie, CBS overestimated her popularity translating from mornings to evenings. Nora could also come off as snotty and biased at times. Maurice and John are capable anchors. John however is overused and frequently miscast in anchor positions all over the network. They have the best and most high-quality show of the big three broadcasts. However, David Muir and (at the time) Lester Holt had been well established with audiences for over 10 years. They are also are bigger names. CBS' constant reshuffling of their evening news (and morning) product with less popular talent perhaps made it hard to retain an audience. Then there are the other factors like decline in traditional viewership, the 1994 realignments etc.. Long story short, right now, CBS is the best of the big networks in terms of journalistic quality but they just can't seem to get it right in the mornings or evenings.

Things got testy --again-- between Curt Menefee and Mayor Eric Adams

CBS News has a center left undertone in its reporting. CBS going down THAT rabbit hole at a time like this would be a major mistake. If they supposedly wanted someone from Fox, Shepherd Smith would've been the better candidate. CBS still arguably delivers the best journalistic product of the big three networks, so it sucks to see them struggle this much.

From industry wide observation it seems anchors often get the opportunity to say goodbye (even if it's for another job), but for longtime reporters, stations just prefer them to disappear unless it's a retirement. IMO if you've been around for a while and you're leaving on good terms, you should at least be able to acknowledge your departure on air --- if you want.

His LinkedIn confirms as well. I question if he was on good terms with management when he left, because he wasn't given an air goodbye like other long timers Tim Fleicher and Dave Evans.

I knew this would come eventually but not now. Speculation but, getting up before the crack of dawn is brutal especially at 70. Maybe I'm over estimating her value, but people know that show in large part because of Gayle. I'm concerned about it's longevity with King not in it.

My question is, do those slots make the network good money, in comparison to late night which CBS says was bleeding money? This accelerates my concerns about the morning show's future.

Or cancel the CBS Evening News at this point. Be like FOX. No late night show, no Evening News (and eventually) no morning show. Let the affiliates (not that they're strong) have all that time. Unless it costs them extra to do longform, they might as well keep the current format. When they copied the competition under Norah, they were still in third. Despite my initial hesitation with the format changes, CBS actually surprised me with their best reformat yet since the Schiffer era. It seems however they weren't confident in their new product as they walked back some of their formatting from early on.

Its pretty stunning that the man with a million jobs at CBS is about to be gone. John is a qualified journalist but he was shoehorned into several anchor positions he wasn't right for like Evening News and CTM. Bringing Norah Back is not the answer IMO. She didn't click the first time, why would that happen now? No matter what they do, the show will be in third place. Keep the current quality format with Maurice as solo anchor OR give the time back to affiliates. I've been saying from the beginning, Maurice should be skeptical of accepting anything network.

Oh no! All three were great! CBS Saturday Mornings was the best of the morning shows on weekend broadcast.

I don't get the insistence on going live at THAT hour. The only things live by then are the anchor reads and the weather because I'm sure all packages are pre recorded stand ups that point. Little to no production difference in pre recording.

Ex WCBS anchor Dana Tyler over on WNBC! She cameoed on Law & Order SVU as a reporter.

Dana Tyler spotted in the wild. She cameoed as a reporter on Law & Order SVU this past Thursday. Sue Simmons has done so in the past.

I think live shows after midnight are pretty useless unless it's a home market team. Having been in a newsroom in an OT situation, everyone from producers to anchors complains about it. The over time pay is taxed. Do viewers really even care if the show is live or pre-taped? There's no production difference except for the live bug on the screen. IMO the insistency on going live after late running sports games are a relic of the old TV age.

Not sure if this was posted anywhere but WKYC is simplyfying it's newscasts name to 3News at "X time" again. They're debuting a noon newscast and cutting the morning show back to 5am. https://wkycdirectorscut.blogspot.com/2025/10/big-changes-coming-to-wkyc-new-noon.html?m=1

Agreed that the The 7 live studio gives Tegna vibes. The main studio looks very NBC O&Oish. WTVJ 2013:

Yeah it was a mouthful. KCAL NEWS on CBS News LA etc..... I know they wanted uniform branding while sticking to a locally popular brand, but they just needed to commit to one thing.

Journalism is a fun career. The great part that elevates being a reporter from a regular 9-to-5 is doing something new every day. It's also great in that you're not confined to an office, you can eat lunch and be on your phone whenever you want, and you can be outside in the world. Information gathering as a reporter is now the easiest it's ever been thanks to the Internet and smart phones. Of course the cons are constantly being expected to pitch story ideas (which requires hitting up contacts on your off hours, eroding work life balance. Competing for stories is stressful. Constantly having to move from city to city to upgrade salary or just get hired is also hard. Reporting career that's easier when your single with no children. It doesn't help that people aren't watching the product as much, and salaries are going down. This is the worst time in broadcast television history to become a reporter. only going into this career if you're really passionate about it and you're confident that you can make it far enough to get a good salary.

a little more insight on what will happen with Janice Yu since she left eyewitness news earlier this year. Per her Instagram she said she's leaving the news business

The 2012 graphics would have been even better with rectangular corners on the right instead of trapezoidal. CBS Mornings/CBS This Morning has been clueless about lower thirds since removing that package. Everything has been flat and cartoonish ever since.

Seems familiar The new set is not the worst, not the best. I agree that they should've probably stuck to the set below, and I wish they kept the 2012 graphics.

Seeing the new WESH graphics. The previous look was fine with some 3D dimension. What a downgrade, IMO. Way too flat.

Media literacy has always been an inside baseball thing, and the public needs a crash course ASAP!.... First lesson, all things marked FOX arent conservative. More relevant to this topic, your local station is most likely a franchise and not network owned!

Again, I usually skip Kimmel's monologue, but this time I had to watch, and he handled it well. Exactly what do Nexstar and Sinclair want? Jimmy (sort of) apologized about any misinterpretations of his comment. He even praised Charlie Kirk's wife for her forgiveness of the shooter. Do the affiliate owners actually want him to donate to Turning Point USA? Jimmy was actually gracious to ABC. That's a lot more than many hard-core comedians in his position would have done. So now does that MSpinlessNBC commentator Matthew Dowd get his job back?

WKMG weekend evening anchor Eric Von Ancken is leaving the desk to become manager of content and coverage at the station per station website and FTV Live. https://www.clickorlando.com/team/IEWU3YI3PFHTZPKWBKRC3CDPZQ/ https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2025/9/22/bumped-up-in-orlando