Roadrunner

After 33 years, a few health scares in the last year or so, and a career of laughs, WRC (News4)'s Wendy Rieger announced her retirement today. She said her retirement was negotiated into her contract 2 years ago, so the health scares weren't the reason for her leave. Truly a unique 5PM news presence and a DMV institution like no other. Her career look-back and subsequent departure will be next Friday, on 12/17.

I wouldn't mind seeing the whole primetime lineup retuned, but nothing on the left-moderate side of the spectrum is really winning ratings under the current administration (and vice versa whenever the time comes). In the current politicized environment, I don't think anything like LKL would succeed on a channel like CNN either anymore. I don't think anyone has the patience to sit down for hour-long interviews anymore unless they're once in a blue moon (see: Oprah's), social media has essentially amplified almost all secrets that exist and will also scrutinize everything, and podcasts have kind of taken over the type of deep-diving we used to see on TV. Assuming nothing really changes about the style of primetime programming, I think CNN could put Laura Coates up in the 9PM hour and she'd fit right in, actually. I'm curious about if they'd do anything with Don (re: above), if they'll end up doing anything else with Smerconish, and if they'll do anything unexpected with their slew of new hires over this past year.

This was reported yesterday, but Johnny Archer from sister station WTVJ in Miami is coming home to NBC10 as a "reporter/anchor."

Audrey Asistio, one of the many afternoon-evening-weekday-weeknight-sometimes-weekend anchors (and also their main Olympics anchor) at NBC Boston, is going home to the Bay Area and will be joining sister station KNTV. [Source]

He has a point to his argument but I think this could put a nail in his coffin at the station. It's been a fraught relationship between him and the station lately and I don't think it's going to get any better. I haven't watched KTVU's coverage but other competing stations, like KNTV, added about 60 seconds as a separate story to address the disparities in media coverage and I thought that balanced the issue well. If anything, him delivering the lines would've been awkward enough, but a solution like that of KNTV's would've done well.

So they're just going to relegate People's Court to the CW? Even when Judge Judy will be on reruns from now on? I guess so... I know they're going for KGO here and it's an affordable choice but a lazy one.

I don't know, IMO progressives who watch mainstream news will keep their pressure on MSNBC to uplift more of their voices so a more centrist/"old Republican" voice would incite a lot of disappointment. CNN isn't doing too hot in its vanilla direction, so MSNBC knows that they've cornered their mainstream progressive wing. If Maddow, who's basically the most progressive primetime host in their lineup (I consider Joy and Ari part of their "pre-primetime") really departs, neither Brian nor Nicolle would make for the right replacement, and no one else in their lineup runs a show like her either. If Maddow does depart, I think Joy Reid would be promoted, as mentioned above. And then promote Tiffany Cross to Joy's slot. Then expand Jonathan's weekend thing and help him establish his niche of breaking weekly news down (for one, he's on PBS NewsHour on Fridays, so he already has that kind of Sunday morning show vibe). I don't anticipate a new hire from outside.

I don't have a solid answer for you, but I believe it's part of the NBC theme that (may have been) made for this year. An anecdote is the Olympic Zone broadcast made for the O&Os, which is like an "olympic behind-the-scenes/lifestyle" show. It uses the same music.

I don't think I ever noticed how shrill-y this KNBC variation of LA Groove was until I heard it here on WTVJ, for some reason. Interesting; a bit of a lower pitch might work out better. Thanks to the montage/video uploaders above for sharing.

The only thing that matters is that most of her followers (LA or Houston, no matter; the ego needs to feed too, right?) eat it right up and Houston's media game is particularly social media focused (or dare I say, obsessed). So as cheesy as it may have been, no one's hurting. Happy that she found a place to settle at home, regardless.

Hopefully this gives CBS 2 an opportunity to turn a new page for itself, so I'm (very cautiously) optimistic with the changes being made up top.

I agree with both your comments, so hopefully they can adjust accordingly. WVIT is basically just merely aesthetics, but I get that with their tight space constraints. WTVJ definitely brings it up to contemporary tastes, but there are parts that I think is still dated--not that I really think it matters at all, considering market-leader WSVN's set, and WTVJ should never out-tacky tacky.

This would be an amazing and ideal program schedule for CNBC to be able to keep business coverage 24/5. The weekends for CNBC are indeed, even more tragic (but obviously cheap to operate). And I wish CNN did the same exact thing with the International newscasts after a certain hour. But alas.

Re: your idea of tweaking that timeslot - I don't think conservative talk really has a place in the NBC universe because there will likely be large pushback and won't thrive like it does at Fox; the NBC brand overall is mostly tarnished among the bulk of the base. As for tweaking the show, could they turn it into a more primetime-oriented financial-ish (or not -ish) panel/talk thing, more akin to what the other cable news networks engage in? For example, if you keep Shep as a host but add Stephanie Ruhle and/or Contessa Brewer as co-hosts and then add specialist guest(s) per day, then that could be something. Or...we could just nuke the experiment and return to post-Cramer Shark Tank.

IIRC given that it's a concept that completely migrated from NECN, I don't think we could've expected anything else, since the network is more lifestyle-oriented. I don't think NBC10 was ever a serious contender against WCVB for the "serious news" at that hour so if they just build out their niche, they can corner that part of the market.

Poor Bob Frier still remains jobless given that it seemed he was looking for one last summer, though at this point he seems to be enjoying his time off. The John Brown (re)hire also comes amid their hiring of WNBC's Ray Villeda as a new anchor, who just debuted last week. So after the slew of departures that we harped on a few weeks back, we can definitely say Fox isn't throwing this station to the wayside just yet.

In other news, there's finally a new hire to start filling all the spots left empty since last year: Christiane Cordero is coming home to LA and joining ABC 7 in August from WCCO in Minneapolis. (link is to her IG post) I remember her from during and before the station's George Floyd coverage and it's great seeing her come home. ------ As for Michelle Tuzee, if anyone had any further thoughts on if she might appear again in some capacity, her bio has been scrapped (officially in mid-June). All the best to her and hope she is doing well.

And another veteran at the station has bowed out: Adrienne Alpert, host of Sunday morning news show Eyewitness Newsmakers, is retiring after 48 years. TVNewser article about her retirement

My hot take is every station should use WMAQ's "new" (really used by WCAU first among the O&Os) open. But I was also a 360 fan so I admit my biases. Regardless, I believe it has the most impact, but anyways, that's just my take.

Thanks for getting this. To all the fans of the 4-note sting, sorry, but of all of the "opens" among the O&Os, I was hoping the ones using the 4-note sting would change it; alas, this one seems to be here to stay. Seems like they've also introduced something new here as well for any web users:

No, you're right. I forgot about Luke lol.

Jackie Kostek, who just recently announced her departure from KTNV in Las Vegas (and is also a WCIU alum), is reportedly coming back home to CBS 2 as a per-diem news/sports reporter. Sports staff has now essentially gone from 1 to 3 in about a year. Tip is from Feder, per yesterday.

Honestly not sure how I really feel about the KXAS version. The Look N open (the 360 open) had a stronger impact in my view. This one seems a bit...tame? Kind of more like a morning jingle. I guess I can appreciate the reverence to the NBC chimes, kind of like a throwback to its open about 15-ish years ago.

It's called Chicago Today and they had/have their own package overall, though the fonts are more similar than not now. Here's an example of what they were like in 2019. Here's an example from today. Not a whole lot of difference.

Of course, me being included, we spoke too soon on here with regards to Nick Kosir and why he was "axed" or why he was "forced out." (still can't excuse the high attrition at the station though) Congratulations to him on 'making it,' if you will, and even if he sacrifices his local connection, he'll perhaps have a much bigger platform to share his dance sessions. For the TLDR folks; Jason Frazer new Fox Weather's morning news co-host departed WKYC yesterday Britta Merwin co-host with Frazer departed KPRC in early-June Craig Herrera anchor for "key programming blocks" most recently at KING Brigit Mahoney co-anchor of "lead programming dayparts" left KTVI about 2 weeks ago Nick Kosir co-host for program's evening block left WJZY, as we all know Stephen Morgan co-host for program's "main programming blocks" most recently at KRIV Edit-Oop; CircleSeven got to it first