Abraham J. Simpson

Fantastic production for a school program. Great job by all involved.

Vacation type days and such aside, Brittany is pretty well set Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. With the launch of the 10 am, Chris seems to be, generally, Tuesdays and Wednesdays—Tuesdays being the new addition for him. Adam is indeed the fill-in when someone is off or what have you. All summer, the rotation of who had the weather at the shore segments also seemed to factor in on occasion.

WPVI is definitely not the same format. It is a more straightforward though lighter newscast. Headlines and all that, and a good amount of feature-ish content—consumer news, trending/social media content, etc. No separate desk, or that kind of thing. The producer is one who helped shape their 4 pm, and she’s brought a similar (not identical) feel to 10 am. Good vibe among the presenters, and they’ve managed to work in the weekend morning meteorologist who typically handles Wednesdays at noon for one weather segment the last couple of Wednesdays.

It is. A guess, thinking it through, they wanted that to launch with the full treatment, for lack of a better word. Put the new stuff in place with the changing of the opens? It’s not the cheapest route, but maybe that’s just how things aligned. Won’t make much of a difference to most viewers, so no big deal either way.

Even if SAG wasn’t on strike right now, a good number of scripted shows wouldn’t be anywhere near returning until scripts begin to get hashed out for the season, whatever shape that season ultimately takes.

There are first times for everything., and it’s a perfectly reasonable approach.

It certainly will. These things have a way of working out that way.

Not all situations are comparable. Chris Cuomo crossed a huge ethical line. That doesn’t mean every other person related to a public figure in hot water is going to cross a line. Keep her off covering that story, fine. If there is evidence she crosses a line, do what needs to be done. Don’t assume a problem where one is not indicated and stymie her career for something she did not do.

Fall opening sequence for the news: check. New voice doing the opening: check. (No idea who, don't pay that close attention to who's who in that world.)

It’s pretty easy to argue. No one would be recycling those at this point. The comedy stuff they’re plugging the hole with is what it is, but it fits what they’re doing with the hour, broadly. Rehashed PBS interviews? Not a chance.

Would that be best, or did the station have data that says otherwise? 3 pm for Y&R feels like a big stretch that would need some compelling business rationale, which isn’t “but Live feels like a morning show.” It is light fluffy entertainment well suited to mornings, but light fluffy talk can work in afternoons.

Not really seeing that as all that much of an issue. If they were doing well with Live at 10, great. It may be unusual, but seems pretty understandable.

And there was a plethora of amazing entertainment at 12:30 am? They don't need to give the time back at this point. Whatever strike filler there is, it's not really a big deal. The networks have given plenty of time over the years, and they're also in business to make money as a network. It's 2023 and the business models need to reflect that reality. What was that, All in the Family reruns?

If I were in charge of an ABC station and it was getting MNF back even for a season, heck yes, I'd be happy. It's a heck of a lot more sellable as an established brand to my local clients than some of the other programming. Is it as good as SNF in terms of matchups? Of course not. But while I'm still saddled with the Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars et al, a primetime marquee sports franchise back on my air, temporary or otherwise, is a win. Meh, times change, circumstances change and the world doesn't stay frozen in 1984.

Or they can run Jeopardy at a better time for the business, given the results of the show have a direct impact on the games that week.

And yet the short opening.

And every single one of those runs relies on euphemisms for body parts and functions for the humor.

Seems like a clear hint. And yet…the same short intro at noon.

What reason do we have to think Sony is all that upset (not happy)? It's Just a simple business decision. Sliding back Kimmel, even under the current strike situation, further than it already may be if MNF runs long, is likewise not realistic. A couple of episodes of a game show airing late at night really isn't that big a deal.

Cutting a highly visible half-hour of their newly touted newscast on an O&O has zero chance of happening. And yeah, I get WPVI cuts a half hour of the early Saturday AM news for the Penn State football show in season. But a weekday newscast? That's not even remotely in the realm of good business options.

WPVI doesn’t even run Daytime J. And even if they do, now you’re irking the Jeopardy fans—and a show where normally continuity matters—and disrupting the schedule further. And given the ratings in recent years, if it comes down to bumping Wheel to late night on barely a handful of nights vs rearranging the lineup and bumping Jeopardy…the right business decision is to keep Jeopardy in its slot.

But where earlier in the day on most stations? They have full schedules for the most part. Yes, some here and there have Daytime Jeopardy. But if we’re talking the O&Os as an example, there isn’t space. Wheel isn’t going to bump the news, the View or Tamron. That’s just not reality. Could the O&Os make better use of—and promote—Localish for these kinds of things? Sure. They’ve used it for overflow before…and sometimes rely on the overnight slots. Both have their pluses and minuses. It’s just Wheel of Fortune. It’s an important piece of their schedule, but when you have more programming than hours in the day, something has to give.

It seemed like a perfectly fine newscast, the right tone for a midday show. Interesting at the very end to see the still image for the noon show. But that’s a little bit of minutiae only a few will even notice. Nice to see after all the time she’s spent as the “third wheel” and doing fill-ins that Alicia is part of the main team for a newscast, too.

ABC has bigger things to focus on, like the network programming, not syndication for a few episodes. No one is somehow doing something to Wheel, nor any specific show. It’s just the nature of the business. Win some, lose some. Ultimately, the benefit of MNF across the network far, far outweighs a couple preempted game show episodes.

That doesn’t really seem like an issue.