Jess

Ditching the quote format so I can do this Q&A style. Why does Sarah co-anchor on Sundays, but she (or someone else) doesn't on Saturdays? Likely because she's on a Sunday through Thursday shift. Remember, she's still the anchor of the noon newscast and does reporting for the later newscasts. Why is Sarah doing Sundays? Is the long term plan to move her there with Walter? If so, why the slow transition? They're experimenting with a two-anchor 6/11 format for some reason. Long term, I have no idea. As for transitions, 6 historically has taken YEARS to name official successors - even when those successors have been anchoring for months, like Rick and Monica. Why isn't the noon solo anchored anymore when one person is off? Don't get me wrong, I like the subs/two people! If the plan is to move Sarah Bloomquist to weekend evenings - which would probably include Saturdays - they probably want to try different pairings. I've seen Matt and Tam do the noon on one occasion, when Rick and Sarah were there. What is the purpose of Sharrie Williams? Uhmmmm... that is a very good question. Is Jim retiring? For the nine millionth time, NO. We'll know when he is. Who is going to sub for Nydia while she's on maternity leave? People who normally don't get a shot at the desk. Katherine Scott did it one weekend, and Kenneth Moton has anchored on occasion. Why doesn't Lisa Thomas-Laury sub anymore? If she were physically able to substitute or anchor on occasion, there's no doubt in my mind they'd find a spot for her. Her disease is EXTREMELY debilitating - my dad has one of the major aspects of it, neuropathy, and can barely walk on many days.

They are doing more than just resurfacing floors here. All of Walter's OTS shots are revealing a little of the main set - and it looks like they've added some light panels and an animated backdrop. Something is clearly up.

Wondering if they're doing some work to the main set. All newscasts have been coming from the "Kids Table" (i.e., the 4pm set) and they're going out of their way to not show the main set.

They've really been high on Nakano and Cato especially under the new management. Nakano is one of the primary fill-ins as well as one of the primary reporters they use during the 11pm. I've been seeing Connors anchoring a lot more recently as well - she is very talented and they should at least pair her with Nakano on weekdays. Cato - well, I'm surprised he hasn't been given a weekday slot sooner. I do agree that Keith Jones was a fantastic morning anchor and still is probably the best choice, though they're doing a good job turning him into one of the faces of the station. The problem is, yes, I think they're getting a bit too crowded as far as talent goes. I don't think having one co-anchor do half the morning news and another do the other half is a good idea. If you're a Fox station and have that 7am-9am slot, then it would work (29 did a similar thing when they had George Mallet/Kerri-Lee Halkett/Jennaphr Frederick as a three-person team. Kerri-Lee would do the 5:30am half hour, George would come in and co-anchor with Kerri-Lee for the 6am hour, Jennaphr would join for 7am-9am). However, you have Today, and unless they decide to do 7-9 on Cozi... yeah. The 11am... I think Renee and Hurricane do fine there, though I liked it when it was Keith Jones, since they do some light interview segments so they can get some of the paid sponsorship cash they used to get with the 10 show. Jones was great at that. --- Anyway, today's 11am was interesting. Cato was anchoring it, and they made an abrupt switch to the news helicopter crash coming out of Seattle. I think they even were taking a raw feed from KING. I think the fact that the GM originated from KIRO has something to do with how big they went on that story. I have their breaking news coverage encoding right now...

was used as the basis for I've actually seen explicit evidence that WCAU intentionally chose to go with the design.

They haven't had the Action News van driving across the screen in a graphics package or two. Same with Mr. 6, though he made a comeback recently. At least last year during sweeps, they had a tease graphic that actually resembled the package used on KABC and KGO.

Little from column A, little from column B. I'm interested in the Silver in Adults 18-49. Does that mean 10 connected in one of the late news demos? Anyway, they're running an uncharacteristic, but well-produced promo for their February performance: [yt]XOI-qxv6z3Q[/yt] And then they've debuted yet another Channel Six Advertisement. What is that, you say? Well, it's one of those cheesy, bonkers promotions that you only ever see on Channel Six. Like the one with the guy and the girl connecting because they watch Action News at 11. Or the guy who worked at the vet and would watch Action News on the Phanavision (the big monitor). Well, here's what started airing last night during the Oscars: [yt]RPfKJKHW0C4[/yt]

Cheesy? Yeah. But for some reason it works. I don't know why, but the open is just really fun, and if WPVI can get away with people strumming imaginary banjos in their opens, WCAU can get away with people screaming "New Jersey!!!!!!!!" Plus, the music is just phenomenal. I don't know why people keep saying "it's like WPVI" though. WPVI is fast-paced, WCAU's open is a bit slower. That's actually one of my favorite opens ever, simply because it's so ridiculously stupid. "KURTIS! MACCLENNAN!!! MACPHERRIN!!!!!!!!!! BASKERVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!1" It's up there with the John Lippman KCBS opens... Channel 2 Action News FOR ALL OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. --- Now, unfortunately, I have a new pick, and it's from a station I've come to recognize as one of the best. I really hate doing this, because WCAU's product is so good, I'm really starting to dig the theme which they're using well, and the whole refreshed/basic look really does shine. There are some great bumpers, particularly for the Investigators, and they finally got rid of some stock cuts they've used for a decade or more for appropriate LA Groove cues. It's just... the open bothers me. [yt]1Rt-i31_QGc[/yt] I realize the intent is to focus on the entire area and not just Philadelphia, which explains why there's no skyline or specific city footage, and why the open includes "PENNSYLVANIA NEW JERSEY DELAWARE". It's just... that end frame. They end it on a shot of the colored peacock and that's just hideous design. It also sucks that they had about a dozen randomized opens prior to a few weeks ago, but again, they want to focus on the entire region. If they'd just replace that with the blue background being used on the "Count on It" promos, the opens would be just fine. Again, that's the only thing that bugs me. Everything else is fine, even the stuff other people seem to hate like the serif font. That's probably my favorite part of the new look.

I totally disagree on G3.0 still not being great. I think the look is excellent, and well-constructed. If you go to the Gannett Graphics Group facebook page, you'll see what can be done with this look - which is almost anything. (Even though they haven't updated since July.) G3.0 is just a really solid design that takes UX and web design grid principles into account. I can see it certainly being upgraded, since Belo was rolling out Miranda gfx hardware to their stations, and I think some of the Gannetts are running on Dekos still. But they have a solid base to work on.

I see her more days than not... ...well, when I'm watching 6 and I forget to change the tuner to CBS World News Tonight With Scott Pelley. (ABC World News has no world news, so I'm not calling it that out of respect to Peter. Good Evening America is what they air at 6:30pm.)

They're basically doing a "6ABC To Go" for the next few weeks. They were actually doing some online-only cut-ins today. (6abc.com must get a lot of traffic if they're doing that.) One of them I tuned in, like, a minute too early. They had the "6ABC WILL BE RIGHT BACK" graphic... but then they cut to one with the Action News logo and a lower saying "Action News Update Coming Up." This lasted for a couple of minutes.... and was accompanied by their bumper music. Two minutes of listening to the Action News Bumper is awesome. I don't care how repetitive it is. That piece of music is awesome.

Yeah, Nydia was on the noon yesterday and today. And you're right, Sarah is a great anchor and reporter - very, very underrated talent there. The Action News of today bears scant resemblance to the Action News of, say, 1996. It's more female-targeted, it's slower-paced, and a lot of the quirks (magnetic weather boards) have slowly disappeared. Oh, and it's considerably looser. All of this was slow evolution - it wasn't as drastic as the theme song change. When things happen you barely notice - it took me a couple weeks to realize the frowny clouds and the magnetic board were gone. That's because in 1998, one of the key elements they added was a big rear-projection screen to replace the old magnetic maps. And slowly but surely, more computerized elements were added in. And then I mention the "farm system", where they add new talent and gradually work them up to key positions. Stinger animations were added as the years went on, and they even have a custom 615 remix of the theme music that they use for Breaking News, etc. I've noticed other "test" things as well, mostly on the noon. Today, Rick anchored with Nydia Han in for Sarah Bloomquist, and usually they just have one of them solo when the other's not available. A few weeks ago, I saw Matt and Tamela do the noon news, even though Bloomquist and Williams were in (and neither were doing extra shifts). It's not anywhere near as dramatic as the changes made at WCAU over the last two years, but 6ABC has learned how to evolve and change without alienating viewers. No, but look at all the major national news programs. All of the nightly newscasts? Solo anchors. CNN's news hours? Solo anchors. The Daily Show? Solo anchor. (Hell, I even prefer single-anchor Weekend Update. But that's more because the first ones I encountered were Norm MacDonald, then Colin Quinn.) And while there is never going to be another Jim Gardner, Rick Williams, Monica Malpass, Lisa Thomas-Laury, Marc Howard, and even newer people like Brian Taff and Matt O'Donnell have all subbed in Jim's chair and done just fine. Across the street, they've been having Jim Rosenfield solo on days when Renee or Jacqueline are out, and he's excellent. And there are others. I still think that Larry Mendte never needed a co-anchor; his solo stints were way more compelling and dynamic. Larry Kane had that Action News desk years before Jim Gardner arrived, and he's also been better as a solo act (with the exceptions of Alan Frio and Diane Allen). Outside of the market, Ron Magers basically did a tour of the entire studio one night when he was solo. And when WABC decided to just have Bill do the 6pm by himself, he really blossomed - and this was a guy who worked well with many great co-anchors, including the best co-anchor ever (Roger Grimsby).

Yeah, it felt exactly like "hey, let's test this out" to me. The 6 and 11 use crazy camera angles for going to break - it looked completely off to see two people at the desk. This is probably 20+ years of watching Action News speaking, but I think solo anchors, when done right, make a lot more sense than constantly doing these boy-girl anchor teams. Jim Gardner's, like, 20 seconds of banter with Cecily Tynan feel way more authentic than many anchor pairings I've seen.

That is legitimately the first time I've ever seen two anchors handle a 6 or 11pm broadcast on WPVI. They never do this. Never. I don't see why it's necessary, since Perez has done an admirable job handling the weekend broadcasts since Rob Jennings retired. (In fact, he's weekend anchor pretty much; they just haven't added his name to the opens) But yeah, it really really throws me when they go to break and there are two anchors.

Was expecting the move from 4:25 to 4am, at least on one of the stations. Everyone's been going to 4am so frequently it had to happen soon. I'm glad that they're finally doing what I've been begging them to do for YEARS, though - separate the early edition of Good Day from the main show. They were doing that until mid-2003, when they decided to just call the whole thing "Good Day" to coincide with the change to the George Mallet/Kerri-Lee Halkett/Jennaphr Frederick team. Ironically, when they were segregated, Fox 29 Morning News and Good Day were pretty much identical in tone and content. When they called the whole thing Good Day, the 5:30-7am block was straight news, and 7am was more of a morning show feel. Probably also helps that they can now bill them as two separate programs for ratings purposes.

It's going to take some time to get the Belo stations aligned with the legacy Gannett stuff. I'm probably the only one saying this, but I think the Gannett websites and on-air look are great and I'd like those to get to the Belo stations, but we'll see. They'll probably do what Scripps did, and create a brand new package for legacy Gannett and ex-Belo stations.

They're likely done internally at Gannett, but are based on the USA Today site design by fantasy interactive (f-i.com). It actually has some really nice insights, like the fact that most users never access a news site directly from the home page or the section page. I get a lot of the hate towards Windows 8, but the Metro UI isn't one of my problems with it. It's a great UI - for touch devices. Microsoft welding it to the PC version and forcing everyone to essentially use two OSes at one time is the issue. (And honestly, once you install one of the third party start menus, it's actually a decent OS.)

Well, I think we can call it. "I'm Rick Williams, Walter Perez is off tonight". Perez was also in on thanksgiving, which I also thought was significant because they had Brian Taff doing the earlier newscasts. That also means he's been put into the rotation of people who'd fill in for Jim. So congratulations, Walter. You've really earned it.

WIP runs out of the same building as 1060 (they have since they took over 94.1 I believe). They're moving WPHT and WOGL (currently in Bala Cynwyd) downtown, so likely they're streamlining operations. One thing I hope they don't do - and you guys might not agree with me - is rebrand the station as "KYW-3" again. "CBS 3" is just fine, and I like that the TV and radio sides are different entities.

Technically, yes, Good Day is part of Fox 29 News, but when Mike and Sheinelle have epic on-air moments - which is quite often - I figured I'd put Good Day in the title for clarity.

I had them streaming and I had noticed that - was Bill working network/GMA yesterday morning? Because he joined about an hour into the coverage, replacing Toni Yates.

Yes. And Erika Von Tiehl was driving that tank THROUGH CITY STREETS NO LESS. AND SHE HAD ARMOR ON. Seriously, I don't care if you do a story about "YOUR TOILET PAPER CAN KILL YOU", no sweeps story will ever top Erika Von Tiehl Driving The Tank.

Yes, I'm just systematically making threads for all the locals every time they do something noteworthy or funny. So, it's CBS 3's turn! And ahhh. Sweeps. No, not just sweeps, CBS 3 during sweeps. See, while 6 does consumer reports and investigative pieces that are sort of dumb, 29 gives us as much Jeff Cole as humanly possible, and 10 just does newscasts with actual relevant stories that matter to people like they do outside of sweeps... CBS 3 just goes the extra mile. Last sweeps, you'll recall, they asked the eternal question: WHY IS ERICA VON TIEHL DRIVING A TANK? This year, the burning question is thus: WHY IS CHRIS MAY WEARING A FIREFIGHTER SUIT? Oh, 3. I never know whether to laugh, cry, or... ...excuse me a minute... --- Sweeps stupidity aside... I'm finding myself enjoying CBS 3 a hell of a lot more than in the last couple of years. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the graphics. They're much more of an improvement than I expected, since I actually thought the Big Glass Eye, Arial font and all, was a pretty decent look for the O&Os. They keep the good stuff from that look while modernizing them to be far cleaner, sharper, and nicer than before. Maybe it's the music. I'm not as nostalgic for the KYW signature as a lot of people are, simply because, well, they got News In Focus and News In Focus is great. But for some reason, all of the themes since they switched to Enforcer proper have been, well, lacking to me. This theme is easily the best one since News in Focus, and it continues the streak of Gari's latest work being pretty good. Or... maybe, just maybe, it's the talent. I was skeptical about Jessica Dean when the hiring was announced - especially since 10 announced they were getting Jim Rosenfield a week before, and since the pairing of Rosenfield with Jacqueline London at 11 is working astoundingly well. And when she debuted, I wasn't exactly impressed. But since then, I've become a fan. Yes, she definitely is raw and green... but she's likeable. She seems genuine in a way that I wasn't expecting. Maybe part of that is the decision to do Dean's Digital Briefs on CBSPhilly.com - she does a good job of teasing the 11 without sounding like an announcer. In any event, CBS 3 needed a breath of fresh air - and I'm starting to think Jessica is that breath of fresh air. I'm definitely digging her more than I ever did Susan Barnett. I also want to note about Nicole Brewer. Yeah, that clip went viral, and yeah, everyone thinks she's a bitch who hates Carol Erickson. I wish those people who think that could have seen her about a month ago, when she filled in for Ukee alongside Erika Von Tiehl. The entire morning team was fast, loose, and extremely entertaining, moreso than I usually expect out of 3. Nicole really has, well, a "messing around" sort of humor. That doesn't always translate well to television... but I could tell that Nicole and Erika were having a really good time. So basically yeah. CBS 3 has facepalmy sweeps stunts... but they seem fresher than they have in a long time.

I keep remembering contemporary media reports that slated that Rick or Monica was being considered for Marc Howard's spot. I'll go and do some googling about it though. Rob was a couple of years older than Jim - at or near 70 I believe. And yes, in 2002 he was still near the top of his game - but he definitely lost a step by 2012. That said, if Rob's retirement wasn't entirely his choice, I wouldn't be surprised. Remember we still have the across-the-board Disney cutbacks. Rob's salary had to be up there. It's really hard to figure out what gets cut and what stays, because Jim Gardner has to be making seven figures easy. (This also brings to mind the CBS cuts a few years back. The Mendte/Lane shenanigans had to be a blessing in disguise for KYW. You lose the huge salaries they had with minimal blowback, and you have Chris May and Susan Barnett waiting in the wings. Plus Marc Howard had already retired.)

Also, double posting, but this is something I just realized and wanted to say about Lisa Thomas-Laury. She has a rare disease called POEMS, but part of her condition is called neuropathy. It's damage to the nerves outside of the brain and central nervous system. It is painful. I know this because my father has neuropathy as well. There are days when he can just about walk. It's something he has to deal with every single day, and it takes a toll. If Lisa was able to return full-time to Action News, she would have done so. Even if it was something limited like doing the noon news. That her appearances remain sporadic really speaks to the extent of the disease.