WCAU with Big Lineup Changes this Fall

[WCAUTVNBC10 408]

From Laura Nachman's blog: http://lauranachman....10-fall-lineup/

 

Highlights are WCAU moving into the 4:30AM timeslot with the rest of the market, and big changes to the 11AM hour. The 10! Show shrinks to a half hour and moves to 11:30 to make way for the return of NBC 10 News Midday. It's been a good 10 years since they've done a midday newscast. It'll be interesting to see who they tap to do it. My guess would be that they didn't rehire Tiffany McElroy to just do Thursday and Friday field reports for The 10! Show. She would be my choice. I also doubt Henley would do weather for it being he'll have another show to prep for that follows.

 

On an aside, if there was any time that they would switch to the now dead new O&O look, this would be it.

 

Not newscast related but Family Feud returns to WCAU for the third time in the show's history. They carried Combs version back in their CBS days, and the Louie Anderson version in syndication early on.

[Jess 1110]

The changes to the 11am hour are... interesting. I'm actually surprised they're putting news in the 11am slot and cutting the 10! show. Yeah, ratings for it are miserable, but they push it a lot and because they do a lot of sponsored segments I'm sure they make something off it. Perhaps it has something to do with the new president and the apparent shift away from "lifestyle" programming (read: the return of 5pm news in New York), and the culture of "actually investing in our stations".

 

As for who'd anchor this, I'm actually going to put in my suggestion for Lu Ann Cahn. She's currently the co-anchor of the 10! show, but has a far stronger news pedigree. I don't think they need two hosts if they're going to 30 minutes, so I can see them giving the first half to Cahn and the second half to Henley. Weather I have no idea, but Glenn probably doesn't want to add yet another newscast to his workload, since he works the heaviest schedule of everyone (4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11).

 

As for the other bits, I'm only surprised that it took this long for them to go to 4:30am. And I kind of feel like Feud and WCAU kind of belong together - this is the third stint... fourth if you count their airing of Family Feud '94 as a separate thing. (Yes, they did air it, but in a long block on weekends. Same fate as TPiR '94, which WTXF showed only sporadically.)

 

And, finally, the new look... and I frankly have no idea what they're doing with this. They rolled out an extension of their "This is" image campaign to promote their newscasts, but unlike the original version the current logo is used - and in one promo, shown extensively. That said, there's still a bunch of things with that block logo, and some of the new graphics have slipped on air from time to time. Honestly, at this point I'll believe they're getting new gfx when they go on the air - and if they do get the new gfx I kind of half-expect them to keep the 1995 logo and mix it with some of the current pres.

[TVNewsLover 728]

Kind of surprised they didn't pick up "Access Hollywood Live" instead of Family Feud. Also wondering what happened to "The Real Housewives of..." franchise airing reruns.

[Sam Horn 78]

I also doubt Henley would do weather for it being he'll have another show to prep for that follows.

 

I thought 10! was taped at 10:00. Or are they back to doing it live? Or did they never stop doing it live?

 

Either way, I don't see why Henley couldn't do the weather.

[WCAUTVNBC10 408]

 

I thought 10! was taped at 10:00. Or are they back to doing it live? Or did they never stop doing it live?

 

Either way, I don't see why Henley couldn't do the weather.

 

Not really sure about that.

[Guest Former Member 207]

As to the Feud, they actually carried the original nighttime version with Richard Dawson.

[groupwfan 95]

I'm so glad that 'CAU is gettin' a 4:30 "NBC10 NEWS (aka News10) TODAY" morning newscast.

I'm also shocked that they're bringing back The Feud on the station that could handle it better since the early 80s.

Also, I wish they would switch to the NonStop style/KNSD GFX already! (no offense.)

[Action Newsroom 1150]

Thank goodness that WCAU will be following the other Big 3 Stations and is starting a 4:30am newscast. And Im excited that the Feud is joining the station. With Steve Harvey hosting and with big ratings for the station this may put WCAU in a good mood.

(This is my first post; Im new to TVNewsTalk. :awesome: )

[abric 157]

ActionNewsLove, let me welcome you to TVNT. Enjoy your stay.

[Action Newsroom 1150]

Speaking of the Feud on WCAU: Will it still air on indie WFMZ? Or will the aquire be exclusive?

[Jess 1110]

Well, today WCAU added an extra half hour of morning news. But not the half hour you're thinking of.

 

They're now running a 7am half hour of news on Nonstop. It's nothing fancy - a very straight rundown of the news, traffic, and weather. There's no special format, and they use the normal graphics and music. They're not promoting this at all - it just sort of showed up on the guides and the channel. Makes me think this might be a live warmup for the upcoming 4:30am half hour.

 

Also wondering if it's sort of a change in philosophy for the channel. The Nonstops are less news channels than "fluff billed as news", and most of the newsier stuff is either repurposed from old newscasts or low budget fluff like "The Rundown". Standard straight newscasts weren't part of the original corporate formula, though 10 has been bucking the trend. (Their 7pm is a regular newscast; some of the others seem to be going for specially branded news hours.) "NBC 10 News Nonstop" sounds generic enough that I can see them adding a few more throughout the day.

 

They also seem to be phasing in a new weather system. (I think it might be a TruVu Max/Titan setup) Last weekend they were running revised weather graphics with recreated Nobel font title bars. This morning Bill Henley actually seemed to use two radars - the normal, pokey one with the current title bar, and one without a title bar but far far smoother animation.