WCBS - CBS2 News

[NowBergen 679]

Sorry, but it seems reflective of the chaos of Paramount Global.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

I wonder if more CBS O&Os will be ridding themselves of the 9 am newscast as well.

Edited August 24, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[Georgie56 3292]

28 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

I wonder if more CBS O&Os be ridding themselves of the 9 am newscast as well.

KTVT, WBZ, and WCBS are all dumping their 9ams for Drew. Meanwhile, everyone who’s keeping their 9ams (WFOR, KPIX, KCNC, KYW and WBBM) are extending or have already extended them to one hour while airing Drew at 2pm or 3pm. Not counting WCCO and WJZ as they already had pre-existing 9am newscasts.

Edited August 23, 2024 by Georgie56

[NYAZSporty 123]

1 hour ago, Georgie56 said:

KTVT, WBZ, and WCBS are all dumping their 9ams for Drew. Meanwhile, everyone who’s keeping their 9ams (WFOR, KPIX, KCNC, KYW and WBBM) are extending or have already extended them to one hour while airing Drew at 2pm or 3pm. Not counting WCCO and WJZ as they already had pre-existing 9am newscasts.

In regards to WCCO (Minneapolis) & WJZ (Baltimore) as well, they're in markets where Drew airs on another station. 

[bc485 87]

5 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

Cindy Hsu and John Elliott were given a chance to briefly thank viewers for tuning in at 9 a.m. the last two years. Sounds like the entire show is ending and will not continue on streaming, even though they made it a point to add live news in the 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. hours in the past year.

 

It appears Cindy will be the noon anchor. For the last year or so (probably more), Chris and Mary would alternate anchoring solo, and often anyone filling in in the morning would be given the noon duties that day. It'll be nice having a set anchor there again.

 

Just stinks to lose the 9 a.m. show. It was built around Cindy's personality and being positive and helpful.

 

Now I wonder if the "Start With Kindness" tips will stay. I hope so.

You captured my thoughts perfectly. While it’s nice to see Cindy back at noon permanently (almost 20 years after she was demoted off the anchor desk), I am sad to see the 9:00 a.m. newscast is being cancelled. Cindy really put her heart and soul into it (in fact, it could have been called The Cindy Hsu Show).

 

Maybe I’m being optimistic, but perhaps Cindy will have a role on the early evening newscasts when Maurice starts anchoring the CBS Evening News.  We still have no idea how the move will impact Maurice’s role at WCBS, although the press release indicated that Maurice (and Lonnie) will both continue to be a presence on WCBS. But, I don’t know how Maurice could do the 5 and 6:00 p.m. newscasts if he is anchoring the Evening News. 

Edited August 23, 2024 by bc485

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

6 hours ago, bc485 said:

You captured my thoughts perfectly. While it’s nice to see Cindy back at noon permanently (almost 20 years after she was demoted off the anchor desk), I am sad to see the 9:00 a.m. newscast is being cancelled. Cindy really put her heart and soul into it (in fact, it could have been called The Cindy Hsu Show).

 

Maybe I’m being optimistic, but perhaps Cindy will have a role on the early evening newscasts when Maurice starts anchoring the CBS Evening News.  We still have no idea how the move will impact Maurice’s role at WCBS, although the press release indicated that Maurice (and Lonnie) will both continue to be a presence on WCBS. But, I don’t know how Maurice could do the 5 and 6:00 p.m. newscasts if he is anchoring the Evening News. 

Exactly- I would think Maurice would at least give up the 5pm to prepare for the evening news. That would be the perfect place for Cindy if they went that route, or Dick Brennan if they wanted to (re) promote him.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

By comparison, is WABC's 10 AM newscast doing that much better than WCBS's 9AM?

 

Cindy Hsu's noon debut! Glad to see her get this position. It also works out well because Chris & Mary probably come around 3:30AM, so having them alternate staying to/past 12:30 PM is a lot. 

Edited August 28, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[bc485 87]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAEcN0mJ5e2/?igsh=MWs3dGFpZTM1bDl5cQ==
 

Allen Devlin is joining WCBS as an anchor and reporter. He was most recently an anchor at WANF (Atlanta News First).

 

It will be interesting to see which newscast(s) he anchors. I speculate that he could take Maurice’s spot at 5:00pm when Maurice moves to The CBS Evening News after the election. 

[MD TV 253]

As posted on his Facebook, Craig Allen had a heart procedure this week:

 

https://www.facebook.com/craigallenwx/

Edited September 21, 2024 by MD TV

[JoseRM303 171]

3 hours ago, bc485 said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAEcN0mJ5e2/?igsh=MWs3dGFpZTM1bDl5cQ==
 

Allen Devlin is joining WCBS as an anchor and reporter. He was most recently an anchor at WANF (Atlanta News First).

 

It will be interesting to see which newscast(s) he anchors. I speculate that he could take Maurice’s spot at 5:00pm when Maurice moves to The CBS Evening News after the election. 

If Maurice is staying at WCBS and co-anchoring CBS evening news I’d imagine he’d drop the 6 pm shows and continue to co-anchor the 5 & 11 pm shows, with Allen taking over the 6 pm show.

[NowBergen 679]

I would expect he only keeps the 11 pm.  Half an hour to prepare for CBSEN is too short.  

[Geoffrey 856]

I hope they don't bring in an out-of-towner for the 5:00. That feels like the WCBS of the 2000s, when they kept bringing in fresh faces for prime slots. 
 

Also, while Devlin's video announcing his move to WCBS is very polished, it seems just a bit too much. 
 

We shall see.

[NowBergen 679]

Didn't I read that CBS owned stations are moving to single anchors.  That probably means DuBois won't be replaced at 5 and 6, and he may anchor alone at 11.

[TheNewsTV 251]

WCBS could bring in Cindy Hsu to anchor the 5pm slot with Kristine and Kristine would do the 6pm slot alone, with Maurice doing the 11pm slot.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

Allen is experienced but he also seemed a scripted with exaggerated facial expressions on WANF.

 

This is a good jump for him though, from on CBS station to a much stronger one.

 

Allen's video was well edited! Other videos where he announced job changes were well done aswell.

Edited September 28, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[MediaZone4K 2158]

On 9/22/2024 at 9:08 PM, TheNewsTV said:

WCBS could bring in Cindy Hsu to anchor the 5pm slot with Kristine and Kristine would do the 6pm slot alone, with Maurice doing the 11pm slot.

Agreed

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

It should be interesting to see what they end up doing if Devlin is promoted to main anchor, fill-in anchor, or perhaps even weekend anchor (if they wanted to pair someone with Jessica Moore). I think viewers would react much better to a Kristine and Cindy or Kristine and Dick pairing, compared to a random new guy, but we'll see what WCBS has up their sleeves.

 

Also, long day for Mary Calvi yesterday. She anchored morning, noon with Cindy (until 12:30 when Doug Williams was brought in), and 5pm with Dick Brennan.

[TheNewsTV 251]

Maurice did the CBS Evening News and the 11pm slot solo yesterday (Kristine replaced Gayle in the morning). Maybe it's a rehearsal of what will happen when Norah leaves the news.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

1 hour ago, TheNewsTV said:

Maurice did the CBS Evening News and the 11pm slot solo yesterday (Kristine replaced Gayle in the morning). Maybe it's a rehearsal of what will happen when Norah leaves the news.

Kristine and Maurice have always been good, but I wondered why their profiles suddenly rose so much in the last few years. As someone pointed out earlier --- cost cutting measures. CBS is double dipping by having them function as local and national talent. Hopefully their salaries were raised.

 

If CBS wants primarily solo anchored newscasts I advocate for

 

AM Mary/Chris 

12pm Cindy

5pm Cindy

6pm Kristine 

11pm Kristine/Maurice (to preserve the anchor pairing). It also works because Kristine would be a stable presence if Maurice cannot anchor due to national events.

 

*If they want a co-anchor at 5 and 6 they can go with Dick Brennan (my first choice) or Allen Devlin.

Edited September 28, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[nathannah 2401]

Another conservative group that doesn't understand that TV stations, even the network flagship, don't control their network's content, filed an FCC complaint to have WCBS's licensed pulled because of editing in the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.

 

They'd be better off making up an EAS tone mis-use or that the E/I Lucky Dog sold t-shirts with the show's logo in an ad on accident since that's all the FCC takes action on TV-wise these days.

Edited October 18, 2024 by mrschimpf

[NowBergen 679]

Not like CBS has had to pay over a billion in settlements for airing lies.  Can we see all of trump's outtakes from various interviews?  Should be good for a laugh and eye roll.

[Geoffrey 856]

A couple of strange design choices by CBS 2 CBS NEW YORK at the NY-17 debate tonight, streaming online and airing on Channel 55.

 

First, the bug seems to be frozen in a strange place where the "CBS News" is larger than "New York" at the beginning of the intro animation. (Usually they're either about the same size, as you see on the background, or sometimes the "New York" is much larger.)

 

Second, the backdrop makes it look like they're using SD video and putting a graphic on the sides. It's like they designed this without thinking about how it would look on TV.

 

[Geoffrey 856]

For the last few weeks, WCBS has been using CBS's virtual studio for some weather hits. It seems to mainly be used for the short weather in the first block of the 5pm, but tonight it was used for the main weather around 5:20pm. (I don't watch every night so I don't know how common this is.)

 

I was having trouble finding video on their YouTube so I'll have to settle with screenshots.

 

It seems gimmicky to me. It looks cartoonish. It's dizzying going back and forth between the left wall, the right wall, the floor in the middle. The live camera used to create the "window" look in the background is grainy and cuts off most of the skyline view. The wood design is tired. The "daily capsules" look odd and the text is way off, even more than a month after debuting. And they try to make the studio look big at the expense of making Lonnie look small with way too much headroom.

 

Does it help tell the weather story better? No, I don't think so. Does it look cool? Not really.

 

Anyone else feel differently?

[RealNews18 203]

17 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

For the last few weeks, WCBS has been using CBS's virtual studio for some weather hits. It seems to mainly be used for the short weather in the first block of the 5pm, but tonight it was used for the main weather around 5:20pm. (I don't watch every night so I don't know how common this is.)

 

I was having trouble finding video on their YouTube so I'll have to settle with screenshots.

 

It seems gimmicky to me. It looks cartoonish. It's dizzying going back and forth between the left wall, the right wall, the floor in the middle. The live camera used to create the "window" look in the background is grainy and cuts off most of the skyline view. The wood design is tired. The "daily capsules" look odd and the text is way off, even more than a month after debuting. And they try to make the studio look big at the expense of making Lonnie look small with way too much headroom.

 

Does it help tell the weather story better? No, I don't think so. Does it look cool? Not really.

 

Anyone else feel differently?

A few weeks now yes especially at 6:00. I couldn’t agree more, not visually appealing even on TV

[bc485 87]

CBS News New York has updated the recent morning promos to remove John Elliott. I first noticed this today. Sorry for the poor quality photo, but you can see here that the group shot includes the two reporters, Mary Calvi, Chris Wragge, and Tony Sadiku. Previously, this shot included John as as well. 

 

This feels deliberate since they must have taped a version of this promo with and without John Elliott. One version of this promo had Chris Wragge saying something along the lines of “I’ve known Mary for 20 years, I’ve known John for 15 years, and now I feel like I’ve known Tony for 10 years.”  This version has been updated to remove the line about John and just mentions Tony. 
 

Now what?  No more “team weather” in the morning, which felt like a gimmick anyway. Is John Elliott out, or back to weekends, or something else?  John was last on air Thursday doing team weather with Tony, and Tony was in Friday and is in again this morning with Craig Allen still on medical leave. 
 

Edited October 26, 2024 by bc485