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The Blacklist delivers "Breaking News" - after the Super Bowl. Featuring Look F and real life WRC an

cbs2newengland

By cbs2newengland
in General TV

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cbs2newengland News Director

cbs2newengland 71

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The Peacock just got hit in other feathers, to its Entertainment and O&O Division.

 

TV News Check says the following:

 

Last Sunday night, after Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made THE WORST PLAY CALL in the history of the professional football, Australian Rules and soccer included (do they even have plays in soccer?), some of the record 114 million people who witnessed the game left the TV set on.

 

What they saw was the usual post-game festivities, a lame explanation from Carroll, another batch of commercials and then, suddenly, a breaking news report.

 

 

WRC Washington anchorman Jim Handly appeared over the NBC peacock and after a full screen "Developing Story" graphic to report that authorities had apprehended FBI most-wanted criminal Raymond Reddington in Hong Kong.

 

Who? What? Where?

 

Even those addled by a half day of Super Bowl coverage and a surfeit of food and drink soon figured out that this wasn't news at all, it was a cold open to the NBC action drama The Blacklist. Raymond Reddington is a character played by James Spader. You can take a look at it here.

 

 

But NBC paid a price for the gimmick.

 

By allowing one of WRC's anchors to deliver the faux report, NBC traded away some of the station's credibility and dignity.

 

Barbara Cochran, a well-known Washington news veteran who teaches journalism as part of the University of Missouri's program in the nation's capital, saw the broadcast and found it disturbing, not just because of WRC's and Handly's roles in it, but also because it may have alarmed local viewers.

 

Handly's scene hit the air at just about the time locals would expect to see the late news, she said. "Washingtonians are highly attuned to emergency bulletins and local news is considered a trusted source."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't blame them. I saw this pilot last night after my mother pulled a "Big Switch" mistake by tuning to WHDH to not see The Big Bang Theory, and I saw the 100% Pure Look F used in a real newscast for a few seconds.

 

Add this to the fuel to the fire of the NBC scandals.

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24994J Station Group CEO

24994J 5286

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Real personalities with at least semi-legit graphics appear on primetime dramas several times a season. I haven't seen the clip, but perhaps it was too convincing...so? How stupid are the viewers that are fooled for MORE than a few seconds (I can tell you're not stupid)? I also think this is just a "kick'em while they're down" against NBC. Lucky (???) for the network, the Brian Williams saga is far bigger than this, so much so that this will fade fast as it really is no big deal.

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cbs2newengland News Director

cbs2newengland 71

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Real personalities with at least semi-legit graphics appear on primetime dramas several times a season. I haven't seen the clip, but perhaps it was too convincing...so? How stupid are the viewers that are fooled for MORE than a few seconds (I can tell you're not stupid)? I also think this is just a "kick'em while they're down" against NBC. Lucky (???) for the network, the Brian Williams saga is far bigger than this, so much so that this will fade fast as it really is no big deal.

 

This quote is a good argument

 

"Washingtonians are highly attuned to emergency bulletins and local news is considered a trusted source."

 

If I am not mistaken the NBC4 bug was featured in its appropriate spot. I think seeing it up on the monitor and having a "news" appear on screens typically not tuned to such I think would throw people off.

 

CBS OTTH have modified the O&O graphics especially on The Good Wife, they use the old O&O graphics for fake WBBM reports, but in the history of that series, they never went 100% identical like The Blacklist/WRC.

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MorningNews Station Group CEO

MorningNews 1299

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TV anchors have been appearing in primetime shows for decades, this just seems like a pointless argument. In the future NBC should avoid using graphics and themes that similar to their actual O&O look to avoid this but seriously come on people?

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Samantha Station Group CEO

Samantha 2878

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This quote is a good argument

 

"Washingtonians are highly attuned to emergency bulletins and local news is considered a trusted source."

 

If I am not mistaken the NBC4 bug was featured in its appropriate spot. I think seeing it up on the monitor and having a "news" appear on screens typically not tuned to such I think would throw people off.

 

CBS OTTH have modified the O&O graphics especially on The Good Wife, they use the old O&O graphics for fake WBBM reports, but in the history of that series, they never went 100% identical like The Blacklist/WRC.

 

I was caught off guard myself, even though I fully knew that this was a TV fake (I at first thought it was WNBC actually). In markets where the NBC local news actually looks like that, that would be jarring. It'd also be jarring in markets where NBC was, you know, on channel 4.

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rkolsen Station Group CEO

rkolsen 1679

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I don't have a problem with it. In my opinion I thought the show opened was as if this was a part of of a regularly scheduled newscast. The show began with a developing story bumper as opposed to a breaking news/ special report one. Jim Handly's line began "We are just now getting word of a story developing out of Hong Kong. Sources say authorities there have just apprehended legendary criminal Raymond Reddington." Nothing in Jim's delivery made it sound like there was any dire or urgent situation. It sounded like it was just a regular report nothing more nothing less. If it was something serious they would have started out something like "We now have breaking news coming out of Hong Kong."

 

There was enough difference between the current WRC graphics and music. The graphics that were featured were the stations first version of Look F (with a different font) and the show used similar but different music.

 

I would have a problem if they used the real special alert bumper, music & chimes.

 

This is just someone making a story out of nothing five days after it was initially broadcast. If there was viewer outrage we would have heard about it the next day.

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cbs2newengland News Director

cbs2newengland 71

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I think the outrage is how 100% Pure the NBC4 Look F package (without time and temp bugs) and not have like a camera screenshot, or some effect like how The Good Wife would do with WBBM, and as I said they modified it - I commend them for that. Even if it startled a one or two viewers, I think it's worth some discussion.

 

I find another firewall breached between the fictional world and the real world. It started with shows like CSI making you believe DNA can solve a mystery no matter what, and even the current legal dramas kinda stretch the truth out. Visually, this boundary has also been crossed. I'm in favor of big market graphics, because I do not like crappy small market Chyron V like supers on fictional shows, but not a trademark lower third actively used like Look F.

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ns8401 Station Group CEO

ns8401 846

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I think the outrage is how 100% Pure the NBC4 Look F package (without time and temp bugs) and not have like a camera screenshot, or some effect like how The Good Wife would do with WBBM, and as I said they modified it - I commend them for that. Even if it startled a one or two viewers, I think it's worth some discussion.

 

I find another firewall breached between the fictional world and the real world. It started with shows like CSI making you believe DNA can solve a mystery no matter what, and even the current legal dramas kinda stretch the truth out. Visually, this boundary has also been crossed. I'm in favor of big market graphics, because I do not like crappy small market Chyron V like supers on fictional shows, but not a trademark lower third actively used like Look F.

After a few seconds they realized it was a tv show. It's no big deal.
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trev57 Managing Editor

trev57 46

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From the perspective of a casual news watcher (I'm not an enthusiast, like many here): this is one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard. A clip that lasted a few seconds at the beginning of a TV show "trading away some of the station's credibility and dignity"?

? That's a stretch, at best.
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tyrannical bastard Station Group CEO

tyrannical bastard 3489

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It's treading a slippery slope....especially if the fictional segment resembles an ACTUAL station using ACTUAL talent, and showing this to actual D.C. are viewers could be a major risk.

 

Usually in TV and movies, they fake it up to where you know it's not the real thing....If you recall in "Family Ties", Steven Keaton worked at the fictional WKS-TV in Columbus, OH....a PBS-like station. NBC wasn't trying to slip their name in there.

 

But NBC in all of their infinite wisdom centered Michael J. Fox's sitcom around his career at WNBC, along with trying to shove their products down viewers throats in ANY way possible. Now if Family Ties was made in the early 2000s, I'll bet you it would have used WCMH (a former O&O) as a plot point.

 

 

There was this thing called "War of the Worlds" that caused a panic decades ago.....hasn't the industry learned their lesson yet? It could come back to bite them.

 

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.....

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rkolsen Station Group CEO

rkolsen 1679

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There was this thing called "War of the Worlds" that caused a panic decades ago.....hasn't the industry learned their lesson yet? It could come back to bite them.

 

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.....

I forgot to mention War of the World but I think the difference is that this was a radio broadcast where anyone with a TV would realize that this was fictional.

 

https://twitter.com/rkolsen/status/563969360679927808

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Mrtraveler01 Station Group CEO

Mrtraveler01 737

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Real personalities with at least semi-legit graphics appear on primetime dramas several times a season. I haven't seen the clip, but perhaps it was too convincing...so? How stupid are the viewers that are fooled for MORE than a few seconds (I can tell you're not stupid)? I also think this is just a "kick'em while they're down" against NBC. Lucky (???) for the network, the Brian Williams saga is far bigger than this, so much so that this will fade fast as it really is no big deal.

 

The other thing about this is that right before the show started, Bob Costas said "An all-new episode of the Blacklist starts right now...". I guess if you had the sound off you'd be caught off guard for a few seconds but that's the only way I could see viewers confused about this. But as others have said, TV shows have done this for ages to make their shows/movies look realistic.

 

Also the Gannett-like graphics in the show also remind me of the new Raycom package, I think they're both using the same font.

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TheRolyPoly Station Group CEO

TheRolyPoly 1847

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I forgot to mention War of the World but I think the difference is that this was a radio broadcast where anyone with a TV would realize that this was fictional.

 

https://twitter.com/rkolsen/status/563969360679927808

 

Woah... "ECN - European Cable News" using the Gannett look. I've been hearing about the WRC/Blacklist stuff, but I didn't expect to see the Gannett look on ECN, even if its for the show, "The Blacklist." Kinda nice to see a spoof of a network using the Gannett graphics.

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Rusty Muck Station Group CEO

Rusty Muck 4250

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"CSI: Miami" had a recurring bit character as a "reporter" for WFOR, complete with her holding a CBS4 microphone... real employer, fake employee. But the show never made "special reports" with actual WFOR staffers, AFAIK.

 

And didn't a WTVJ staffer or two make cameos in "Miami Vice" for that show's final season? (NBC had finally moved their affiliation onto O&O WTVJ at that point.) I keep thinking of Jill Beach, but she was likely still at then-sister WKYC.

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