CBS Evening News

[newseider 26]

Surprised they didn’t have any back up plan. Was CBSN actually live? Hard to imagine why they couldn’t even address it or pivot to top stories asap unless it was recorded.

[Technically A Director 164]

1 minute ago, newseider said:

Surprised they didn’t have any back up plan. Was CBSN actually live? Hard to imagine why they couldn’t even address it or pivot to top stories asap unless it was recorded.

 

CBSN didn't appear to be live. It seemed more like they were piecing together already aired pieces to fill time. One interview even restarted briefly at one point before it cut to a bump and promo reel. 

[sctvhound 27]

No. All that aired was CBSN’s taped programming they usually show at that time.

[Kenneth Kissel 283]

KDKA-TV, Which airs the CBSEN at 7 PM also had this issue but quickly switched back to KDKA-TV News with the weekend open. Many local promos in place of the commercials. I will try to pull in KCBS or KCNC to see if it airs on the west coast.

[Chase29 18]

KCNC is currently airing CBSN. I did see a scroll at the bottom of the screen that said the CBS Evening News was having technical difficulties please stand by.  

Edited May 19, 2020 by Chase29

[Technically A Director 164]

Rumor is there will be a west coast feed. I wonder if D.C. is back up or someone else is going to front it? At any rate, that's the entire East Coast feed blown out. 

[Kenneth Kissel 283]

1 minute ago, TheGuru said:

Rumor is there will be a west coast feed. I wonder if D.C. is back up or someone else is going to front it? At any rate, that's the entire East Coast feed blown out. 

I'm curious if New York or LA could be used for the west coast feed if DC continues to have issues?

[TSSZNews 1052]

58 minutes ago, TheGuru said:

Someone remind me, has an issue quite this catastrophic hit a network before? I can't think of anything in the 2000s that has knocked a national nightly news off-air. 

 

edit: A quick google, and it looks like there's some power outages in and around Washington D.C. 

 

And I thought the down branches around my home from the wind today were an inconvenience.

In fairness, last Saturday's NBC Nightly News got perilously close to this.

Edited May 19, 2020 by TSSZNews

[Kenneth Kissel 283]

From Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal:  CBS News experienced technical difficulties tonight that prevented the CBS Evening News from airing at 6:30 pm, ET on the CBS Television Network. The issue is being resolved and the Mountain and West Coast versions of the CBS Evening News will air during the regular time slots.

[DENDude 221]

Gee didn't catch the whole broadcast on KCNC but the last 10 mins had audio issues, very low volume and a persistent buzz.

[noggi 604]

Hearing it was a control room meltdown. Something was recorded for the west coast.

 

I personally experienced the power outages in DC this afternoon but I can only imagine our friends at network have generators... 

 

edit: audio board died

Edited May 20, 2020 by noggi

[24994J 5619]

Eh, might as well have the affiliates take over the weeknight show, too. No one would notice, right?

[DENDude 221]

It's amazing to me that they wouldn't have a backup plan for something like this

 

[Kenneth Kissel 283]

1 minute ago, DENDude said:

It's amazing to me that they wouldn't have a backup plan for something like this

 

The only one that actually looked like they did any action instead of running a crawl was KDKA-TV. I also heard they may air the West Coast CBSEN feed on sister station WPCW-TV at 11 PM.

[Georgie56 3318]

Evening News is airing as we speak on CBSN and the west coast.

Edited May 20, 2020 by Georgie56

[TSSZNews 1052]

29 minutes ago, DENDude said:

It's amazing to me that they wouldn't have a backup plan for something like this

 

How can you in this climate?

CBSN is the backup plan, as seen today - but they're all working from home. It would have a better chance than not they could have done it otherwise. After that, were EN still in New York, I guess maybe WCBS--also impacted by the Broadcast Center's shutdown.

After that--I guess KCBS? That (really most situations outlined above) is only feasible with a couple hours' notice--this is something that looks to have impacted the control room minutes before air.

Believe this: Almost everyone, everywhere right now is on the "backup plan."

Edited May 20, 2020 by TSSZNews

[Technically A Director 164]

25 minutes ago, DENDude said:

It's amazing to me that they wouldn't have a backup plan for something like this

 

 

It seemed, from our control room, to happen pretty quick. I always watch for the countdown on CBS Net as we roll copyright, but they were still in black. About 5 seconds to network, they started the promo loop.

We received the "technical difficulties" wire from CBS around 5:32 central time, so I'm assuming they were caught off guard by the situation. 

 

In their defense, you can have 100 backup plans, but if you don't have the time to institute them, then you (and your entire network) are SOL. The only saving grace was CBSN, but the fact that it wasn't live becomes a separate issue.

[Georgie56 3318]

12 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

Evening News is airing as we speak on CBSN and the west coast.

 

Now the EN west coast broadcast ended abruptly and went back to CBSN.

[TSSZNews 1052]

CBS, in general, is not having a good night. WBBM's OTA signal is down.

https://twitter.com/EdCurran/status/1262893209979621381?s=20

 

Quote

Our over-the-air signal has been darkened due to the unprecedented flooding of Willis Tower. The tower, and ComEd are working hard on it.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by TSSZNews

[tjt24 315]

57 minutes ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

The only one that actually looked like they did any action instead of running a crawl was KDKA-TV. I also heard they may air the West Coast CBSEN feed on sister station WPCW-TV at 11 PM.

Where did you hear that? 

[Kenneth Kissel 283]

27 minutes ago, tjt24 said:

Where did you hear that? 

One of the KDKA photographers I'm friends with was talking on Facebook about it and brought up the idea. I don't believe it will actually happen though.

[tjt24 315]

18 minutes ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

One of the KDKA photographers I'm friends with was talking on Facebook about it and brought up the idea. I don't believe it will actually happen though.

Oh ok. I doubt it will either, but I was just curious.

[MorningNews 1483]

I’m honestly surprised this many people watch whatever CBS is doing at 6:30 to have noticed this.

[RCA TK47 277]

CBS still does a newscast every night?  I thought that stopped when Cronkite retired!

 

[Roadrunner 217]

Couldn't find any articles about this, but found a tweet about it:

 

Tony Lopez of KOVR, CBS13 in Sacramento (back to an O&O!), will be anchoring the CBS Weekend News this Saturday.