CBS 3 testing out a 5pm?

[Jess 1115]

Something interesting going on at 3 the last two Fridays. On both occasions, Dr. Phil has been pushed into the 3pm slot, displacing The Doctors, and the station's been doing a solid block of news from 4 until 6:30pm. 3 has done this before, but only on special occasions: i.e., if there is a big national or local story, or if the station is running, say, a special telethon. When they do it, the content is formatted differently, and they label and present it as a "special edition"

 

What's different here is that 3 is essentially doing normal newscasts at 5. They're running normal opens, they're doing weather and traffic, everything they typically do on a later newscast. There's no real reason or promotion for this, they're not labeling it as a special edition, and they're not even mentioning that Dr. Phil isn't on. They're doing a 5pm newscast like they've done a 5pm newscast for years.

 

I honestly can't think of any reason they're doing this... other than testing out the ratings and seeing how they'd fare with news during that hour in lieu of Dr. Phil. They can do this pretty easily, too - they're losing Dr. Oz to Fox 29, and even tough I don't think that starts until next fall they could shove him over to 57 in the meantime. And with Oprah leaving, I presume that means they could open up the 4pm hour to Dr. Phil come fall.

 

But yeah. Something's up.

[Bars-n-tone 39]

They are doing it to sell more political advertising. The same reason is why the 10PM show on 57 has been an hour a few times. That's all there is to it.

[TommyP 0]

Smart - most stations are just extending breaks.