I had an extended stay with my folks over the Christmas holidays. Always a weird time to check in on local news, but with bad weather I did tune in a few times.
Here's some thoughts ...
KCPQ - Matthew Smith was anchoring Christmas Evening. I hadn't seen him at KIRO, but he's nothing special. Not a great voice, bland delivery, kinda wooden. Erin Mayovsky was doing weather, something she's never been great at and probably wasn't the talent you'd want at the weather wall in a major snow storm. She seems to stick around in this market because she'll work any shift, any where, any time, including in this case, Christmas evening. AJ Maneval had a nice report from some snowy roads, but his entire appearance was very casual/scruffy which was a bit out of place. New branding, graphics and music package matches the Fox O&O in Los Angeles and is fine though I hate losing the legacy Q13 branding.
KIRO - Elle Thomas was the anchor. She's capable but her on camera presence is what I'd call 'over coached.' It feels like every little detail has been rehearsed - nothing about her presentation seemed natural. Reminds me of Sabra Gertsch from KOMO years ago. Ilona McCauley had the weather and was excellent. I see she's working part time for KIRO as the regular weekend morning meterologist, which means they finally split that role out from the do everything AM/PM weekend weather role. McCauley has a lot of weather experience and similar just comes across as someone who really has a good handle on the weather - particularly in a storm situation. I do miss seeing Tiffany Sanders and Todd Johnson as the weather fill-ins.
KING - While the set and TEGNA sound/graphics package still sucks, the tone of the station is much more serious than a few years ago when TEGNA first took over and we had to suffer through Lori Matsukawa barely restraining herself from a giant eyeroll as she gave us an update on 'what's trending.'
A few years ago I commented that I wasn't as concerned with the young age of the talent they were bringing in, after all Elisa Hahn and Susannah Frame were in their mid-20s when they started and developed into top notch career reporters. The problem was much of the talent that came in just wasn't very good. Bad voices, crappy writing, little camera presence. Luckily, taking a look at the bios page, it seems that most of that wave of talent hired from 2015-2018 seems to have exited. The new names I saw this weekend looked good, sounded good, and have a lot of promise.
Additionally, they've started bringing in mid-career talent. Steve Soliz, who I believe is the weekend evening anchor, is excellent. Deep voice, natural delivery and a ton of presence on camera.
Over in the weather center, after the revolving door the last six years, the current line-up has a lot of promise. You could do worse than Rich Marriott (I was disappointed Rich was off this morning - no snow storm in Seattle can happen with Rich Marriot in the weather center when you wake up) and Rebecca Stevenson working your main weekday newscasts. Adam Claibon's voice is a bit nasally, but his forecast and work on the weather wall was excellent. Mike Everett, who seems to be doing weekend mornings + a couple of weekday late mornings / middays, is another mid-career guy KING has picked up and he is excellent.
I saw what felt like an old school Belo KING 5 Weather Team promo during a commercial break featuring Rich/Rebecca/Mike/Adam. Really felt like they were leaning back into their weather legacy - though clearly 4 full time meteorologists is a bit lean for KING given the number of news hours they produce.
I was happy to see a package from market veteran Amy Moreno, and young reporter Christine Pae was impressive. She's the kind of promising young talent that Elisa Hahn was in the late 90s and I hope she sticks around and grows her career. Shout out to Stephen Kilbreath who I saw filling in for Marriott last week. He's not known as either a tv guy or a weatherman but did a nice job, even in an open collar shirt + suit combo. Some of us will always remember him as drawing the short straw at Metro Traffic and getting doing traffic for KUBE right as the T-Man was kicking off ... they had so much fun with his last name I don't know how they ever got any traffic in.
Here's some thoughts ...
KCPQ - Matthew Smith was anchoring Christmas Evening. I hadn't seen him at KIRO, but he's nothing special. Not a great voice, bland delivery, kinda wooden. Erin Mayovsky was doing weather, something she's never been great at and probably wasn't the talent you'd want at the weather wall in a major snow storm. She seems to stick around in this market because she'll work any shift, any where, any time, including in this case, Christmas evening. AJ Maneval had a nice report from some snowy roads, but his entire appearance was very casual/scruffy which was a bit out of place. New branding, graphics and music package matches the Fox O&O in Los Angeles and is fine though I hate losing the legacy Q13 branding.
KIRO - Elle Thomas was the anchor. She's capable but her on camera presence is what I'd call 'over coached.' It feels like every little detail has been rehearsed - nothing about her presentation seemed natural. Reminds me of Sabra Gertsch from KOMO years ago. Ilona McCauley had the weather and was excellent. I see she's working part time for KIRO as the regular weekend morning meterologist, which means they finally split that role out from the do everything AM/PM weekend weather role. McCauley has a lot of weather experience and similar just comes across as someone who really has a good handle on the weather - particularly in a storm situation. I do miss seeing Tiffany Sanders and Todd Johnson as the weather fill-ins.
KING - While the set and TEGNA sound/graphics package still sucks, the tone of the station is much more serious than a few years ago when TEGNA first took over and we had to suffer through Lori Matsukawa barely restraining herself from a giant eyeroll as she gave us an update on 'what's trending.'
A few years ago I commented that I wasn't as concerned with the young age of the talent they were bringing in, after all Elisa Hahn and Susannah Frame were in their mid-20s when they started and developed into top notch career reporters. The problem was much of the talent that came in just wasn't very good. Bad voices, crappy writing, little camera presence. Luckily, taking a look at the bios page, it seems that most of that wave of talent hired from 2015-2018 seems to have exited. The new names I saw this weekend looked good, sounded good, and have a lot of promise.
Additionally, they've started bringing in mid-career talent. Steve Soliz, who I believe is the weekend evening anchor, is excellent. Deep voice, natural delivery and a ton of presence on camera.
Over in the weather center, after the revolving door the last six years, the current line-up has a lot of promise. You could do worse than Rich Marriott (I was disappointed Rich was off this morning - no snow storm in Seattle can happen with Rich Marriot in the weather center when you wake up) and Rebecca Stevenson working your main weekday newscasts. Adam Claibon's voice is a bit nasally, but his forecast and work on the weather wall was excellent. Mike Everett, who seems to be doing weekend mornings + a couple of weekday late mornings / middays, is another mid-career guy KING has picked up and he is excellent.
I saw what felt like an old school Belo KING 5 Weather Team promo during a commercial break featuring Rich/Rebecca/Mike/Adam. Really felt like they were leaning back into their weather legacy - though clearly 4 full time meteorologists is a bit lean for KING given the number of news hours they produce.
I was happy to see a package from market veteran Amy Moreno, and young reporter Christine Pae was impressive. She's the kind of promising young talent that Elisa Hahn was in the late 90s and I hope she sticks around and grows her career. Shout out to Stephen Kilbreath who I saw filling in for Marriott last week. He's not known as either a tv guy or a weatherman but did a nice job, even in an open collar shirt + suit combo. Some of us will always remember him as drawing the short straw at Metro Traffic and getting doing traffic for KUBE right as the T-Man was kicking off ... they had so much fun with his last name I don't know how they ever got any traffic in.
