Ran across this nugget on Ilona McCauley's twitter page. Yesterday might have been the last KIRO 7 Saturday morning news. No word on the future.
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Last Call on KIRO Saturday Morning News?
- Thread starter DMK
- Start date
After checking some TV schedule sites, this is true. KIRO 7's weekend (Sunday too) morning news is done. They're replacing it with an hour-long... 4PM newscast starting next weekend.
Its not a surprise though that KIRO's going down this route since KOMO has done weekend 4PM news for years.
Hows the ratings wise
Interesting they are starting 4pm news program on the weekends. Maybe the competition from Joe TV's morning news was just too much. Appears KOMO and KING are sticking with there morning news programs. There was a time when local morning news was a good moneymaker. Maybe that's changed. I guess KIRO will fill the weekend mornings with syndicated/paid program. Can never have too much of that these days.
Well, think about the economics of discontinuing a weekend morning newscast these days. If the ratings aren't stellar, you have to hire people to come in (amidst a labor shortage of behind-the-scenes people), you have an extra weather anchor to pay, and you have plenty of network/advertising content to fill the slots. OTOH, adding a 4pm just extends the day of the existing weekend evening staff members and ultimately is repeating the same evening news over again.
Like anything else, especially in a challenging ad environment, there's only so much pie to slice. When the expense exceeds income over time, it becomes a fools errand to continue.
That will likely change over time. If advertisers won't pay extra for weekends, especially mornings, there's simply nothing to work for.
Starting in about 2008, yes.
Especially if that's the only revenue one can count on.
KIRO has already filled those Sat AM hours with the required E/I shows from CBS Dream Team. Hope in the Wild, Mo Rocca's show, etc. They recently moved Sports Stars of Tomorrow to 9AM on Saturday, it had been a 4 or 4:30pm Saturday afternoon staple ever since it launched in 2005 (previously hosted by the late Pat Summerall). End of an era, as ch 7 has had Sat AM news since the late '90s, maybe 2000.
Yeah and now that 4:00 and 4:30pm timeslots are replaced by... actual local newscasts from KIRO 7.
It looks like it has worked on KOMO for the last 6-7 years now. It probably will for KIRO as well.
Yes. Its only possible there due to pre-emptive sports coverage out East.
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