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Seattle TV News February 2018
- Thread starter seatownmedia
- Start date
When the layoffs happened a couple of years ago, TEGNA gave the buyout to either Jeff Renner (first dibs) or Rich Marriott (second). At the time, they didn't want both to leave. Since Jeff left, Rich stayed.
Wow! That is an interesting move. Why would this necessarily change the anchor lineup? None of the current anchors is involved in Take 5.
Yes, indeed. My initial guess it will be more lifestyle oriented, similar to KOMO's 4pm 'cast. KCPQ still runs a pretty hard news 4:00 show. Angela Russell, who "retired" from KIRO years ago has been filling in for KING in recent years. She is too good a talent to just fill-in, IMO.
When you say Jordan Steele "as host", does that mean they are moving him away from his hired position, weathercaster? Just curious...he seems more of a lifestyle anchor than weathercaster, but that may just be me.
Given Jordan's involvement in this show, it seems like the most pressing staffing need is to hire someone to replace Rhonda Lee.
Jordan will still be doing weather in the evenings. Also told me Amanda & Mark will still be doing evening shows but not the 4. So I assume new evening line up will look like this:
5-6 Amanda & Mark
6:30-7 Lori & Mark
7-7:30 Lori & David
9-10 Amanda & David
10-11 Amanda & David
11-11:35 Lori & David.
As for weather perhaps something like this:
5-6 Jordan Wilkerson
6:30-7 Jordan Steele
7-7:30 Jordan Wilkerson
9-10 Jordan Wilkerson
10-11 Jordan Steele
11-11:35 Jordan Steele
0% chance Lori Matsukawa doesn't anchor the 5PM news.
They already pulled her from the 10 pm shows when they rearranged the line up over a year ago. So yes they very well could pull her off the 5 pm news and let's not kid ourselves here Amanda is being groomed to be Lori's eventual replacement.
I don't disagree with that. However, they could hire from outside as well, especially since ratings have been on a downward trend. That said, Seattle is not usually comfortable with newcomers, they need to earn viewer trust generally.
TEGNA can certainly be short-sighted, but they are not totally stupid either. The buyouts were offered strategically. This is exactly why Rich, Joyce, and Lori are still there, albeit with reduced roles from previous times (Rich sharing am with Ben, Joyce no longer anchoring the KONG newscast, and Lori pulled off the 10pm).
Let's not kid ourselves....Rich, Joyce, and Lori are on the next list of "expensive employees to eliminate". Based on his work background and more recent hire, I'm assuming that Mark Wright is actually cheaper and will be around for a while (also because David wasn't as instantly popular as TEGNA had hoped).
Ugh. Just ugh.
Several years ago, TEGNA started a 4pm "ensemble" show (90 minutes) in Phoenix called "EVB Live". EVB stood for East Van Buren (the street where the studios are located). It never really caught on, though they tried different people on the show. Now, they've gone back to the more traditional !2 News at 4 and 12 News at 5, though the 4pm newscast is still much lighter in nature.
"Take 5" will probably meet the same fate.
The fact that KCPQ Fox (Q13) still runs a "news heavy" product at 4pm makes this KING move even more unusual. But perhaps their research is showing something us bystanders don't understand the time slot and demographics. I will be the first to admit that, however it varies from my general common news sense. The 4pm KOMO 'cast has always been more "lifestyle" oriented, and perhaps KING is looking to attack them at this point. As formeraa says, this may be bound to fail.
I was a regular viewer of 'First News at 4'. They still do the 'KOMO Question,' don't they? Always interesting to hear Mary Nam and Steve Pool's answers, only to find out they were both wrong most of the time... they also had entertainment and lifestyle features along with Eric's Little Heroes every week.
KOMO started doing that newscast around 2005, previously they aired Jane Pauley's short-lived show; a combo of Millionaire & Pyramid; and Rosie O'Donnell at the 4PM timeslot.
BTW, speaking of Eric Johnson, he's doing a new segment called 'Washington Heroes,' which also airs every Friday on KIMA's news here in Yakima. They ran a cool segment on a little league player with dwarfism, he lives in my old hometown!
Last time I checked, yes, KCPQ was news-heavy at 4PM and I think they also did traffic updates. I don't think KIRO will be taking Judge Judy off 4pm anytime soon.
KOMO started doing that newscast around 2005, previously they aired Jane Pauley's short-lived show; a combo of Millionaire & Pyramid; and Rosie O'Donnell at the 4PM timeslot.
BTW, speaking of Eric Johnson, he's doing a new segment called 'Washington Heroes,' which also airs every Friday on KIMA's news here in Yakima. They ran a cool segment on a little league player with dwarfism, he lives in my old hometown!
Last time I checked, yes, KCPQ was news-heavy at 4PM and I think they also did traffic updates. I don't think KIRO will be taking Judge Judy off 4pm anytime soon.
Yeah, I don't think KIRO has run a "before 5pm" newscast since the 80's. (Some might remember they ran a three (3) anchor setup in the mid-70's with Jim Harriott, Kim Mariner, and Kathy Smith, who quickly returned to Portland. I have some videotape of a huge, snaking KIRO anchor desk from this era, needed for all the talent on set at one time!)
But yes, KOMO's 4pm has always had the question of the day, and that continues today.
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