The Newsroom

NBC News, MSNBC, ABC News and others from across the pond

(May 2011)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
BR
Brekkie
And considering 4am newscasts now seem to pretty much be the norm for many US affiliates how well exactly do they rate? I'd have thought anyone having to get up that early isn't likely to want to get up that bit earlier to squeeze in a bit of news before they leave for work.
CH
chinamug
Brekkie posted:
And considering 4am newscasts now seem to pretty much be the norm for many US affiliates how well exactly do they rate? I'd have thought anyone having to get up that early isn't likely to want to get up that bit earlier to squeeze in a bit of news before they leave for work.


Well, you'd be up at 4am to be on the road at 5am, and your TV is your clock. For a very short time back decades ago I did the same thing in Boston, but I was up at 5am to be out the door at 6 and into work at 7. There is certainly change going on in the States as people get up earlier and earlier. At this rate breakfast shows will eventually have to go out before Late Night.
AL
ALV
Brekkie posted:
And considering 4am newscasts now seem to pretty much be the norm for many US affiliates how well exactly do they rate? I'd have thought anyone having to get up that early isn't likely to want to get up that bit earlier to squeeze in a bit of news before they leave for work.


Don't forget for some networks the morning news cycle starts as early as 3AM! (e.g NBC's Early Today is live as early as 3AM and runs in three 30 minutes segments till 4:30AM. Affiliates have to carry one of the segments in minimum. Some affiliates carry all three segments before leading in to local morning news).
OC
Otis Crump
Brekkie posted:
And considering 4am newscasts now seem to pretty much be the norm for many US affiliates how well exactly do they rate? I'd have thought anyone having to get up that early isn't likely to want to get up that bit earlier to squeeze in a bit of news before they leave for work.


It's another world. Imagine Granada Reports or Calendar at 4 in the morning. For 3 hours!
what, Brekkie and TVViewer256 gave kudos
CH
Charles
Brekkie posted:
And considering 4am newscasts now seem to pretty much be the norm for many US affiliates how well exactly do they rate? I'd have thought anyone having to get up that early isn't likely to want to get up that bit earlier to squeeze in a bit of news before they leave for work.


In pre-pandemic times, the ratings for 4am news were somewhat soft, but people were definitely watching, especially in areas where some people might be commuting longer distances. What is probably more important, though is that early newscasts generally improve the ratings of later hours. If you can grab the early audience, they’ll stick around, and you will also get the usual audience that tunes in around 6:30-7:30.

In pandemic times, the ratings for early morning news have definitely gone down, but late morning and midday (8/9am and noon) have gone way up. With people working from home, they’re waking up later, but they seem to be more willing to keep the TV on all day. With that said, more people seem to be waking up early and commuting again more recently, so I’ve noticed that the early morning ratings are starting to tick back up again.
WW Update and Brekkie gave kudos
MO
Mouseboy33
Here is an informative article about the landscape of local news vs National and cable news in the morning for those that dont understand why.

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2017/whats-america-really-watching-in-the-morning-local-news/
https://www.journalism.org/fact-sheet/local-tv-news/
CH
Charles
NBC is moving Mehdi Hasan (formerly of Al Jazeera) to MSNBC Sunday nights. He's been doing a show on Peacock for a few months.





I'm not much for point of view shows, but he has in my opinion one of the best perspectives on TV.
CF
CallumF
Interesting it was just 6 months ago that 'The Week with Johsua Johnson' debuted on weekends - now the first hour of his Sunday show is being replaced...
CF
CallumF
Some issues on Brian Williams' show last night - from TVNewser https://bit.ly/3pRX48I
Quote:
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Experiences Severe Technical Difficulties for First 23 Minutes of the Broadcast

On the Wednesday edition of The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, pandemic-era technical difficulties reared their ugly head.

In fact, it took the network 23 minutes to get Williams on the air last night.

The hour opened with Williams looking down at his desk, fully unaware that his show was underway and that he was being shown live, on-camera.

After 15 seconds of awkward silence, MSNBC fill-in anchor Milissa Rehberger appeared on camera. “Hi, I’m Milissa Rehberger. We seem to have a little bit of trouble getting to Brian Williams here. Not sure what’s going on. Are we going to take a quick break? Yes we will. We’ll get Brian and we will be right back.”

Well, that didn’t happen. The network was unable to get Williams for a while. Rehberger read from the prompter for the next five minutes, before Lawrence O’Donnell, who anchored the 10 p.m. hour, then took over, reporting the news and interviewing an expert on pandemic influenza.

After the 20+ minute mark, O’Donnell proclaimed: “As many of you know, what we do here before the commercial break is called a ‘tease.’ This is my favorite tease that I’ve had ever before a commercial break: Brian will be back after this break, and he’s going to join us …,”

Williams then returned after the commercial break, and said:

“I indeed did not ask for 23 minutes off tonight. A brief explanation of what happened to us: Our central control room appears to have gone the way of the Texas power grid. We have lost all of the incoming guest remotes from most of the people we were supposed to talk to tonight. Lawrence O’Donnell will get a little something extra in his paycheck at the end of the week for stepping up and stepping in and helping us out. He just thought he was out of the woods, but he’s going to stick around for our discussion. And we’ve just managed to reconnect with former RNC chairman Michael Steele. One word of warning: The earpiece through which I usually hear our guests, the control room, the sound of our program, has been rendered inert, along with the rest of our central control room, so I’m going to have to listen to the broadcast on a nearby speaker phone in case any of that sounds unusual … “


Surprised they would have Brian on air as normal, ready for him to start his show - then have a backup presenter on the air seconds later - before having the previous hour's host rejoin for a while?

I had thought Milissa Rehberger might have been doing the overnight headlines during repeats of their primetime show but wouldn't think she'd be sitting waiting when the last hour of the day was just getting started?

Interesting explanation though from Brian about how he was now having to work after his earpiece failed
SP
Steve in Pudsey
In normal circumstances it's standard practice to have somebody in the studio when a programme is being presented from an OB in case the line fails etc.

My guess here is that Milissa Rehberger is in the studio attached to the gallery producing the programme with Brian down the line from home or wherever he is. That gallery is having problems (hence the problems with getting Brian on air).

Lawrence O'Donnell looks to be in a different studio. I think they switched output to that studio either as temporary thing to buy some time to fix the original one or to take over the show.
GI
ginnyfan
We haven't had network stars drama in a while so here's something from ABC.






David Muir's new role at ABC News leads to drama with George Stephanopoulos and a visit from Bob Iger

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/01/media/david-muir-george-stephanopoulos-abc/index.html
SL
Shaun Linden
I'd look at that and say creating the Chief Anchor role and letting David Muir concentrate on WNT has seen the show climb to the number one spot.

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