WBZ's new name and look seems to have done little to help the station's ratings in their newscasts over the past year. "CBS 4 News" is almost always 3rd place in the ratings (as it has been over the past 10 years.) With the recent shift of the 5 p.m. newscast to 4 p.m., there has been speculation over whether WBZ has confidence that its newscasts can improve in the ratings. There has also been speculation over whether the station still values its commitment to local news coverage, since it has essentially dropped an early-evening newscast to make room for a highly popular syndicated talk show, "Dr. Phil." Did anyone realize that Dr. Phil is produced by Oprah Winfrey? It would have been funny to see who would have won in the ratings if Dr. Phil had been moved to a 4 p.m. time slot instead of a 5 p.m. slot. Oprah's show is on Boston's ABC affiliate WCVB-TV 5 at 4 p.m. A conflict of interest??
WCVB-TV still remains #1 in the ratings in virtually all of its newscasts. The only exception to this is the weekeday 11 p.m. time slot, which has been won by WHDH-TV 7 (NBC) for the part over the past couple years. Most people blame channel 5's loss at 11 p.m. over the break up of former 11 o'clock veteran husband-and-wife anchors Chet Curtis and Natalie Jacobson. Jacobson still anchors NewsCenter 5 at 5 & 6 p.m., but both Curtis and Jacobson decided to end their almost 20-year stint as 6 & 11 p.m. anchors after their divorce became final in 2000. Most people believed the couple's off-air troubles were causing them to appear strained on the air. Another noteable figure who disappeared from channel 5's newscast at 11 p.m. was long-time meteorologist Dick Albert, who was absent for a time due to health issues and decided to cut back his work hours shortly after his return to work. Albert now serves as weather man on the stations 5 & 6 p.m. newscasts.
After Jacobson and Curtis' departure from the 11 o'clock, the station heavily promoted the "new" anchor team at 11, Liz Bruner and Anthony Everett. The two have been performing relatively well, however they have never been able to capture the on-air chemistry that Curtis and Jacobson once had (maybe because they're not married.) Bruner and Everett also anchor channel 5's 5:30 p.m. newscast. The meteorologist serving the 5:30 and 11 p.m. newscasts is former WHDH-TV (Channel 7) Chief Meteorologist Harvey Leonard.
WHDH-TV's "7 News" has remained a competitive #2 in the ratings over the past 5 years. The station has made tremendous gains in that time, beating WCVB (Channel 5) for the #1 most watched newscast at 11:00 two years in a row. It has also beat Channel 5 a few times in the morning newscasts.
There are a few noteable aspects about Channel 7 that makes its news stand out from the rest. One is the semi-routine switching of anchors. One example is in the morning, the station has been switching back between male co-anchors Jonathan Hall and Sean Hennessey for the past few years. Another example of anchor-switching is the station's 4 & 5:30 p.m. newscasts. It was here that female anchor Amy Johnson, who held the position for at least 2 years, was moved to the weekend evening spot only to be replaced by Frances Rivera, who formerly held the morning news position. Rivera's spot was just replaced by Crista DelCamp and her co-anchor's (Sean Hennessey) spot was reclaimed by Jonathan Hall. Confusing? We can't believe we could keep track.
Another aspect of 7 News that makes it stand out from the rest is it's uniquely crafted dramatic, fast paced, no-nonsense style. The newscast presents stories in a quick, to-the-point manner with loads of younger-aged anchors and reporters and an array of flashy graphics to boot. Channel 7's former news director Joel Cheatwood has always claimed that the station's news is not a tabloid news show contrary to its dramatic style.
But, since WHDH's in-your-face style hit the air waves in 1994, their ratings have gradually increased and caused its compitition to find innovative ways to catch up. Recently, WBZ-TV has developed a newscast that mimcs 7, which relies more heavily on graphics and has revived its newscast to appear more fast-pased. Another newscast following in 7's foot tracks is Fox 25 News, which is particuarly fast-paced with lots of graphics and younger looking anchors and reporters. It has been compared to as the "ten o'clock version of WHDH."
Fox 25 News at Ten is officially the #1 most watched 10 p.m. newscast in Boston. Since the station began airing its own newscasts in 1996, it has made strong strides to beat WLVI-TV's "The Ten O'Clock News." So far their method has proved successful.
Fox 25 dropped a bombshell in 2001 when it discreetly hired former weekend "Today" show host and NBC News contributor Jodi Applegate to its on-air news team. Applegate helped the station produce it's somewhat experimental 4:30 p.m. newscast, which began airing in the summer of 2001. The 4:30 did fairly well and in 2002, was moved to the 5:00 p.m. time slot. In Sept. 2004, WFXT expanded the 5 p.m. from 30-minutes to 1-hour long. It is currently anchored by David Wade and Maria Stephanos, who also anchor the "News at Ten."
Applegate made her most noticable appearance on WFXT when the station created its new morning newscast. The morning news also won over other noteable newspeople, including Gene Lavanchy, former sports director at WHDH-TV 7 as Applegate's co-host, and Doug "VB" Goudie, former radio talk show host on WRKO-AM as the show's commentator.
The Fox 25 Morning News took on a new local talk/news format when it was created in Sept. 2003 and it remains in that format today, one year later. The show's line-up reflects it's effort to compete with the network news shows. There are two hosts/interviewers, Applegate and Levanchy, news reader, Antunette Jamison, commentator Doug "VB" Goudie, meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon with weather, and "SkyFox" traffic reporter Doug Meehan (formerly of WHDH-TV), Boston's only live helicopter traffic reporter.
WLVI's "The Ten O'Clock News" has dropped from being Boston's only choice for local news at 10 o'clock to having a #2 standing in the ratings. The newscast has been beaten out by Fox 25 News at Ten and it's more modern format with younger anchors. WB 56 is now among 3 local newscasts at 10 o'clock.
UPN 38 has two newscasts; "The Morning News" from 7-8 a.m. weekdays and "Nightcast at 10" from 10-11 p.m. weekdays and 10-10:30 p.m. weekends. The newscasts are produced by WSBK's sister station WBZ-TV (CBS 4). The newscasts have CBS 4 anchors and reporters on-air as well.
"Nightcast at 10" has been doing relatively poor in the ratings. It remains in 3rd place, not unlike the newscasts of the station that produces it, CBS 4 (WBZ).
All of the above pictures are courtesy airchecksdx.com/tvnews
