Sunday, August 30, 2015
KTVU's '10 O'Clock News' Is Still King In The Bay Area But Needs Fine Tuning
It's not entirely fair to state that the "10 O'clock News" is officially off the "must watch" TV News list in the Bay Area. After all, time has passed and the characters are all radically different. Then again, KTVU; its entire makeup and brand dissolved by owner, Fox, has fractured one of the best news programs in the country. It's not a disaster, thankfully, but it needs revision.
Frank Somerville is still anchoring, as is Julie Haener, and the show is still the best newscast, by far, in the Bay Area, but several startling and noticeable changes have taken place (mostly, Fox-driven)
The biggest change is the talk-back between anchor and reporter. It's not that radical and in fact, it is welcome for a legitimate breaking news event. But when it comes at a simple news story it seems mostly contrived and forced, awkward at best.
Then there's the teases. A whole bunch of teases. Too many teases in my book, particularly the weather teases. First of all, it makes Bill Martin look bad. One night I counted a whopping five, (5!) weather teases. Worse, there was no significant weather event to justify five teases. It's insulting to the viewer and only interrupts the pace of the newscast. Seems sort of common sense to me.
Then there's the new graphics --courtesy of Fox. Some graphics look fresh and crisp. Others not so much. The "AUTHORITY" graphic comes off as gimmicky and goofy. Better yet, I still don't understand the premise. Authority what? If it's there just for enhancement it doesn't work. It looks ridiculous.
Furthermore, it gives the impression that that the subject matter deserves your (the viewer) utmost attention. Really? No, not traffic nor weather unless there's a big accident or a massive flood, for instance. Otherwise, AUTHORITY needs to be 86ed.
Another thing. There way, way too many stories on the 10' O'clock News. I'd rather see more emphasis on a big story rather than a slew of stories, some of which don't merit airing. I don't particularly care about a new supermarket in Novato--maybe marketing does but not the average Bay Area viewer.
I'm also mystified by the dramatic extra weather reports--why? It's especially annoying when there's no weather to report to begin with. If anything, Martin should be sent on assignment to report on, say, all the talk about the upcoming El Nino winter which the experts predict could be a deluge from Fall to Spring. That's weather.
Overall, KTVU, (Fox2) still puts out a pretty decent 10 PM newscast. They own 10. And when you consider the dud at KPIX opposite it, 10 PM on 2 is still a significantly superior program. It just needs to work out the kinks and tweak some of the elements.
*Follow me on Twitter
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
They're missing the sex appeal of Leslie Griffith.
ReplyDeleteShe was stunningly beautiful at one point.
DeleteI don't believe the Gasex Mikavenezuela, Carmen De La Rosa Santa Ria Cardinal and Fing Fang Foom types that they bring in now to meet some multiculturalism myth do it for the general audience.
Les had me tuning in on the weekends for years! Nice on the eyes, pleasant on-air comportment, and quality work in general.
DeleteThey had some promo commercial once in the early 90's where she was dancing. Just wow, what a body. Veryyy nice upper body. Ibanez was a lucky man.
DeleteFrank Somerville & Julie Haener are about the only saving grace nowadays at 10pm. As for MO2, they can shitcan everyone except for Sal Castenada in my opinion. And I've had enough of Keba Arnold & Ross Palombo, aka Diff'rent Strokes & Lt. Columbo. I'm sick & tired of their fucken Happy-Ass Brady Bunch Horseshit.
DeleteKeba needs to be sent down to AAA Sacramento
DeleteHeather Holmes does it for me on weekends. ... plus I like Ken Wayne too!
DeleteShe was painfully awful as an anchor, though she was not bad as a field reporter.
DeleteIt sux,.. cheesy jingles,.. anchor babble on off topic personal feelings.
ReplyDeleteWebsite not updated on current news. Contains week old, month old news.
Annoying 1980's blue banner on the screen doesn't fit small smartphone screens.
Graphics banner does not fit tube 4x3 sets.
Website crashes my computer with spam & pop ups.
Did Rich lower his newscast standards ??????
They spend more time announcing twitter & facebook links then reporting news.
EVERYTHING is "breaking News" ..... ? Really,,, ?
They are a bunch of lost sheep. They don't even smile on the screen.
A bunch of grumpy old farts above the annoying / flashing blue banner.
Over it........ Changed channels to 7-1
I'd like to be a fly on the wall when one these directives (banter between anchor/reporter) gets issued. Who does the issuing? If this mysterious person can tell his/her anchor/reporters to chat more with each other then they also should be able to stop the anchor /reporter 's bad grammar, mispronunciation, and stupid comments.
ReplyDeleteI used to be a big Griffith fan, but her sighing and moaning at the end of so many sad stories got tiresome. Now Somerville's doing it, along with his forced, one-line ad libs at the end of every story.
ReplyDeleteI preferred Dennis Richmond's professional, no-nonsense approach to anchoring.
I cannot say to a certainty, because I don't work at KTVU, and have never worked with Frank Somerville ... but, I strongly suspect that the overload on teases is done at his encouragement/insistence.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was doing MO2, the teases drove me to distraction (more precisely, to avoid the newscast). I e-mailed him - politely, I thought - and with 30 years experience in broadcasting. His response was quite patronizing in defense of The Almighty Tease.
Since he left MO2, saturation teasing has eased considerably.
I don't watch at 10:00, very often - only because I've seen/heard enough news, by that time, and I usually opt for re-runs of Seinfeld. If the tease load has significantly increased at night, it's reasonable to conclude that Somerville's input is behind it.
I prefer more stories. KGO puts out more info while KTVU spends a lot of time on just wildfires. I also can't stand that all purpose fox correspondent who does stories specific to some place outside Calif. Using a Fox correspondent is a way for Fox to insert its conservative point of view. They did one Friday night and tortured the story in a way just to say that all lives matter because in dingbat land black lives matters must mean no other lives matter. You know, like save the whales means f**k the dolphins. I turned the channel.
ReplyDeleteYou're not too bright, are you?
DeleteExcellent promo clip. Made it look interesting and important! No chit-chat there.
ReplyDeleteThe excessive weather teases, as well as the gradual pushing-back of the full weather report to later in the newscast, have been going on for several years now, before the Fox transition. Barring some huge storm event with repercussions to transportation, etc., TV news weather is pretty much worthless when you can look at Weather Update, etc. and see a pinpoint forecast for the next week at a quick glance.
ReplyDeleteThat chatter from the anchor after a story is embarrassing. No doubt ordered by some higher up to show how "human" and caring the anchors are. "Wow, look at that. Our hearts go out to the victim." Terrible.
ReplyDeleteI am watching the weekend 10PM right now with Ken Wayne and the sexy Heather Holmes! H* can use some couch exposure ala GDLA....she has the figure for it!
ReplyDeleteI just realized that I stopped watching Ch2 a long time ago for all of the above reasons.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with the 10 o'clock news is coverage of shootings/killings. I know it's important, and many of the other locals ignore them, but back to back to back stories covering the first quarter hour of the news is too depressing for even me-a bona fide news junkie. Sometimes the neighbor or person on the street really has nothing to add, so shorten the story and move on.
ReplyDeleteHeather Holmes walks into a bar and the bartender says: Why the long face?
ReplyDelete