IF KTVU ASKED ME, (
they won't) I'd say, start up a new weekly chat show, similar to the 80's
KPIX's "
People are Talking", and have
Julie Haener host it. It would
KILL in Danville and become a Fox staple.
Haener could reinvent herself and
split 10 PM where's she dragging. Plus, you get
Heather Holmes to her promised land of primetime news--a win for everyone but it makes too much sense and costs a lot of money so
The Firm would be wary, but so, so dreamy.
*KTVU and its various suits knows it has a genuine DUD in
Mike Mibach anchoring at 10 but they won't admit they made a mistake because then they'd have to reshuffle everything and everyone. The 10 PM News' ratings are putrid now; they've been dropping for a good year now and Mibach's placement hasn't help matters, only worsened it. Mibach is
TERRIBLE with men/A25-54 and women can't stand him. He has
NO chemistry with Haener and they both are about as groovy as a Tiburon 7-11.
Alex Savidge would have been the far more prudent choice to replace
Somerville, (
Frank) but KTV U brass chose Mibach over sheer loyalty plus Mibach's quasi ultimatum: "Hir
e me, I deserve this, or else!"
*
Channel 2 and its
Fox inteigentsia has been having powwows in both the Bay Area and LA with ideas about its future power duo at both 10 and 11. They love Savidge and Holmes for not only nights but also as a semi-face-of-nation status --I do too, although I'm not so gung-ho on Holmes--that said, Savidge/Holmes beats the current gruesome twosome that is Haener/Mibach.
*Speaking of ultimatums, it was roughly a decade ago, Holmes told KTVU that she was a goner if she didn't get 10. She's been passed over multiplw times so the timing of a 10 PM fixture makes sense although what to do with Mibach? Send him packing to the Fremont YMCA where he can work out and pound salt with
Bill Martin.
*KPIX (CBS News Bay Area) is still a rudderless ship. CBS can spend a boatload of cash on the new digs and play disco music but so far, I SEE NUTHING!
The 11, sorry, looks and sounds ridiculous. Trying new things is great but dreck is dreck. Youi still have to have quality people on board and PIX has leftovers from the Fresno State TV dept. It's a visual swamp with lots of crap and plastic over grandma's worn-out coach.
And new line making the rounds at 855 Battery: "Ryan Yamamoto is our Mike Mibach."
*KRON -ON, 'll give credit to the Channel 4 brass for nailing down a tech-savvy, ultra cool news Internet site that draws the tech guys and smartphone yups to their brand. It's not great by any means but it does its job and has emerged as one of the most popular in the Bay Area.
TROUBLE in paradise: If Greg Liggins isn't gone jessie from KTVU right now, it's only a matter of time, he leaves. The veteran GSA reporter, occasional anchor doesn't take shit from the bosses and The Firm hates that. Advantage, Fox.
The 11PM KPIX news on weekends is far better than the weeknights. No disco music (Except New Years night). Better music on weekends & better anchors and no standing up crap. Andrea & Brian are great as anchors.
ReplyDeleteWhy couldn’t they keep the weeknight 11PM news like this? It doesn’t need this talk-show style kind of crap. Even the this is CBS music dedicated to Reed & Juliette is better than the one with Sara Donchey. If anything the 11PM mon-fri should ALSO be called Evening Edition just like on weekends.
Andrea and Brian are great; Juliette and Brian were loaded dynamite. Now move that to the weekdays at 6 and 11 and you'd have something--a real newscast you could be proud of. But that would make too much sense for the bonobos at KPIX to figure out.
DeleteIs it just me and my TV sound system, or is the KPIX news open sound muted. After the Jules tease, the soundbites, and open are muted. What the hell is the control room doing. Turn the fader up. The PIX audio is a joke. When Vern does sports, it's hollow and echos. Any engineers around, or did they leave about the time Radio Shack went out?
Delete@2:20 - Agreed. Didn’t Rich say that Hackney wants some primetime love during the week but the boss is not giving him, meaning stuck on the weekend?
DeleteEven if Hackney is on during the week (if at all), most certainly he will not do the weather, I think there was a week in Oct during the 3PM newscast he was solo anchoring and Heggen was there doing the weather. I think it also happened on Labor Day night at 11PM.
@12:24 - This is sporadically happening a LOT for quite some time. Happened with some anchors, and even all meteorologists.
P.A.T. Had Wendy O'Williams from the Plasmatics on "very briefly' before she bailed. The look on Ann and Ross's faces was priceless! I would give anything to see Haener try to interview Dave Brockie, but sadly...he is no longer with us. Give Holmes the 10-spot. She's earned it and continues to languish in that fetid pit. Woman are the news.
ReplyDeleteEvening Edition I remember KRON tried that newspaper anachronism in the late 80s
ReplyDeleteNIGHTCAST
That’s an urgent late news brand
I loved that show, People Are Talking. It was so sweet and friendly. I liked their focus on local events along with chatting on the bigger issues.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone to get close to that Hosting Magic, you need the right pair. It often comes down to some manner of Good Cop/Bad Cop duality. The Yin needs the Yang and vice versa. The host duo should be Male and Female - "Reunited Cause It Feels So Good!"
Me too.
DeleteKPIX 11pm was number 1 last night. Someone is watching. Nobody was watching before.
ReplyDeletePeople want the Donkey news and the fashion show that goes with it.
DeleteGreg Liggins quit KTVU before around 1999ish when he was an early morning anchor, doing basically the Dave Clarke slot. Rumor has it he wanted more visibility "or else" and they said, "See ya, bro!" He wound up at KPIX for a time as a day-writer, believe it or not, before going to some smaller markets to report. So will history repeat? Where's he going to go now, Duluth?
ReplyDeleteYour info is incorrect on so many levels. You clearly know nothing about the guy or his career. But if he does leave again, good for him. He wouldn't be the only escaping.
DeleteHolmes and Haener would be great at 10 BUT who will hold down 4, 5 and 7? Holmes does a great job at those times. She really shined during the Half Moon Bay shooting. It was very impressive. KTVU Fox really needs Holmes.
ReplyDelete2:18 Rumors aren't facts. Liggins reported in Washington D.C. after KTVU. But I haven't seen him lately, even during the storms, so Rich might be on to something. And the way KTVU seems to be, Duluth, or anywhere, might be a better option. I always wondered why he wasn't on more. Seemed solid to me.
ReplyDelete4:56 I also haven't see Liggins at all this month. So I went on the KTVU Website & under "Meet the Team" I saw that Greg Liggins Picture & Bio were removed. So that means Liggins is no longer working at KTVU. Greg just turned 63 years old this month. Unfortunately considering his age it may be very difficult for him to find another media job in the youth conscious Bay Area.
DeleteI agree Haener and Mibach suck, as a combo and individually.
ReplyDeleteBut the problem goes far beyond them. Seems like no one at ktvu realizes their newscasts are awful. Flat out abysmal. The quality of the stories they choose to cover is pathetic. They rarely do any reporting or coverage of issues that actually impact people (they don’t even try); 2/3 of their stories are from Fox News or other Fox-affiliates; they re-run the same stories for 36-48 hours; the number of factual errors is mind-boggling. The unattractive studio doesn’t help.
They require their anchors to be overly buttoned up. This contributes to the lack of likability. All other stations allow their anchors to show personality and chemistry by making little comments to each other, having softer and more casual transitions, etc. ktvu anchors sit there like zombies and take turns reading stories with no real interaction between the anchors. It’d help if they’d allowed their anchors to act like humans instead of robots.
I've noticed the same about the 'soft transitions' at other stations. KTVU takes the very formal approach. That was the standard at one point but things have changed and now they're the outlier. Other stations news is conversational. KTVU feels like you're being talked down to.
DeleteI agree that Julie and Mike are stiff and there is no interaction. But I also have read that Julie can’t stand Mike and barely talks to him even when the cameras aren’t rolling. I’m a long time channel 2 fan but when Fox took over everything changed. There was a long line of people leaving. It seemed like it was no longer a fun place to work. My feeling is that Julie has something on somebody because she is swinging a big stick. She wanted Fridays off so she could go to her son’s football games so everybody got shifted. Who ever heard of a station’s main anchors working Sundays through Thursdays??? That’s crazy. And she and Mike seem to be not working the same nights as often as they do. And I agree they run the same canned stories over and over again. They even read the same script. Are they voice tracking and not even there for their newscasts (or at least some or part of them)?
DeleteI think Mibach is doing a good job and looks much happier at 10 then at his former morning gig.
ReplyDeleteI used t watch 5 at 11 pm. I don't like the new 5. I'm looking for something else to watch for local news.
ReplyDeleteI like Bill Martin's weather reports. I find him understandable. He explains the weather technical details, enough at which point, I understand those details.
ReplyDeleteI think he also owns a cat, which I think I've seen when he sometimes broadcasts from, I assume, his residence.
I only commented as Bill M. was mentioned in the blog post and I noticed Bill M. generally gets negatively mentioned in this blog. That's all for now.
Bill Martin has been around since I was a kid and no kidding he is one of the most amazing weather anchors on ktvu.
DeleteI have seen him personally at a Chinese New Year Parade in SF decades ago on the cable car and he’s really a nice & energetic person.
Decades ago he may have been energetic. I wonder how he's holding up.
DeleteIt may be different from a work perspective, but maybe personally I don't think he's looked like he's changed.
DeleteKRONon...what a joke. You are smoking it again.
ReplyDelete"...what to do with Mibach? Send him packing to the Fremont YMCA where he can work out and pound salt with Bill Martin." Keep them away from Fremont! There's already enough riff raff here.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in the business, so what do I know, but The Firm does not have a people problem in Los Angeles, Ratings, maybe, but...5 and 10 pm Christine Devine has held down her spot for going on thirty years, still fresh as a daisy, the only thing to move her would be a retirement buyout. Her co-anchor Elex Michaelson is a rarity -- a political reporter who happens to anchor news. Marla Telles of former KNTV fame is the real deal -- she does the 6 pm and is qualified to handle any assignment. Mornings, FOX 11 has had its troubles of course.
ReplyDelete