After Six Weeks, KPIX 'Nightbeat' Is Lost In Space And the Butt Of All Jokes Inside 855 Battery; 'GAME OFF!'

 Barely six weeks after its long-anticipated debut, KPIX's youth-oriented, (that's the intent at least), experiment, "Nightbeat" is attracting very few viewers and has become the butt of jokes among some of its own staffers. One need only watch it to discover why.

As I wrote here early on, PIX wasn't planning on going after KTVU's "10 O'clock News" viewership--concentrating instead on attracting a younger, tech-oriented demo that might be interested in watching an airy, lighter newscast dominated with quicker stories geared toward their liking. Nice concept, extremely poor execution. "Nightbeat" is an acquired taste: like herring in coffee. I really wanted to like this experiment and have tried long and hard to give it a chance but the look, sound and appearance of the show leaves me shaking my head in disbelief, like are they kidding? No they're not.

Veronica De La Cruz, the newbie star reader PIX brought out from NY to anchor this mess, (along with the conventional 6 PM newscast), continues to look diminished here in this vehicle. Bad enough the program is awful, worse yet, it marginalizes VDLC and she comes off looking clueless and superficial. For starters, the "TRENDING" graphics and over-reliance on gimmicks such as the weatherman and sports guys without ties is forced and contrived. Even geek millennials can smell a rat when they see one. Nightbeat's patronizing pillage to Gen Y is a sorry excuse of farcical minutiae with sophomoric "bits" and dumbing down of the news. Moreover, the idiotic and loud, "GAME ON!" shout each night uttered by De La Cruz to introduce the sports segment looks more like a "Saturday Night Live" skit. Why not just a snappy, "hey, Dennis, tell us what's going on in sports tonight?" No, that would have been too normal and acceptable --go with a stupid gimmick that has staffers texting in-house jokes to one another, that indeed is TRENDING!


Worse yet, the split-screen close-up of both O'Donnell and VDLC back and forth looks awful and awkward. Absurd, really. Who was the genius that came up with this beauty? Calling all interns.

Nightbeat is both condescending and foolish. Remarkably stupid too. It's perfectly fine to cater to a younger demo by offering Twitter and Facebook "updates" but when it's the centerpiece of your program and when the subject matter frequently is unabashed trivial garbage, what's the point? Here's PIX trying to offer an alternative newscast that has to rely on superficial crap --in essence mocking the very audience it's trying to cater to--why not just come out and say, "Hey, you kids are a bunch of fucking morons!" At least that would be honest.


Furthermore, and quite frankly, utterly befuddling, why would KPIX constantly utilize the Facebook/Twitter card? Wouldn't that be defeating the purpose? The Facebookers and Twitter crowd are more than likely NOT watching a local TV newscast--maybe the blueprint would have been better off by merely concocting a fresh, good, compact, simple news program, remember that age-old relic? GAME OFF!

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Meanwhile, On The KBCW 'NightBeat': GAME ON! --Not Really

 GAME ON!? Not Really.

Still dreadful.

Still deeply crappy.

Still woefully executed and produced.

Still silly and totally out of the loop.

TRENDING:

*Major staff upheaval

*EP complains show has no direction

*Already management thinking of complete re-structure

*In-house jokes, chatter leads to speculation about future.

*Sports segment take from staffer: "This is a joke!"

 *VDLC: Image/rep takes a beating.

*Developing...

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KPIX Musings Inside The Newsroom; New KTVU GM Might Be Wooing Rosenheim; Larry King About To SF Abode; KGO 'Woo-Woo'; Sacramento TV Chick Under Arrest Had Dinner In Fisherman's Wharf; Monday Starter

 MONDAY STARTER


*PIX STICKS


Inside 855 Battery at KPIX, Allen Martin still can't stand Elizabeth Cook who can't stand Veronica De La Cruz who can't stand her ...more? Cook is nervous about VLDC' increasing influence at the station which has the regular staff on high alert. We haven't even mentioned the general malaise, angst and disgust over the new 10 PM "NightBeat" that is a disaster after only two weeks. One producer at PIX told me the show's "a certified joke" among the rank and file. Wonder if they place the sentiment in the "Two-Minute Mix?" Ba-DUMP-Bump!


*Larry King is about this close to leasing a condo near Green and Webster in the Marina: "San Francisco, hello!


*That Sacramento TV chick anchor under arrest for grand theft had dinner Sunday Night in Fisherman's Wharf. She's already lawyered up with a prominent local attorney proclaiming "she's 100 percent innocent." I hope she left a good tip.


*Speaking of PIX, I assume ND, Dan Rosenheim, is happy at the Battery and Broadway outpost but word on the street is that the new GM from Boston about to lead KTVU is prepared to offer Rosenheim a hefty sum to cross the bay.


*That would make Roberta Gonzales happy.


*Tonight on the NightBeat, Mark Sayre tweets live from the Balboa Café; asks cougars which type of guy they like: slim, trim and maxim? Later, Mark analyses the data and sees if it's trending on Twitter! ...Meanwhile, on Facebook, Jeanie from Livermore posts: "My man takes me for granted and is not emotionally responsible!"


*Has Kevin Keeshan snatched anymore KGO staffers for NBC Bay Area? He's working on one more and it's a biggie.


*Brian Sussman Show on KSFO in a nutshell: Read Drudge Report headlines; play actualities 76 times every five minutes; play false patter with the traffic chick whose voice sounds like the Daly City sewage dept; rip Obama every other break; and repeat same process over and over and over and over...."Thanks Brian." (Genius idea: Play the Sleeptrain sounder another 900 times)


*That idiotic Casey guy at KGO Radio is gone in case you care and I doubt you do. He's not the only one on the chopping block.


*Tonight on the NightBeat, Ken Bastida is in the newsroom with breaking news!, Ken: "Veronica, we're looking at new studies that indicate male subjects can actually improve their sex life by increasing their role on social media! I asked Guy in Burlingame if he believes in the study---well, I tried tweeting more and more and asked my wife if she noticed anything different--she told me I still can't get it up. "...Back to you Veronica. ("Ba -Dump-Bump"!)


*Sure, it would make perfect sense if Tony Bruno, (who's subbing for the vacationing Neanderthals on 95.7, FM, The Game), got the morning show gig but there's a few too many issues...for one, Bruno bounces all over the place and GMs are weary of that personal Bruno peccadillo. 2. Bruno doesn't work cheap and Entercom, which owns The Game, would probably have to shell out about $250G to lure Bruno from Philly, something very unlikely. 3. Bruno's personal feud with Greg Papa, (think Raiders).


*Sarah and Vinnie update: He's been running his mouth again behind the scenes that Sarah is "hogging the show." Well, sad to say, little guy, she IS the show. Here's a tip: take her out to dinner every now and then and she might be want to throw you a bone.


*Any year now the Raiders will be on KGO Radio, you heard it here, first. Helps the Raiders, helps KGO too.


*"Talk 910" -KKSF-AM, Clear Channel's audio Titanic: the new GM has no idea what he's doing which is a prerequisite in local talk-radio. He's so lousy Cumulus might hire him.


*Mike Amatori: KGO Radio's sound guy is currently getting screwed by the company but Mike is a proud man who will overlook the human tragedy.


*Ben Fong-Torres: Think of visiting your grandma's house and she has the plastic draped over the couch with the old National Geographic magazines from 1974.

*Stan Bunger: You know, I really want to be Mike Pechner.


*Steve Bitker: Good morning Stan, Good Morning Susan, Good Morning Kim, Good Morning Mike, Good Morning Doug, Good Morning Hal, Good Morning Rebecca, Good Morning John, Good Morning Paul, Good morning Stan, Good Morning Susan, Good Morning Kim, Good Morning Mike, Good Morning Doug, Good Morning Hal, Good Morning Rebecca, Good Morning John, Good Morning Paul...


*Jim Kozimor: I'm white, bright, and right and for good measure, I'm not an Insider.


*Good marketing award for The Game's 95.7  TV commercials airing on Giants games. The station is the Oakland A's flagship. Maybe someone in PR didn't get the memo.


*Surprise, surprise, surprise: Cumulus is ...once again...airing help wanted ads for salespeople on its iconic stations. Only most salespeople generally like getting paid so expect to hear that ad a lot.


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KPIX/KBCW 10 PM 'NightBeat' Is Pretty Crappy; The Full 30-Minute Review; Tuesday Opener

The FIRST TIME I watched KPIX' CW 10 PM newser, 'NightBeat' I was so put off, I began laughing and turned if off after a few minutes.


After careful consideration I decided to watch an ENTIRE 30 minutes. Without interruption. My thought was that it would be unfair to cast a reliable opinion so soon after its debut. You don't review a new restaurant after two days, so I waited a week.


'Nightbeat' is McDrek. Yuck.


Sure, awesome dude, that Nightbeat on purpose tries to dumb down its limited youthful audience it is trying to endear itself to but for one time, I hope they're on Facebook and Twitter completely safe from the abyss known as being On The NightBeat.


If this is PIX's attempt at trying something new then either we're all screwed or local TV News is incapable of putting out a marginal newscast that has some residue of believability and quality. NightBeat has neither. NightBeat is farcical. NightBeat is chock full of gimmicks and insincere and vast nothingness; a bloated 30 minutes of contrived, forced and insipid attempts at being fresh and new. Gag me, Newness


Perhaps the biggest negative of this lousy show is that it not only makes KPIX look bad, but worse, makes newcomer, Veronica De La Cruz, look even worser. Why? Because De La Cruz is forced into doing and saying things that look and sound, well, forced. The false banter between sports and weather guys is putrid. It's not so much awful for its intent; we get it, again, they're trying to be different and that's OK, but this back and forth has all the warmth of a IHOP opening. It DOES NOT WORK.


The beginning of NightBeat amounts to jamming 10-15 quick stories down our throat with snippets of MOS interviews about dating trends; fast headlines, updates and urban minutiae --the concept is fine but the execution is horrid. It looks like it was put together in a hallway outside the PIX cafeteria in five minutes. The visual clichés are too much to stomach. It reeks of a false premise that fast is good. If only FAST was good and in THIS instance it's terrible. There's no there there.


Furthermore, unintentionally, it belittles the product, and more to the point, the circus leader, De La Cruz. I like VDLC and think she's trying hard but her ad-libs and attempt at on-the-spot don't work, more ominously and for the show's future, (if there is any), her "ba-bump-bump" quips reek shallow and hollow. Why she utters them at all, assuming this IS ad-libbed and she's not being prepped by the show's producers, is mind-boggling. Even the best anchors need time to get to know the market before injecting out-of-place, out-of-mind comedic snips into the show--this is perhaps the WORST element of NightBeat. That and the requisite moron MOS interviews with some yuppies in Pleasanton about their dating life or the other zippy terrible fast-paced gimmicks PIX has placed on our screen to be new and innovative. Oh my God. Are millennials that dumb and numb?


Monday Night was fraught with awfulness. Dennis O'Donnell, tie-less, (we're trying to be hip, dude), looked positively dorky gazing into the camera trying his best to form visual en fuego with De La Cruz but his visual mugging looked more like a Bakersfield audition for Last Comic Standing.


Paul Deannu is a pretty damn good weatherman--just enough of a personality to have gained acceptance here, but his wimpy weather contest with Veronica at the end was so bad it was almost comical. My gut tells me it was not his idea but the staff and it really does him nor the fragile image of NightBeat no good; it's OK, by this time of the evening, the NightBeat had already sunk, I was waiting for the orchestra to play Titanic tunes.


Nobody begrudges CBS-SF for its work, its attempt to create creativity. It's all fine and dandy but if THIS is the best you got, girls and boys, then you all need some serious creative therapy. A junior high journalism class would laugh at this. Get real. Stop the forced visual gulag and get back to the basics. The current painting is a colossal clusterfuck of mega-proportions.


I'm sticking to playing video games and cruising the Internet.


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NightBeat or 'Nightmare'? Early Spin Grim on KPIX 10 PM CW Newscast

*It's only been three days, but "seems like a year."


*KPIX staffer: "We have a lot of work to do."


*"Too many gimmicks", laments another.


*Nightbeat is too early to write off and PIX, good or bad, will eventually tweak it.


And it does need tweaking by God.


Enough, for instance, of two-minute slicks--stick to basics and don't be so cute. And please, mucho softo on the social media minutia --KISS: Keep it short and simple.


Veronica: Less urgency, more relaxed, just an opinion ...


*Developing...


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Note: Rich Lieberman and 415 Media are not responsible for opinions or comments made by others on this website.