NBC Could Give Third Hour of Nightly Primetime Back to Local Affiliates

[WilliamHBonney]

Originally Posted by SarahBellum

And what would those local affiliates do with that timeslot, probably air more news? Ugh.

In places without local news,I am guessing Big Bang Theory/Andy Griffith Show,Seinfeld,Friends etc reruns in those markets will deliver better ratings then the dull stuff that runs on network tv now.

[James28]

I am totally resistant to the idea of any of the Big Three networks giving up an hour of nightly primetime, because that will mean less room for new shows, and existing veteran shows having their runs artificially shortened (meaning cancelled without a proper send-off). There'll be only one positive outcome: No more two-hour Dateline. I wish it were CBS giving the 10 pm hour back to its affiliates instead, if it weren't for their endless NCIS and FBI spinoffs. CBS's primetime hasn't been worth a damn to me after The Big Bang Theory ended.

[Yong Fang]

A little long here perhaps, but local news is an interesting topic.

I am from Memphis, Tennessee but have not lived there for twenty years although I do visit my parents, or did before the so called "virus". For decades, since the 1970's, the CBS and NBC affiliates go back and forth as the highest rated news station. ABC and FOX are way behind. So mainly I will talk of the CBS and NBC affiliates.

I have been away from my hometown for several years but do know that the CBS affiliate has their local news on from like 5 AM-7 AM, 9 AM, Noon, 4 PM, 5PM 6PM to 6:30 and then the 10 PM report. The CBS affiliate is even named "News Channel 3". There is even a 24 hour News Channel 3 channel.

I personally think this is way overblown, but local news is cheap to produce and I guess makes enough advertising revenue to be worth it. Especially the 5 AM show, and people are awake to either go to work early or just elderly/retired people who just wake up at 5 AM. Many want to know what the weather will be (discussed below). The 5 AM show is led by a slightly overweight, friendly (we messaged on Facebook one time for a half hour about a story) guy named Todd Demers who has been with the station for about 30 years since his youth (which is increasing rare, discussed below).

I was online reading online comments from former anchor people from "News Channel 3", (of Memphis which has about a million people metropolitan area in parts of four states) who complained about how cheap local news is now and how low the standards have gotten from the time they were in the business in the 90's and 00's. They were saying an on-air reporter makes about $30,000 a year starting straight from college, when in their day, people needed experience and came from smaller markets. The "business" is rough also, with people getting fired and replaced if the ratings are not there, it's a very stressful business. A lead anchor and a consumer reporter were unceremoniously let go from the CBS affiliate. The lead anchor was replaced by some other guy from another market (never seen him before until then)

The former lead anchor of the CBS affiliate is very professional and personable and should do national. He was paired with a female anchor who has been in the market for decades (well loved, professional, a local person) and together they were Number One in the market share (with the affiliate constantly gloating about it). She retired. Maybe the ratings dropped slightly, losing to the NBC affiliate who they were neck and neck with. I think the CBS affiliate in the end wanted to save money. He went to the lower rated ABC affiliate at a lower salary.

When I was growing up in the 1970's and 1980's, many anchor people and reporters kept their jobs for decades. Also, a lot of news people were local from Memphis or from the regional area. I like this because it seems that the anchors "cared" and was vested in the city they were raised and live in. I think a lot of anchors now and the old days (and this is true in radio) passed through many markets, but I think now most all of them do, very few are local and just doing time hopefully going somewhere else. No insult to Memphis, but unless you are from there, you dont want to live there and many people who do live there would leave if opportunity presented itself. No insult, but if you start your career in Bismark, North Dakota, you will get your experience and leave and be followed by someone else out of college until they do the same.


Still today, there are a few "old timers" in Memphis (a lead anchor on the NBC affiliate and a weather idiot (he's an a-hole) on the CBS affiliate) who have been around since the early 1980's, but I think now, at least in that market, it is now young people not from the area who are passing through to a better job, and this market isnt paying enough to keep them grounded. Hence the complaints of previous employees of that line of work, but again....the internet has changed the way we see news.

When I am home, I never bother watching the local news. I get my news (like everyone else) online. Very little of consequence happens in my city (except now, a woman was snatched off the street jogging early in the morning a few days ago). Memphis is unfortunatley crime ridden so there are crime reports everyday, a store gets held up, someone in the inner city shot. This is everyday, so most people tune it out especially if you fortunately live in the suburbs and could not care less.

Local news puts a great importance on weather, probably because this is about the only reason people watch the local news. Ironically, the weekday, lead weathermen on the CBS and the NBC affiliate are the ones who have been working there for decades. There was a legendary weatherman named Dave Brown (who also did the wrestling show on Saturdays and did many commercials) whose career was about 50 years from the early 1970's until the late 2010's. The CBS affiliate has a weatherman who has been in the market since the late 1970's and another guy who has been around since 1990 (at least). Weekday weathermen are King and seem to have the best careers. There seems to be some kind of "trust factor" more seen in weathermen and the public than the regular news readers. If there is a hurricane, a blizzard or an ice storm coming, we hang off the weatherman's every word, so we tend to know them more intimately. "Dave Brown says it's going to snow a foot tomorrow, we need to get to the store and stock up!" The other news personalities dont get that kind of closeness, and except for local weather now, people dont care about local news which is why they put a lot of stock on weather more than anything else.

If you havent seen it, look online for a film called "Christine" which is about the professional life of a one Christine Chubbuck who was a reporter with her own show in Florida in the early 1970's. Unfortunatley Chubbuck was a young woman with mental problems who killed herself on air in 1974. The movie is really good because it shows how stressful the business was and how anchor people and reporters wanted to leave to go to another market (in the movie, an aloof station owner who owned many stations wanted to find staff to go to Baltimore and most of the staff vying for the chance to go). Great film and probably a realistic performance of what local TV is really like.