Now that the country has had enough of Dr Phil’s shtick and ratings have dropped, WPLG are not renewing the rights to air the talker and will be resurrecting their 5pm newscast. The station is already running promos announcing the changes.
SFLTV first reported back in November 2004 that WPLG planned to drop their 5pm newscast after parent company Post-Newsweek Stations poached the rights to air ‘Judge Judy’ from WSVN and ‘Dr Phil’ from WFOR. At that time WPLG wasn’t doing well in the ratings at 5pm, placing third behind WSVN and WFOR and even though the switch wouldn’t happen for another two years management had decided they will stop trying to prop that time slot with news and would instead use the highly rated ‘Judy’ and ‘Phil’ as a lead-in to the already highly rated 6pm newscast.
WPLG Local 10 News at 5pm will air once again starting August 22, 2011
This is the best industry news I’ve heard in this market since WPLG dropped the 5pm newscast. We knew a long time ago that 4 had snatched up Dr. Phil, but we weren’t sure what WPLG would do with the time period.
With WPLG’s return, there will once again be four 5pm shows in this market — the way it SHOULD be in a market this size.
The 5pm show will be great for WPLG’S news image and overall product across the whole day, including 11pm, AM and noon.
Ever since it dropped the 5pm show (and the field crews that contributed to it) Channel 10’s resources have been very obviously lacking. Sure it could gather enough news to put on an OK, 30-minute, 6pm show. The problem would come in the mornings and, especially, in the hour-long noon show, where it was obvious that there was painfully little local content from the day before to fill the show.
WPLG’s current noon show is downright unwatchable, with CNN pkg after ABC pkg after CNN pkg. Jeanne Moos again? Seriously?
Hopefully, the station will hire some people so it can actually put LOCAL news in its “Local 10” newscasts. If WPLG can put on shows resembling what they used to produce before dropping the 5pm show, I’ll be satisfied.
Local newscasts are cheaper to produce, and more profitable… compared to syndicated fanfare. Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray, Dr. Oz, and Nate Berkus couldn’t have their shows airing in the 4PM hour in most markets… Oprah made sure that stipulation was put in place. She picked the right time to end her talk show. Long-running soaps All My Children and One Life To Live will be disappearing from ABC… CBS/P&G soaps Guiding Light and As The World Turns were canceled not too long ago either… soap fans are hoping that the canceled ABC soaps get picked up by another TV network.
It seems to me that WPLG picked the right time to revive 5PM news. I don’t know if WPLG viewers will be seeing Laurie and Calvin getting 5PM anchor duties added to their existing 6PM and 11PM anchor duties… unless WPLG management is considering making some anchor changes.
Laurie and Calvin will be anchoring the 5PM newscast. The 5:30 newscast is co-anchored with Jen Herera.
Eric hit it on the head. It is cheaper to produce news and get a lower rating than to pay a boatload for syndicated program and have slightly higher ratings.
Murrow’s comments that suggest this is some how a return to WPLG’s heyday is a bit premature.
I’d look for a slightly enhanced staff with current staff picking up most of the duties. And don’t expect 1990’s salaries or experienced talent either. This will be done on the cheap with small market new hires and interns filling out the middle.
TV stations are about to become flush with election year ad buys, but the South Florida economy is one of the worst in the nation and the unemployment rate that is one of the highest in the nation. Most people in SFL are broke. It’s like Detroit in the tropics. That is not likely to change any time soon. Local advertisers are stretched thin.
The economics of local TV isn’t as bad as newspapers, but the good old days are not here again.
Are you still airing Dr. Phil at some time?? I really miss his show and was looking forward to his new season. I don’t need an hour and a half of local news.