Several interesting pieces of information have crossed the Director's Cut Blog's desk over the weekend.
NBC Reshuffles Wednesday lineup
NBC will revamp its primetime Wednesday schedule to focus entirely on crime dramas. Starting November 5, Knight Rider remains at 8p while Life gets a chance to rejuvenate by moving into the 9p time period and Law & Order will re-launch in the 10p slot. Lipstick Jungle will then switch to Friday nights. Additionally, NBC pushed back the debut of Momma's Boys to December 16 following the season finale of The Biggest Loser; the next week Momma's Boys will air on Monday nights at 9p in the Heroes time slot once it concludes its season. Momma's Boys was originally slated to debut on November 12.
NBC & WKYC Election Night Coverage
NBC and MSNBC will both broadcast from its Rockefeller Plaza headquarters on election night. In addition, NBC announced plans to add new features such as superimposing a huge U.S. map on the Rockefeller Center skating rink as well as projecting Barack Obama's and John McCain's electoral vote tally on the outside of its building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. NBC and MSNBC will also offer a virtual reality component by expanding Tim Russert's electronic clipboard.
WKYC will have special election night coverage of Monday and Tuesday beginning with special editions of Channel 3 News at 5 PM, election cut-ins during NBC prime which will run from 7 PM until 2 AM. WKYC Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres will be joined by analysts to discuss the Presidential elections and issues of local interest.
Cleveland Is Running Rich With Political Spending
Broadcasting and Cable reports today that the Cleveland market is seeing a nice influx of money thanks to the Presidential campaign this year where both Barack Obama and John McCain see the region as crucial to winning the election. Stations are airing wall to wall political ads in some cases, while product spots have dropped dramatically.
However after next Tuesday, Cleveland's financial party will end. We'll return to the reality of the moment that the market is hurting badly. WKYC President/General Manager Brooke Spectorsky is quoted regarding market conditions that "Dismal is an understatement."
Gannett Reports An Increase in TV Revenue, Continued Loss Overall
Good news for Gannett's broadcasting arm with 3rd quarter revenues up 3.9% thanks to a strong summer. Results were $197 million, helped by the Olympics on its NBC affiliates ($24 million) and political advertising ($26 million). The owner of WKYC also reported on Friday that Gannett's total reported operating revenue was $1.64 billion for the third quarter, down from $1.8 billion in the same quarter last year. According to Broadcasting and Cable, "While our results this quarter reflect the difficult and volatile economy both here and in the UK, they also highlight our determination to move forward with our strategic plan," said Gannett Chairman/President/CEO Craig Dubow.
Gannett is one of the nation's leading newspaper publishers and broadcast companies.
