Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

The Indians home opener is set for Monday, April 12th at Progressive Field again the Texas Rangers. Don't miss your chance to take in the action in person. Tell us why you should be there by e-mailing us your stories and Indians spirit pictures to: openingday@wkyc.com If we pick you, slider will deliver a pair of tickets to your home the week of April 5th. Deadline to enter is next Wednesday, March 31st at 11:59:59 p.m...and we'll choose five lucky winners to join us at the game. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter  for other swell prizes, too.

It's no secret that if you are a wanted fugitive trying to evade capture, the last thing you want to see is your face on a wanted poster. The U.S. Marshals Service has made its name on the belief that no guilty man shall go free, and in the Northern District of Ohio that is exactly the goal of the Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force. U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott currently partners with WKYC Channel 3 News, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Clear Channel Media to seek wanted criminals in its Fugitive of the Week program. To date, almost 88% of those profiled have been caught. His new idea is to bring mug shots of the most wanted criminals in your area directly to your cell phone. Now, that surveillance becomes even more wide-spread with the advent of weekly Fugitive Alert information on local cell phones with WKYC Channel 3 in Cleveland. "This is just one more way that we can educate the community and potentially save lives," U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott states. "Our ...

Millions of dollars in state benefits go unused each year, from health care to heating and cool, and food assistance. Channel 3 is teaming up to get you the help you need. Our Ohio Benefit Bank phone lines will be open Wednesday, March 24th, from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Specific phone numbers to call will be posted on wkyc.com during the day Wednesday on Channel 3 News. To learn more about the program, click on the following video.

Some internet Gremlins kept a lot of folks from seeing our website, wkyc.com over the weekend. However, those issues are mostly fixed now. But if you are still having problems, please send us an e-mail with a detailed description and include the name of your internet service provider (ISP). Send it to our engineering techies at channel3@wkyc.com  and we'll do everything we can to help you with a fix.

WKYC Vice President/General Manager Brooke Spectorsky has announced Leslie Pastel as the new General Sales Manager of WKYC-HD. In a note the station staff on Monday, Brooke highlights "Leslie has been with the station for over 5 years starting off as a talented Account Executive and then promoted to National Sales Manager two years ago where she has done a superb job." Leslie has been handling many of the duties of General Sales Manager since the departure of  former GSM Tom Humpage who left the station last year to become General Manager at a Maine television station. Congratulations to Leslie. We look forward to her leadership during an improving, but still difficult economic time for local television stations.

NBC has picked up hit daytime drama "Days of our Lives" for its 45th season, keeping the long-running show on the network through the 2010-11 television season, it was announced Monday by Marc Graboff, Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. "'Days of our Lives' continues to be a favorite of the daytime audience and we are thrilled to keep it going through its 45th season," said Graboff. "'Days' has shown year-to-year increases in key female demographics and remains both relevant and fresh creatively." Bruce Evans, Senior Vice President, Drama Programming, NBC Entertainment, added, "The producers, cast and crew have worked tirelessly to make 'Days' the ratings success it is today. Today's renewal is a true testament to all of their hard work. We could not be more delighted for them and for the multiple generations of fiercely loyal 'Days of our Lives' fans." The acclaimed daytime drama wi...

Special to the Director's Cut By Kim Wendel CLEVELAND -- If you're a Time Warner Cable of Northeast Ohio customer, about 480,000 of you probably saw nothing on Channels 2-20 Wednesday night. The TWC trouble center spokesman said the problem affected customers in Cuyahoga, Medina, Lake, Lorain and Ashtabula counties from about 7:30 p.m. until about 11:40 p.m. He said the problem had to do with the signals going through the cable boxes attached to some televisions. As of Thursday afternoon, TWC in Northeast Ohio said the problem has been corrected. The only outage right now are for an unknown number of customers in the Mansfield area. Anyone still having problems can call for help at (877) 772-2253 .

NEW YORK -- Donald Trump isn't firing "The Celebrity Apprentice," but he's bringing back the regular edition of the show with 14 ordinary candidates plagued by the sour job market. NBC and Trump said Wednesday they want to put America back to work. His revived ordinary-folks "Apprentice" will recruit competitors who have lost their jobs, are stuck with jobs they don't like, or have finished college with no offers in sight. Trump says the winner will land a position with him, while the rest will get advice on how to find their dream jobs elsewhere. "The Apprentice" first aired in 2004 and is expected to return in its refreshed edition this fall on NBC. The current season of "The Celebrity Apprentice" had its premiere Sunday and is expected back for another run in spring 2011.

Please enjoy another cool Channel 3 promo featuring Hollie and Betsy reminding us spring is right around the corner. Funny, shortly after we started airing these spots, it warmed up. Are these ladies good forecasters or what!

Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Michael O'Mara FAIRLAWN -- Ready or not, 3D television has arrived. The hhgregg store is now selling the 55-inch Samsung 3D HD plasma television. Shopping for a new high definition television just got much more complicated. That's because the world of 3D has just arrived in the home electronics department. In Fairlawn, the sales staff at the hhgregg store is ready to explain the many features on the new 55 inch Samsung 3D plasma television. The new set will go from 2D to 3d at the push of a button on the remote control. Special 3D glasses from Samsung will be required to view the video. Electronics specialist Laura Miller said, "If you're into movies, action sports, things that you really want to see to their fullest content that will leap off the screen, then you will love 3D television." Electronics manufacturers have noticed the huge box office success of 3D movies like Avatar, Up, and Alice in Wonderland. ...

A special treat for WKYC Wednesday evening following the 7 p.m. broadcast - the Tamale truck pull up! Good food for all if you ever see the Tamale truck in your neck of the woods. Thanks guys! Betsy Kling gives us a quick look.

WKYC and parent company Gannett are offering promotional support to ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers, the No. 1 dental implant provider in the U.S., to help current members of the military and military veterans who have developed dental problems related to their service. With ClearChoice's Star Spangled Smile program, 18 military members and veterans across the country in need of dental restoration will receive at no cost to them a complete set of dental implants and new teeth. These full mouth restorations collectively are valued at more than $1 million. Individuals can nominate deserving veterans for the program by submitting essays to the Star Spangled website ( http://www.starspangled.com/ ). Seven Gannett TV stations -- WXIA-TV at Atlanta, WKYC-TV at Cleveland, KUSA-TV at Denver, KPNX-TV at Phoenix, KSDK-TV at St. Louis, KXTV at Sacramento, and WUSA-TV at Washington, DC -- are participating, as are two Gannett newspapers, USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic. "We ...

By Frank Macek It's time for another edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as we blog from the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center about what's going on behind the scenes at Channel 3. February sweeps finished up on Wednesday, March 3rd, with some very exciting results for WKYC. In the key demographic of Adults 25-54 (most used by advertisers), WKYC ranked #1 at 5 a.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m weekdays and weekend mornings from 9 am until 10:30 a.m. As you can guess, our Olympics coverage dominated Prime Time ratings for the entire two weeks between February 12th and February 28th. And, our "Olympic Zone" show hosted by WKYC's Jim Donovan was also well received at 7:30 p.m. The new "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is off to a very strong start on NBC at 11:35 p.m. For the first four nights this week, Jay has averaged a 3.7 rating in Adults 25-54 with a 13.4 share locally, according to Nielsen. Jay has beat Letterman every night. An old ...

This Action 3 News classic photo has recently shown up and was taken around 1975 when Doug Adair was the main news anchor at our station. All of the folks in the picture have moved on in their broadcasting careers - except one. See if you can guess who is still at Channel 3 today. Send your guesses to fmacek@wkyc.com Click on either photo for a larger view.

Here are some of the newest promos running on Channel 3 as part of our latest campaign that started during the Olympics.

Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Mike Snider, USA TODAY The race is on to get new 3D TVs into stores - and homes. Panasonic plans to have its first 3D HDTVs in stores next week. (Model and pricing information have not yet been released.) Samsung's first 3D models - 46-inch and 55-inch flat panels starting at $2,340 - are available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Sears.com for shipment as early as this week. Mitsubishi today brings to market $129 XpanD 3D glasses that will turn many of its existing televisions into 3D sets. The TVs include models sold during the past two years that were marked "3D-ready." 3D TVs from Sony and other competitors are close behind. "Our belief is that the American consumer has experienced 3D and thinks it is pretty cool," says Bob Perry, Panasonic senior vice president. "There is a great opportunity to create a different (3D) experience in homes and in theaters." 3D Blu-ray movie discs and broadcasts a...

A birthday surprise...and boy was she surprised...check out this funny clip as it unfolded this afternoon in the WKYC studios. Happy Birthday Betsy!

WKYC-TV in Cleveland placed eighth, giving Gannett NBC-affiliated stations four of the Top 10 stations with adults 25-54. KUSA-TV, our sister station in Denver, was the No. 1-rated local NBC station with the key advertising demographic of adults 25-54 for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. KUSA also out-performed the national average rating by 75% with adults 25-54. Two other Gannett NBC television stations joined KUSA in placing among the Top 5 highest rated local television stations: KSDK-TV in St. Louis ranked third and KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul was fourth. "NBC provided two weeks of extraordinary Olympic broadcasts," said Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. "Overall, it was a huge success for our viewers, our advertisers and our stations."

Special to the Director's Cut Blog by Chris Tye NEW YORK, NY -- Law & Order is one season away from being the longest running drama in TV history. But before they take down "Bonanza" as the title holder, they're returning home to 10 p.m. "I'm thrilled. I think it's always been a 10 p.m. show," says actress Alana De La Garza. "We deal with heavy issues, and being on at 8 p.m. (in some time zones) is not appropriate in some cases." Law & Order returned to its original 10 p.m. time slot Monday. The shuffle occurs as Jay Leno returns to "The Tonight Show," vacating the 10 p.m. slot he occupied since the spring with the failed "The Jay Leno Show." When Channel 3 visited the set of the New York-based "Law & Order" last month, you quickly realize all isn't what it seems. The actor who plays District Attorney Michael Cutter has to lose his British accent every time he opens his mouth. ...

Jay Leno returns tonight to NBC and WKYC as the host of the "Tonight Show" at 11:35 p.m. To promote his show, Jay stopped by the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center today, or did he? I'm not really sure by these pictures.. Can you tell who the cardboard cut-out is? AJ, Producer Carrie Young or Jay himself?

The Director's Cut Blog has learned the guest list for the first two weeks of the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" which returns to 11:35 p.m. beginning on Monday, March 1st. We've also got our first look at the new "Tonight Show" logo. Monday, March 1 - Jamie Foxx, Olympic Gold Medal Skier Lindsey Vonn and a musical performance by Brad Paisley Tuesday, March 2 - Sarah Palin, Olympic Gold Medal Snowboarder Shaun White Wednesday, March 3 - "Jaywalk All-Stars" with the Cast of "Jersey Shore," Chelsea Handler, the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and a musical performance by Avril Lavigne Thursday, March 4 - Matthew McConaughey and Jason Reitman Friday, March 5 - Morgan Freeman and Meredith Vieira Monday, March 8 - Simon Cowell Tuesday, March 9 - Christoph Waltz, Animal Expert Dave Salmoni and a musical performance by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts Wednesday, March 10 - Guests inc...

Special to the Director's Cut By Tom Beres, Channel 3 Senior Political Reporter CLEVELAND -- Former Channel 3 anchorman Tim White has filed to run for the 17th House District seat. That's the seat now held by Josh Mandel who is running as the Republican candidate for State Treasurer. White left Channel 3 in December, 2008. He has homes in Pepper Pike and Wyoming. He is running as a Democrat. Some people found that surprising. White said, "Think blue dog." If he stays in the race, he will face Democrat Kellie Perk in the May 3 primary. Republican Marlene Anielski and Libertarian David Macko are also running for the seat.

Special to the Director's Cut By Gary Levin, USA Today NBC considered depicting the failed Jay Leno Show as a mere dream: Promo spots would feature Leno and Victoria Principal in the shower, an homage to the classic Dallas scene in which Principal dreamed the death of her onscreen husband. Instead, the network is opting for a low-key echo of the commercials that launched Leno: Last fall, he was shown driving a race car emblazoned with a 10, a reminder of his new slot. In spots that began airing during the Olympics Wednesday night, he's driving the same car, only the 10 is replaced by 11:35 (or 10:35, depending on your time zone), as the Beatles song urges him to "Get back to where you once belonged." The approach is in marked contrast to the hype - painted buildings, grocery-aisle ads - that greeted his move to prime time last fall. Back then he was heralded on the cover of Time as the "future of television"; on March 1, NBC tries to relaunch Leno i...

McLEAN, VA -- Four local Gannett NBC affiliate stations were among the Top 10 most watched TV stations for the first four days of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. KUSA-TV in Denver ranked second; KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul was fifth; KSDK-TV in St. Louis placed seventh; and WKYC-TV in Cleveland was ninth. Gannett stations also took 3 of the top 5 spots in the 25 largest television markets -- KUSA was ranked first, KARE third and KSDK fourth. "We congratulate all our local NBC affiliates for successfully launching these Olympics. The high viewing is a clear result of unique content from NBC matched to strong local brands," says Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. "The Winter Olympics are off to a tremendous start from the most watched opening ceremony ever for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics (up 35% over the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy), to great weekend ratings (Saturday night was more highly viewed than any single night of Torino coverage) to h...

By Frank Macek CLEVELAND -- Despite weather that's far from a wintry feel in Canada, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, have racked up big ratings for NBC and WKYC. In the half-century of televised Olympics, NBC's coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday was the MOST WATCHED EVER for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics with 67.5 million viewers. Those numbers were 17 million higher than the Torino, Italy, games four years ago and six 6 million more than the previous record holder, Lillehammer Games in 1994. Those tabloid fueled games held the record for 16 years. According to NBC Universal, the top five most watched include: Vancouver (2010) - 67.5  million Lillehammer (1994) - 62.0 million Nagano (1998) - 52.4 million Torino (2006) - 50.2 million Albertville (1992) - 46.7 million Locally, WKYC was the 6th highest rated station in the nation for the Opening Ceremonies with a 23.1 rating and 38 ...

Spring is just around the corner. WKYC and  Moms Like Me.Com are big sponsors of this year's Great Big Home and Garden Expo at the IX Center. Our Director's Cut spies were on location and had their digital camera handy to bring you a few photos of the fun going on. We even spotted star Ty Pennington who stopped by this year's show. To see our photogallery, click on the picture.

CLEVELAND -- They're not Olympians, but they'll still give it their all! Betsy Kling, Monica Robins, and Eric Mansfield will compete in 10 events in the first Anchor Olympics, starting Monday night February 15th on Channel 3 News at 7. The trio will do battle in winter olympic sports ech night during the broadcast. Hockey, skiing, luging, tubing, and curling are just some of the activities. So, who do you think will win? Tune in Monday as the Anchor Olympics gets underway!

The Director's Cut blog has put together a "Must See TV" list of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games you will want to catch. The Olympics kick off Friday night, February 12th on WKYC and NBC. And don't forget to join us for the Olympic Zone with Jim Donovan every weeknight during the games beginning Monday, February 15th at 7:30 p.m. Click on the graphic below to save and print a Adobe Acrobat .pdf file:

This afternoon, our News Director Rita Andolsen gave us a little sugar... No, not that kind...but delicious dessert to help us kick off February sweeps which started Thursday. Assistant News Director Howard Fencl had the hidden camera rolling and snapped a few shots of the staff. Unfortunately, he forgot to take a picture of the dessert. Click on the photo for several more pictures from our WKYC Facebook page. (Your blogger is the guy in the middle waiting for the speech to be over so we could get right to the sweet treats.)

WKYC production assistant Ashley Glaze took some time off to volunteer in Haiti with her church group to help the victims of the recent, devastating earthquake. While she is in Haiti, she will be filing reports for Channel 3 News including flipcam video and photographs from her first person account. She'll file reports as often as she has internet connectivity, which is sparse at times, in the still recovering nation. We invite you to follow Ashley's on scene work and ask you continue to keep those affected in your thoughts and prayers. Here's a link to her first set of pictures we have received: http://bit.ly/dzpkzf For her on scene report: http://bit.ly/cj7ZSV