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December 25, 2023 9:12 pm  #1


A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

TV airtime is a very valuable thing, even in these days of shrinking ad budgets. So when a news program devotes seven long minutes to nothing but names and music, that's noteworthy. 

I was happy to see NBC continue a tradition it started a couple of years ago, ending its Nightly News show very early on Christmas night for an intro from anchor Lester Holt, explaining they were about to share the names of every single person who worked on the show in 2023. 

It was followed by a very, very long credit roll on the left side of the screen and pictures of many of the people who helped bring viewers the newscast, a crew that never, ever, ever gets any on-air credit otherwise. And it went on for a very long time by TV standards. 

I'm not sure if any other network does this, but I think it's great. (WIVB also did it locally on Sunday night.) As someone who made a living behind the scenes of a local TV newscast, it was generally only the producer and the director who ever got credit at the end of the show, a bit that lasted all of about 10 or 15 secs. Doing this once a year is a nice tribute to those who toil day after day in the trenches, sight unseen, but without whom the show would not go on. 

And yes, I sat there and watched it all. They only do this once on Christmas and then these people drop back into the obscurity of the background. So kudos to NBC and all the non-names you never knew. It's nearing the end of a dark December but they just had their one annual moment in the sun. And while no one else really cares, I'm sure their families were watching as the names rolled by. 

 

December 25, 2023 9:42 pm  #2


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

CTV National News does this

 

December 25, 2023 10:07 pm  #4


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

I'm glad to see others are doing it. It's a small thing on one of the slowest news nights of the year, and while some staffers don't really care, for those who do, it's a nice little reward for hard working people who don't get much notice otherwise. 

In the case of NBC, it's the dozens and dozens of pictures that accompany the names that adds the finishing and personal touch, along with lots of shots of the control rooms and the work stations they toil at. If you're curious, you can see what it looks like here. It starts at the 15:10 mark.

     Thread Starter
 

December 25, 2023 11:35 pm  #5


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

Good Morning America did the same this morning. It was about 5-7 mins of names & pictures.

 

December 25, 2023 11:48 pm  #6


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

CTV National News did do their staff credit roll tonight for Christmas.  About 1,000 names and lasted almost 8 minutes.  Some other years they included photos of employees grouped into the different production categories.  

 

December 26, 2023 12:07 am  #7


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

CFTO also did this on Friday night's 6 PM news.

 

December 26, 2023 12:17 am  #8


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

Speaking of holiday news shows, it's interesting to me the decision each local TV station here made.

None of the big four (CTV, City TV, Global, CBC) did a noon newscast. (City TV never does, the rest do.)

CTV did only a half hour news at 6, and only on CP24, because CFTO was carrying non-stop football all day. They only had in one anchor (Rahim Ladhani) and one reporter (Beth McDonnell) and the rest were pre-taped stories from other CTV stations around the country. There was also no weather person, which is sadly becoming all too common at the station. The 6 was then immediately repeated on CP24, which needed to fill the time. They also announced at the end of the newscast that there would be no 11:30 update.

City TV did its usual 6 o'clock hour long show, but nothing at 5 PM. It also skipped the 11, showing a Christmas choir instead, an annual City TV tradition stretching back to the Colin Vaughan era. 

CBC did no news shows, 6 or 11.

And while I believe Global did a National show at 6:30, there was no 5:30 update and nothing at all at 6 or 11. Instead they aired "A Conversation with the Prime Minister" where their 6 PM news would have been. 

All totaled, excluding cable, there were only two actual local newscasts on the air in Toronto on Christmas Day. Neither were especially well staffed. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 26, 2023 12:36 am  #9


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

Meanwhile in Detroit, WDIV and WWJ had news (didn’t check WJBK), while WXYZ didn’t because of ABC carrying NBA basketball.

CBS Detroit was the one station that you could count on not having news for many years, so it’s ironic that they actually did news today.

 

December 26, 2023 12:37 am  #10


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

In Phase wrote:

CTV National News does this

Global National did this tonight as well. I don’t recall them doing this in the past.

 

December 26, 2023 1:10 am  #11


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of holiday news shows, it's interesting to me the decision each local TV station here made.

None of the big four (CTV, City TV, Global, CBC) did a noon newscast. (City TV never does, the rest do.)

CTV did only a half hour news at 6, and only on CP24, because CFTO was carrying non-stop football all day. They only had in one anchor (Rahim Ladhani) and one reporter (Beth McDonnell) and the rest were pre-taped stories from other CTV stations around the country. There was also no weather person, which is sadly becoming all too common at the station. The 6 was then immediately repeated on CP24, which needed to fill the time. They also announced at the end of the newscast that there would be no 11:30 update.

City TV did its usual 6 o'clock hour long show, but nothing at 5 PM. It also skipped the 11, showing a Christmas choir instead, an annual City TV tradition stretching back to the Colin Vaughan era. 

CBC did no news shows, 6 or 11.

And while I believe Global did a National show at 6:30, there was no 5:30 update and nothing at all at 6 or 11. Instead they aired "A Conversation with the Prime Minister" where their 6 PM news would have been. 

All totaled, excluding cable, there were only two actual local newscasts on the air in Toronto on Christmas Day. Neither were especially well staffed. 

I believe CTV News Toronto at 6 also aired on CKVR/CTV2 Barrie this evening, which warrants a discussion for another day...

The only local station in the entire country that had anything close to a full news schedule (outside of CP24, LCN in Quebec, and BC1) was Global BC. They had a morning newscast (1 hour only), noon news, 6 PM, and will have an 11 PM tonight. 
 

 

December 26, 2023 2:09 am  #12


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

I recall seeing the National do that years ago either for Christmas or the last show of the year - don't remember which. Don't know if they still do. 

 

December 26, 2023 2:41 pm  #13


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

Hansa wrote:

I recall seeing the National do that years ago either for Christmas or the last show of the year - don't remember which. Don't know if they still do. 

I watched The National last night - they didn’t do that. A lot of their show was rebroadcasts of long-form reports from earlier this year, including Harry Forestell’s interview with Michael J. Fox about Parkinson’s disease from last May (very well worth watching, as Forestell himself also has Parkinson’s).

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (December 26, 2023 2:42 pm)

 

December 27, 2023 1:25 pm  #14


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

Global did not do a noon newscast on Wednesday. It was replaced by a year-ender featuring the network's correspondents recapping the news of the year. Given that it's now been three days, my guess would be there won't be another noon show until after New Year's. We'll see on Thursday.

     Thread Starter
 

December 27, 2023 2:36 pm  #15


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

cfrb could now do that during a traffic tag

In Phase wrote:

CTV National News does this

 

 

December 28, 2023 1:17 am  #16


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of holiday news shows, it's interesting to me the decision each local TV station here made.

None of the big four (CTV, City TV, Global, CBC) did a noon newscast. (City TV never does, the rest do.)

CTV did only a half hour news at 6, and only on CP24, because CFTO was carrying non-stop football all day. They only had in one anchor (Rahim Ladhani) and one reporter (Beth McDonnell) and the rest were pre-taped stories from other CTV stations around the country. There was also no weather person, which is sadly becoming all too common at the station. The 6 was then immediately repeated on CP24, which needed to fill the time. They also announced at the end of the newscast that there would be no 11:30 update.

City TV did its usual 6 o'clock hour long show, but nothing at 5 PM. It also skipped the 11, showing a Christmas choir instead, an annual City TV tradition stretching back to the Colin Vaughan era. 

CBC did no news shows, 6 or 11.

And while I believe Global did a National show at 6:30, there was no 5:30 update and nothing at all at 6 or 11. Instead they aired "A Conversation with the Prime Minister" where their 6 PM news would have been. 

All totaled, excluding cable, there were only two actual local newscasts on the air in Toronto on Christmas Day. Neither were especially well staffed. 

CHCH did not have a Morning show or the 6 and 11 newscasts on Christmas day, CTV London CTV Windsor and CTV Kitchener did not even have newscasts on Christmas day ether. On the other hand CTV London at 6PM had the Celebration of 70 Years of CFPL-TV on Boxing Day which was a nice thing to air. No 11PM newcast on that day ether. I believe CTV Barrie had no news on boxing day? Correct me if I am wrong. CTV Kitchener had a half hour 6PM newscast and the normal 11:30PM newscast. CTV Windsor had no news on Boxing day as well. So you can say that people in Windsor could trust the Detroit news on those days where CTV Windsor does not have any newscasts on Holidays.

 

December 28, 2023 9:20 am  #17


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

CTV2 Barrie had a half hour week in review followed by CTV Toronto's cast.  

 

December 28, 2023 2:05 pm  #18


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

RadioActive wrote:

Global did not do a noon newscast on Wednesday. It was replaced by a year-ender featuring the network's correspondents recapping the news of the year. Given that it's now been three days, my guess would be there won't be another noon show until after New Year's. We'll see on Thursday.

No nooner again from CIII and, according to the listings, there won't be one on Friday either. (They've scheduled a rerun of Mercedes Stephenson's "Chat With The Prime Minister" instead.) It's the first time I can recall Global giving their morning staff the entire week off. 

Spreading good vibes, saving money on overtime or both? Hard to say, but the same sked notes that the noon news will be back on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

Still, perhaps they missed out. This is the one week the majority of people are home from work and could actually watch their noon show. By not doing it, even if low rated, there are a lot of eyeballs that will have never seen it. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 28, 2023 9:38 pm  #19


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

RadioActive wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Global did not do a noon newscast on Wednesday. It was replaced by a year-ender featuring the network's correspondents recapping the news of the year. Given that it's now been three days, my guess would be there won't be another noon show until after New Year's. We'll see on Thursday.

No nooner again from CIII and, according to the listings, there won't be one on Friday either. (They've scheduled a rerun of Mercedes Stephenson's "Chat With The Prime Minister" instead.) It's the first time I can recall Global giving their morning staff the entire week off. 

Spreading good vibes, saving money on overtime or both? Hard to say, but the same sked notes that the noon news will be back on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

Still, perhaps they missed out. This is the one week the majority of people are home from work and could actually watch their noon show. By not doing it, even if low rated, there are a lot of eyeballs that will have never seen it. 

Did CTV Toronto air their regular noon newscast?

 

December 28, 2023 10:08 pm  #20


Re: A Nice Annual Network Gesture From NBC News

Yes, it was bare bones (one anchor, one reporter, no weather person and lots of pre-taped stuff from their people across the country that would never make a local Toronto newscast otherwise), but it was there on Thursday. I expect the same for Friday and then hopefully things should get back to normal by Tuesday.

     Thread Starter