I'm up in the morning before the local 9 a.m. chat fests begin, but I rarely turn on the TV.
Tuesday morning, however, I couldn't miss the new battle royal going on between three of our local stations. As noted last night, channels, 4, 5 and 9 all want me to care what their highly educated, intelligent reporters and anchors think. Or at least listen to their boring interviews with fitness experts.
I flipped between the stations for more than an hour, and found a mixed bag.
Let's start with the granddaddy of superfluous chat, Fox 9. Now calling their morning fluff "Good Day," the gabbing trio swapped out the jolly weatherman for the roving reporter. It was a lot of the same, or so it seemed. Some of the same regular guests are sure to return, like their longtime favorite, that garden guy I have zero interest in, ever. Old Alix Kendall was outside the studio chatting him up on the "new" show for day 1.
So what's new? I think they have a new musical ditty for the show. I didn't pay close attention. They definitely have a new set. Instead of sitting around the table, the women sit in extra tall chairs, as if they're trying to give you an "up skirt" peek. I don't get why that's a good choice. At one point there was an awkward camera shot of Alix , as if they haven't figured out the angles for the solo shots of the talking heads perched high above the floor.
There are also new social media handles, of course, because the hour has a new name. Alix, the lone survivor of the "Good Day Minnesota" program that launched in 1999 spoke to the former name of the morning news fest, and claiming that the new program is paying homage to the first version of the morning news presentation. I believe she also suggested that the old Good Day Minnesota program was a little less news intensive overall, as the rebranded Buzz hour will be. Quite a bombshell you dropped there, Alix.
Perhaps more relevant, "Good Day" is a tag that Fox likes to drop on local programming around the country. Seems like the Fox 9 program is simply following corporate branding in 2021, for what that's worth.
Alix did talk about a clip of the old 1999 program at one point, which showed the original foursome. Last I knew, Tim Sherno, Robin Wolfram and Mary Alice Rosko no longer work in TV. Not a shock. We know Sherno has bounced around for years since leaving Ch. 5, his home after Fox 9. Rosko left TV to reinvent herself, she claimed, and did some travelling and blogging for a year or so, then needed a paycheck and is now a media contact for a nonprofit organization (I assume it's nonprofit).
The clip was a fun flashback. Your hair was much darker in 1999, Alix.
Most of the program was otherwise forgettable, as it should be. They still fluff up Buzz Boy's 10 a.m. talker minutes before it begins. They all slapped each other on the back. Jason Matheson is starting his seventh year as a little league talk show host. Oh boy!
I didn't see all of the program because I flipped back and forth between the competitors.
On Ch. 4, Mr. Forehead Jason DeRusha was holding court, as usual. His usual sidekick, Heather Brown, was absent, so third wheel Shayla Reaves held court with Mr. Foodie. She was hired in December 2020, evidently. Was she a direct replacement for Kim Johnson? I don't know. We also lost Ali Lucia last year, and since I can barely stomach DeRusha, I almost never turn on CBS in the morning. I'm skeptical they ever replaced the traffic reporter position when Lucia left. So I'm guessing Reaves is a 1-for-2 hire, but I can't prove that.
The one thing I remember from my brief glimpses at Ch. 4 on Tuesday, they still bring in one of the reporters to contribute to an intellectually stimulating conversation. I doubt they had one, but I assume that's the goal. Today it was Katie Steiner, the fourth-string meteorologist. Or is she fifth-string? Hard to say. But rather than all sit on the couch together, Steiner was in an office, or somewhere else outside the studio, so they could do that magical split-screen banter between her and the co-hosts. Yawn.
Over at Ch. 5, they rolled out a lackluster "Minnesota Live" show. It's weak, but at least they're trying something different. Seems like that's the perennial goal for Ch. 5.
Hosts Megan Newquist and Chris Egert run a similar gab fest, from a set that looks like it was discarded by a cable access studio. I heard them give the mandatory speech telling me what the show is, and they introduced a revolutionary element to the show. You can share your photos with KSTP, and they may be featured on the show!
It all sounds uninspired, but I will note that they are doing something distinct. The show is broadcast in Rochester and Duluth, as well, and they'll be using reporters from their sister stations in those areas to bring general interest segments to viewers in all three markets. Sure, Fox 9 could send a reporter to Duluth to preview some fall festival, which interests me none, but there's interesting potential for this chat fest that will set it apart. Points for that.
I did see moments of some sort of health and/or fitness segment on Ch. 5. I didn't hear any disclaimers about it being a sponsored segment, and I have no idea if they had a disclaimer at the end of the show, but KSTP's first day health/wellness segment sure looked like a sponsored segment. Not a crime, of course, but one of many reasons I dislike these faux news shows.
And there was a segment where Egert and Newquist brought out the show director or producer. Whatever her job is, she discussed the grand vision and they answered all our burning questions. Oh thank God, Twin Cities Live isn't going away. It's a sister show to the new Minnesota Live! They had flashbacks to the early years of TCL, too, as if that was relevant somehow. And they sure think highly of TCL. I'm glad somebody does.
Ch. 5 launched an overall lackluster program, but there's potential. Lord knows there's room for growth.
I read some tweets today. Somebody claimed that while Egert and Newquist are still anchoring news from 5:30-7, or something like that, they no longer fill 7-9 on Ch. 45, or kick off the morning at 4:30. Not sure if that means another set of staffers fill those gaps, or if Ch. 5 dropped them. I'll take a look soon enough. I'm sure you're dying to know the answer if you don't already.
And I saw a celebratory tweet from Fox 9. They had a celebratory moment after their first Good Day program, as if they had just worked for months to open a new craft brewery in an abandoned Minneapolis warehouse. I don't care how much planning when into the rebranding, that's all it was. Try to keep it in perspective. But it's TV, those folks never miss an opportunity to slap themselves on the back.
I stuck with Ch. 9 at 10 a.m. to see the kick off of what's year 7 of Jason Matheson's amateur hour. I see glimpses of it now and then, as Fox likes to run the show two or three times a day between its stations. It's always unimpressive and minor league in its style and substance. It's less focused on local talkers, and somehow the show is carried in other cities. I haven't seen a list of which cities, but a station in Seattle has nothing better to show than an hour of Matheson fawning over his favorite TV shows and sharing his inside Hollywood gossip that can only be gleaned by a talking head in Minnesota.
The fact that a station Seattle is now carrying his gab fest as of this fall boggles my mind.
Yes, I'm still retired. Several times per year I find something worth writing about, but I can't bring myself to do it on a regular basis. You never know when Jeff Dubay will be arrested next, or when Keith Leventhal will get a new job, prompting me to get off the couch. But yes, I'm still retired.
