Monday, April 30, 2001

East At Your Own Risk

CBS 2 is launching a major investigation tonight at 11:00 on Nightcast. This investigation targets the food industry, and will continue for a few weeks. "Eat At Your Own Risk" is a special investigation done for the "sweeps," a period when Nielsen Media Research collects data on what programs viewers are watching. This data is used by local stations, broadcast networks and cable systems to set ad rates.

Tiki Barber Joins CBS 2 News This Morning

This morning, Tiki Barber came back to CBS 2 as morning sportscaster. He was originally supposed to join last month. Last year, Tiki joined on March 2nd and left on June 23rd. He recently re-signed with the New York Giants for a six-year contract worth $25.5 million and received $7 million as a signing bonus.

Saturday, April 28, 2001

CBS 2 Weekend News

At 6:00, "The Weekend News" changed to the "CBS 2 Weekend News". The opening's wording was: "You're watching the CBS 2 Information Network. Live from Fifth Avenue, this is CBS 2 Weekend News." It looks like the "CBS 2 News" is slowly coming!

Friday, April 27, 2001

CBS 2 Update

-"CBS 2 News at 5:00" lasts only one day. Today, the 5:00 newscast was back to being called "The News at 5:00". The 5:30 and 6:00 newscasts have not yet been renamed "CBS 2 News".

-Today at 5:44, Brett Haber did a new two and a half minute sports segment called "Haber's Sports Shorts". This is the first time in many years that CBS 2 has had a regular sports report on the 5:00 newscast. The last one was "Warner's Plays Of The Day", which was a quick video clip of sports highlights and a preview of the 6:00 sports report. That ended in 1998.

-Speaking of Brett Haber... Last night on Hollywood Squares, he unfortunately didn't walk away the big winner. But his charity was awarded $5,000.

-Today marks the one year anniversary of "NEWS 2" switching their graphics and themes. And TV News Themes has added the current CBS 2 News theme! To listen to it, click here.

Thursday, April 26, 2001

CBS 2 News at 5:00

Thursday, 4/26/01, 6:45pm CBS 2 News at 5:00
"The News at 5:00" changed to "CBS 2 News at 5:00" this evening, but so far "The News at 5:30" and "The News at 6:00" have not changed to the new "CBS 2 News" name. "CBS 2 News This Morning" changed this morning, and "CBS 2 News at Noon" changed yesterday.

CBS 2 First News @ 4:00 Talent Opening

Today at 4:09, the new "CBS 2 First News @ 4:00" had a talent opening! It's pretty much the same as the one used in the morning, at noon, at 5:00, and at 6:00, except it begins with the CBS 2 logo. The male announcer says, "You're watching CBS 2 First News at 4, with Ernie Anastos and Dana Tyler." The other talent openings start with the CBS 2 Information Network logo and the female announcer says, "You're watching the CBS 2 Information Network, with..." It's important to point out that Ira Joe Fisher is not in the opening.





Brett Haber Competes on Hollywood Squares

Today on "CBS 2 News at 5:00", CBS 2 Sports Director Brett Haber took viewers behind-the-scenes of his experience taping "Hollywood Squares". He did not tell us if he wins, but he did say that he was not the dumbest contestant that Tom Bergeron has ever had. The CBS 2 website has a press release about it here. You can see for yourself if Brett Haber wins $10,000 for his favorite charity tonight at 7:30 on CBS 2.

CBS 2 News This Morning

This morning, "The News This Morning" officially changed to "CBS 2 News This Morning". Only the wording in the opening changed, and there has been no change to the logo. There are also some "Information Network noises" in the first part of the opening (like at Noon and 4:00). Expect this new name change to carry over to the 5:00 and 6:00 newscasts tonight.

Wednesday, April 25, 2001

CBS 2 First News @ 4:00

Wednesday, 4/25/01, 7:15pm CBS 2 First News @ 4:00
"CBS 2 First News @ 4:00" premiered this afternoon. The opening was the usual type of opening: "You're watching the CBS 2 Information Network... Live from Fifth Avenue, this is CBS 2 First News at Four." There were some "Information Network noises" (I don't know how else to describe them) in the beginning, and the "Now" was once again gone (just like it was at noon).

After the opening, Dana Tyler and Ernie Anastos checked the top stories for a minute or two (similar to The News This Morning), and then Ira Joe Fisher did the weather. The new outcue for the show is "I'm (reporter's name), First News at Four." There were a few interviews with newsmakers and celebrities. At 4:15 and 4:42, Cindy Hsu did a news update (about one to one and a half minutes long), using the CBS 2 Information Network partners (today: The Daily News, VH1, CourtTV, CBS HealthWatch, and CBS MarketWatch). Dr. Emily Senay from CBS News was on the show today and will be a regular guest on CBS 2 First News @ 4:00. Robyn Carter did her CBS 2/Hollywood.com Entertainment Report at 4:24, and at 4:30 CBS 2 rejoined First News @ 4:00 with the opening again. Tony Tantillo had his Fresh Grocer report at 4:37, then Ira Joe Fisher did the "Tomorrow's Daily News Today In New York" segment. At 4:51 Angela Rae previewed "The News at 5:00". At the end of the show, Ernie Anastos and Dana Tyler recapped the show, and then the show ended at 4:57. Other than Todd McDermott, one person was missing from today's show. It was Heather O'Rourke, who did the Metro Traffic report at 5:33. It looks as if she will no longer do traffic reports at 4:00.

CBS 2 News? Not Yet!

This afternoon we reported that CBS 2 changed the title of their noon newscast to "CBS 2 News at Noon". No changes to the title yet at 5:00 and at 6:00, but it will probably change very soon. Kevin (webmaster of the NBC 10 InfoSite) has sent me the following video of the opening from today at noon: Click here to watch it.

Tiki Talks Sports Monday

This afternoon at 5:45, Brett Haber spoke with Tiki Barber for a few minutes. They talked about the New York Giants' great 2000-2001 season and their disappointing loss in the Super Bowl at the end of January. They also talked about Tiki Barber coming back to CBS 2's "The News This Morning", starting this Monday at 5:00am. He will rejoin the newscast as sports anchor (currently Brett Haber and Gary Apple do the sports via videotape from the night before).

CBS 2 News?

According to Kevin, the opening at noon changed. The new wording is, "Live from Fifth Avenue, this is CBS 2 News at Noon." The old wording was "Now, live from Fifth Avenue, this is The News at Noon." This means that CBS 2 has changed their name from "The News" to "CBS 2 News"! No new logo in the opening. The first hint of the new name came in a special Nightcast promo where Angela Rae said "a CBS 2 News investigation." The name "CBS 2 News" has been used often in promos since October 30th, but the title of the newscast remained "The News" throughout the openings. Also, the new "CBS 2 First News @ 4:00" promos began airing last night (according to Brian), and they have a "Nightcast"-like background, and music similar to "Nightcast"! More to come later tonight!

Tuesday, April 24, 2001

More on "First News at Four"

At the end of the last "New York Live!" today, Dana Tyler called the new program starting tomorrow "CBS 2 First News at Four". This is slightly different than what we reported earlier, "First at Four". Once again, the anchors will be Dana Tyler and Ernie Anastos. Currently, we don't know who will do the weather (It was Ira Joe Fisher, but it's possible that David Rogers will replace him at 4:00). This appears to be the only change taking place tomorrow, as promos are still running for Todd McDermott and Angela Rae tomorrow at 5:00.

Here's a look "Behind The Headlines" of the 4:00pm newscast on CBS 2:
-Monday, January 24, 2000: "NEWS 2 at 4:00" launched with Dana Tyler and Stephen Clark. It used old "2 News This Morning" music from 1996 and 1997.
-Thursday, April 27, 2000: All "NEWS 2" newscasts get new openings, graphics, and music. "NEWS 2 at 4:00" uses a slight variation of the new CBS 2 theme.
-Monday, October 30, 2000: As the "CBS 2 Information Network" is launched, "NEWS 2 at 4:00" is renamed "New York Live!" and gets a new opening, theme, and slightly modified graphics.
-Friday, December 22, 2000: Stephen Clark's last day at CBS 2.
-Tuesday, January 2, 2001: Todd McDermott officially joins "New York Live!" to anchor along with Dana Tyler.
-Tuesday, April 24, 2001: "New York Live" is canceled and will be replaced with "First News at Four" tomorrow.