Tuesday, August 28, 2001

The New York Post On Studio 43

Michael Starr of The New York Post has this in today's paper:
CH. 2 has moved the last of its newscasts out of the fancy new studio near the Plaza Hotel - and back to its old studio on West 57th Street. Ch. 2 unveiled its spanking-new studios yesterday at the CBS Broadcast Center (between 10th and 11th). With the move back to its traditional home studio, Ch. 2 staffers no longer have to board a shuttle bus and schlepp across town to "The Early Show" studios on 5th and 59th - as they'd been doing since 1999.

This allows us to be here for every show, where we couldn't do that under the previous setup," said Ch. 2 GM Tony Petitti. "In the old configuration, a lot of people started [their day] here and went to [the 55th St. studio] during the day," Petitti said. "But most anchors went straight to 55th Street." Earlier this summer, Ch. 2 moved its early-morning and noon newscasts back to the Broadcast Center - and it was expected that the 4, 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts would follow suit when the new facility was completed.

Petitti said that, contrary to rumors, Ch. 2 will not be dropping its "CBS2 Information Network" tag nor its 4 p.m. newscast, which now follows "Crossing Over with John Edward." "We have no plans to change that format," he said. "We bought a lot of syndicated programming . . . and we're going to see what works and how it configures." In addition to "Crossing Over," Ch. 2 will be airing syndicated version of "Weakest Link" (beginning in January) and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" next fall. It's also purchased "Dr. Phil," also scheduled to kick off next fall.
A few incorrect comments in the article: There is/was no CBS 2 studio on 55th Street. Most newscasts moved to the 59th Street studio on January 17, 2000 (News 2 at Noon moved a month earlier). And all the newscasts moved to the new studio yesterday; CBS 2 News This Morning and At Noon did not move earlier.
(Thanks to Brian for sending me this article!)

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