With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of our friend and colleague Lisa Colagrossi. http://t.co/f2WKBwHj8z pic.twitter.com/WeDKlvdIGU
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) March 21, 2015
Once the news broke of veteran WABC reporter Lisa Colagrossi's death early Saturday morning, Twitter and Facebook exploded with love and sympathy for Lisa's family, friends, and colleagues. The tributes have continued since then, and are still being posted. Here are some of the most touching posts. Over the past two days, between the two of us, we have tried to re-post most of the tweets and Facebook posts, so check out@NYNewsObserver and @NYNewser on Twitter for a more complete list of tribute postings. View more tweets after the break- click below to extend the post.
A devastating loss was cast upon the tri-state area this weekend. Just after midnight Saturday, WABC-TV confirmed that veteran Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Colagrossi passed away after suffering a brain hemorrhage Thursday morning. Returning from a fire scene in Woodhaven, Queens, Lisa collapsed in the live truck. Her cameraman flagged down a passing ambulance and she was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital. Even with the swift actions of her colleague and first responders, Lisa never regained consciousness. With her family by her side Friday morning, she was taken off of life support. While numerous reports of her condition flooded social media during the day on Friday, the news nobody wanted to hear was confirmed by anchor Sade Baderinwa via Twitter, writing, “Our hearts are broken here at Eyewitness News. Lisa Colagrossi passed away after suffering an aneurysm.” Shortly thereafter, WABC confirmed the news with a full story on 7online.com and on all platforms of social media. The station said on Twitter, “With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of our friend and colleague Lisa Colagrossi.” Since Colagrossi’s death was announced, an outpouring of love and support has been shared across social media from viewers and colleagues alike. On Eyewitness News Saturday Morning, Michelle Charlesworth and Rob Nelson announced the news on-air, with Lori Stokes on set with a tribute package dedicated to Lisa, someone she has worked alongside for the past 14 years. A somber video tribute aired looking back on Lisa’s years at Channel 7. Following the tribute, a devastated Lori Stokes said, “This is a really tough day for us, it’ll be a tough week, tough month, and the years to come but all of us have a ‘Lisa Story.’” A Cleveland native, Colagrossi has been waking up before most New Yorkers for the past 14 years. She’s spent countless hours out in the field, reporting on anything and everything across the area. When she wasn’t out in the sweltering heat or bitter cold, Lisa was often seen filling in at the anchor desk and did so as recently as February 27th. Each member of the Eyewitness News This Morning team, along with everyone at WABC-TV have shared heartfelt posts via Facebook and Twitter over the passing of their friend and colleague. On Facebook, Ken Rosato said, “My heart is broken. You were a part of my day... everyday... and helped wake up millions of New Yorkers, everyday. I will never forget you.” Bill Evans wrote, “I am honored to have worked with Lisa Colagrossi, yet so devastated by the loss of such a wonderful person.” Heather O’Rourke added, “Taken too soon, too young. We are all shocked by the sudden loss of our friend, Lisa.” Lisa’s passing has not only affected the Eyewitness News family, it has affected everyone who knew her and watched her, including New York anchors and reporters who have worked alongside her for years. An outpouring of support from each station is well noted on-air and on Twitter.
On a personal note, Lisa was kind, a professional at what she did and what can only be describes as the best of the best. She was someone who frequently interacted with her viewers online and always took the time let us into her life. Today, as we somberly remember Lisa, take a moment to thank the Colagrossi family for letting Lisa into our lives. Our sincerest condolences to her husband, her sons, her entire family and her colleagues at Channel 7. After 14 years, Lisa felt like a member of our families just as much as she was a part of the WABC family. It’s hard to comprehend that we heard, “Reporting live, Lisa Colagrossi, Channel 7 Eyewitness News” for the final time on Thursday morning. Lori Stokes said it best- “It’s hard to imagine mornings without you.” A staple in New York whom we shall never forget. The legacy left behind by Lisa Colagrossi will carry on for years to come. Yes, mornings will go on, but not as they used to. Personally, we hope Lisa knew just how much she meant to the people of this city, and that we will never forget the memories she leaves behind. We send send our thoughts and prayers to the WABC family and to the Colagrossi family. Heaven has certainly gained another angel. Rest in peace, Lisa Colagrossi. -New York Newser and NYNewsObserver THIS JUST IN: WABC-TV/Channel 7 remains the news leader in New York and the United States from sign-on to sign-off. Beginning with "Eyewitness News This Morning" and "Eyewitness News at Noon" with Lori Stokes and Ken Rosato, Channel 7 hits the ground running, taking the top spots in all competitive timeslots. "Eyewitness News First at Four" has shown continued growth since its launch in 2011. "Eyewitness News at Five" and "Eyewitness News at Six" clinch their timeslots easily over competitors WCBS, WNBC, WNYW; and WPIX at 5pm. Finally, "Eyewitness News at Eleven," was the highest rated newscast in the nation, besting all New York competitors, as well as every other station in the nation. 7online remained the top local news website as well, drawing over 40 million unique views across all platforms. Full analysis coming later tonight. NYNEWSER & NYNEWSOBSERVER CLICK HERE TO VOTE! After an overwhelming response to the preliminary round, the FINAL ROUND of polling for the First Annual NYCTV Awards, presented by NY Newser & NYNewsObserver, is here! The poll opened at 11pm ET on December 2, 2014, and will close on Friday, December 19 at 5pm ET. Here are the finalists: Best Weekday Anchor, Female -Juliet Huddy, WNYW -Rosanna Scotto, WNYW -Liz Cho, WABC Best Weekday Anchor, Male -Bill Ritter, WABC -Chuck Scarborough, WNBC -Greg Kelly, WNYW Best Weekend Anchor, Female -Michelle Charlesworth, WABC -Kaity Tong, WPIX -Christina Park, WNYW Best Weekend Anchor, Male -Rob Nelson, WABC -David Ushery, WNBC -Antwan Lewis, WNYW Best Weather Team -WABC "AccuWeather" with Jeff Smith, Lee Goldberg, Amy Freeze, & Bill Evans -WNYW "NY Weather Authority" with Mike Woods, Nick Gregory, & Audrey Puente Best Sports Team -WABC with Rob Powers and Laura Behnke -WNYW with Duke Castiglione, Russ Salzberg, and Ryan Asselta Best Traffic Team -WABC "Commuter Alert" with Heather O'Rourke -WNYW "NY Traffic Authority" with Ines Rosales CLICK HERE TO VOTE! As 2014 nears its end, NYNewser & NYNewsObserver are hosting the First Annual NYCTV Awards, a competition to select, based on the public's vote, the “Best Male Anchor of 2014” & the “Best Female Anchor of 2014” in New York City. These will be split between weekday anchors and weekend anchors. Along with the best male and best female categories, there will also be several other categories to cast a vote for in December's awards, including New York's “Best Weather Team of 2014”, “Best Sports Team of 2014”, and “Best Traffic Anchor of 2014.” From now through December 1st, we will hold a nomination round poll. Voters will have the chance to cast one vote per IP address for their favorite male anchor and favorite female anchor from each of NYC’s 5 major television stations. Once the nominations close, nominees will be tallied up and the top three females and top three males will be selected to move on to the final round of voting. For the other categories, the nomination round will include all teams, with the top 2 from each category moving on to the finals. CLICK HERE TO CAST YOUR VOTE! Nomination round results will be posted on December 2, and the final round poll will go online December 3. More information on that will be posted as we come closer. First reported by TVSpy, WLNY-TV 10/55 will launch a 9pm weekend newscast on Saturday, July 12. The newscast will replace Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, which airs reruns on WLNY at 9pm on the weekends. The newscast will be anchored by Cindy Hsu, who anchors the weekend 11pm newscasts on sister station WCBS-TV. Hsu will be joined by her WCBS colleagues Meteorologist Elise Finch with weather and Steve Overmeyer with sports. David Friend, SVP of News for CBS Television Stations and News Director for WCBS-TV, said in a statement to TVSpy that "WLNY’s 9 p.m. newscast addresses viewers’ needs to have their local news at an earlier time in the evening and the newly expanded broadcast will now allow audiences to do that on the weekend as well." CBS completed its purchase of WLNY in early 2012, and the addition of the weekend newscasts comes about two years after CBS Television launched the weekday "News at 9" on WLNY on July 2, 2012. Viewers and fans of WCBS’s morning newcast CBS2 News This Morning may have noticed a switch up Monday as Alex Denis returned to the show after several months off for maternity leave. Since joining the team in January 2012, Alex has been covering traffic every weekday morning from 4:30-7AM. Since her maternity leave began back in February, Jill Nicolini has been filling in for her on weekday mornings. Nicolini just recently joined the morning team over at CBS2’s sister station WLNY TV10/55 to cover traffic for their morning show Live From The Couch. We’ve just recently learned that from now on, Nicolini will continue to cover traffic on both CBS2 from 4:30-7AM and on WLNY 10/55 from 7-9AM. This is no surprise since Jill has a history with New York’s morning commute after covering traffic for several years over at WPIX. What began on Monday for Denis is a new segment called "Now Trending with Alex Denis”. Basically, every morning during the shows 5 & 6AM hours, Alex will join Chris Wragge & Mary Calvi at the anchor desk to discuss what’s trending with entertainment news and on social media. Denis is quoted on-air saying that, “instead of following traffic on the roads, I’ll now be following all the latest social media traffic.” Her segments will include reading posts and tweets from viewers on the air and following all the latest hashtags trending. These new segments won’t just keep her in Studio 46, several days she’ll be out in the community checking out the best places to eat and whatever else she decides to cover. She’s encouraging viewers to get involved in the conversation via Twitter and to also tweet her with story ideas. Her twitter handle is @AlexDenisTV. Sources confirm to @NYNewser and @Ny_NewsObserver that well-known Eyewitness News chopper reporter Dan Rice was let go from WABC a few weeks ago. Rice has been a reporter from the station's helicopter, NewsCopter7, since joining the WABC team in 2009, after a decade at rival WNBC in Chopper4 and two years at WCBS in Chopper2. While at WABC, Rice could be seen daily on the noon newscast and as a fill-in morning and evening reporter. During his run at WABC, Rice covered many breaking news stories for New York's number one station, from the daily traffic jam to airplane crashes. Rice was unavailable for comment late Wednesday evening. The Nielsen February 2014 sweeps results are in, and for New York TV news, the results are not surprising First reported earlier, WABC-TV, Channel 7 Eyewitness News, takes the top spot in both the New York market, DMA 1, as well as the country as a whole. In the morning, Eyewitness News This Morning with Lori Stokes and Ken Rosato is number one from 4:30-5am in DMA households and the key 25-54 demo. The 5am hour of Eyewitness News wins by a sky-high 83% margin in total viewers, and also beats its competitors in the key demo. At 6am, WABC is the leader again, with double the viewers as its closest competitor. The 6am WABC broadcast is up 62% total DMA households and up 60% in the 25-54 demo. For the network timeslot of 7-9am, "Good Morning America" on WABC holds a 31% advantage in New York DMA households and a 13% advantage in the 25-54 demo over its closest competitor. This was especially significant for this February, as "Good Morning America" faced tough competition from WNBC's "Today," which was expected to see a massive boost from the Olympics, which were exclusively on NBC. For 12 Noon news, WABC remains the leader. Eyewitness News at Noon, with Lori Stokes and Ken Rosato, has a 83% lead over its closest competitor. In the 25-54 demo, the noon newscast has more viewers than all of its competitors combined for that demo. Eyewitness News First at 4pm, the only New York City news on at 4, is the only timeslot that WABC doesn't lead. That said, First at 4, anchored by Liz Cho and David Novarro, has apparently grown significantly over the past year and has comparable ratings to 5 & 6pm broadcasts. Judge Judy on WCBS attracted more viewers than the program. However, Eyewitness News did pull ahead of the Olympics coverage during the 4pm hour. At 5pm, when all of the New York stations air a newscast, WABC is still number one. With a 29% lead in DMA households and a 50% lead in the 25-54 demo over competitors, WABC is the clearly the winner with Eyewitnews News at 5, anchored by Diana Williams and Sade Baderinwa. At 6pm, WABC comes out on top once again. With a 41% lead in DMA households over its closest competitor and an extremely large 67% lead in the 25-54 demo, Eyewitness News at 6, anchored by Bill Ritter and Liz Cho, has spent the last 120 sweeps in first place. At 11pm, Eyewitness News at 11 with Bill Ritter and Sade Baderinwa continues to dominate the competition, taking first place in newscasts aired at 11pm, but WABC had a lower rating than WNBC, which aired Olympics until 11:30pm. In terms of afternoon and evening news from the ABC Network, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer leads its closest competitor by a 44% margin in total viewers, and 12% in the key demo. Nightline is also enjoying increasing ratings in its timeslot, and battles for first place with new program on NBC "Late Night with Seth Myers," which has seen relatively low ratings compared to its predecessor, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." For the weekends, WABC continues the winning streak. Eyewitness News This Morning (Weekend) with Rob Nelson and Michelle Charlesworth holds the number one spot on both DMA households and the key 25-54 demo. Eyewitness News at 11 (weekend), anchored by Joe Torres and Sandra Bookman, also stayed competitive, while battling the Olympics on NBC. In terms of WABC's web ventures, the station's news mobile apps, including the main news app, the alarm clock app, and the "AccuTrack" weather app, have drawn a combined 39 million views in February. 7online also continues to be successful, with over 15 million views per month and a increasing numbers of unique visitors. This sweeps resulted in an overall dominance of the market for WABC-TV, which remained competitive in every timeslot, compared to the November 2013 sweeps. FIRST from NYNewser and Ny_NewsObserver: Television sweeps for February 2014 ended earlier this week, and it was as competitive as ever in New York for TV News, with the ever-changing weather conditions and the Olympics. As a preliminary overview, WABC-TV remains the ratings leader overall in the New York City market, DMA 1. Across multiple weekday and weekend newscasts, Channel 7 shows continued strength, even when faced with the Olympics on WNBC and the fierce weather conditions of February. We'll have a full breakdown of sweeps later today in a full article. Stay tuned! |