Nelson's predecessor, Phil Lipof, will co anchor his final newscast on December 8, 2013 before leaving for WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston, Massachusetts.
Nelson will join WABC's Michelle Charlesworth and Amy Freeze on weekends.
It was announced just about an hour ago that Rob Nelson will be replacing Phil Lipof on WABC as weekend morning news anchor. Nelson is currently a correspondent for ABC News, but he's no stranger to anchoring the news. He anchored ABC’s World News NOW and America This Morning for several years. He left these programs in early 2013 to become a correspondent for the network. Nelson released a statement on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, saying “So excited to announce that in January, I'll be joining the best news team in NYC as a weekend morning anchor and reporter at @eyewitnessnyc”. (-@TVRobNelson) Nelson's predecessor, Phil Lipof, will co anchor his final newscast on December 8, 2013 before leaving for WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston, Massachusetts. Nelson will join WABC's Michelle Charlesworth and Amy Freeze on weekends. Beginning today with Eyewitness News at Noon, viewers of WABC-TV, the flagship station of the Disney-owned ABC Television Network, and the ratings leader in New York, will see updated shots of anchors and meteorologists at the top of every newscast. The opens were not updated previously since the current graphics package debuted on the channel in 2011. While there has only been one personnel change, and one on the way, the shots were outdated, as described by the morning producer for Eyewitness News. The only personnel change was the switch of traffic reporters Joe Nolan and Heather O'Rourke, with Nolan moving from the morning newscast to the afternoon newscasts, and O'Rourke moving from the afternoon to the morning. Although the refreshed morning open didn't debut this morning due to technical difficulties, it is expected that O'Rourke will be included in the talent open, as the new promotional commercials have included her. The upcoming personnel change will be in December, when weekend morning anchor Phil Lipof will leave WABC for WCVB-TV, the flagship station of the Hearst Television Network, which owns and operates affiliates for the major networks. WCVB covers the Boston metropolitan area, and is the largest ABC station not owned and operated by Disney-ABC. The refreshed open for this newscast will likely debut tomorrow, but will be reverted to a general Eyewitness News open with no talent, until Lipof's successor is named and new anchor shots are taken. More on this story on Monday, after all of the opens debut. >>UPDATE: In the refreshed open for Eyewitness News This Morning, there are updated shots of all the anchors, and Heather O'Rourke was added. For the weekend refreshed opens, WABC updated the shots of the anchors, as expected. WNBC viewers have noticed a new face at the anchor desk in studio 3C. Sibila Vargas joined the WNBC family on October 21st. She comes to WNBC from KCBS the CBS O&O in Los Angeles. Sibila will serve as the stations noon co-anchor along with Rob Schmitt who also joined WNBC from KCBS over the summer. She will also serve as the 6PM co-anchor along with the iconic Chuck Scarborough. Chuck has solo anchored “NEWS 4 New York At 6PM” since Sue Simmons left WNBC two years ago. Sibila is no stranger to the tri-state area she told viewers she was “born and raised in Queens and it’s just a dream come true to be back home”. Chuck joked around with Sibila as he welcomed here to the team saying “he has to learn how to share again”. Ny_NewsObserver and NYNewser would like to extend our warmest welcomes to Sibila as she begins her career at NEWS4 we look forward to watching you! Twitter users can follow her @Sibila4NY. NOTE: WCBS and WNYW share choppers therefore Joe Beirmann reports for both stations. What began as a regular night of news coverage for all local New York stations quickly developed into a “BREAKING NEWS” situation. Around 9:19PM EST a shooter walked into the Garden State Plaza Mall and began shooting. WNYW was the first local station to break in with coverage shorty after the beginning of the 10PM newscast around 10:08EST. FOX5 had first live arial pictures of the situation unfolding from Joe Biermann in SkyFoxHD. Shorty after this WPIX came back from a commercial break with a "Breaking News” alert and informed viewers that PIX11 reporter Jay Dow was en-route to the scene. As time quickly passed WABC broke into their regular Monday night programing around 10:25 EST with Bill Ritter anchoring from the anchor desk. Eyewitness News reporter Josh Einiger was on scene. As coverage continued on WABC reporter Carolina Leid was also on scene interviewing Eyewitness’s. Soon after that WABC had extensive technical problems establishing audio and video connections with reporters on scene so at 10:41 EST they returned to regular programing. Minutes later as WNYW and WPIX continued their coverage around 10:50 EST WNBC broke into their regularly scheduled programming with special coverage of the mall shooting. Ground reports on WNBC came from reporter Ida Siegal along with arial coverage from Dennis Protsko in Chopper4. As we came upon 11:00 PM EST WCBS began their coverage with their 11:00PM newscast, WNBC, WNYW, and WPIX continued their ongoing coverage, and WABC re-joined with their edition of Eyewitness News at 11. WCBSs late breaking coverage included reports from CBS2 reporters Tracee Carrasco, Dave Carlin, and Jessica Schneider. Arial pictures form Joe Biermann in Chopper2HD. The newscast also included an analysis of the situation from CBSNews correspondent John Miller who joined Maurice and Kristine at the anchor desk in Studio46. Over on WNYW as coverage continued ground reports came from Linda Schmidt and Joe Waldman. Bill Ritter and Sandra Bookman anchored Eyewitness News at 11 which included reports from Josh Einiger, Carolina Leid, Lucy Yang, and Jim Dolan. Bill Ritter mentioned earlier in the coverage that NewsCopter7 was en-route to the scene, but no arial reports were given on WABC as the chopper only arrived as they signed off at 11:35PM EST. At the same time as WABCs sign off WCBS and WNBC also signed off to go forward with their normally scheduled network programming. With this WNYW and WPIX were the only two stations left on air, both of which were on long after their scheduled sign-off times. As developments slowed down WNYW wrapped up their coverage with a final report from Joel Waldman live at the mall in Paramus. Steve Lacy and Dari Alexander officially signed off at 11:42 PM EST. Leaving WPIX to take on viewers who wanted to watch live coverage for developments. Tamsen Fadal and Scott Stanford continued their live coverage through midnight with live reports from Jay Dow and Ann Mercogliano. WPIX held out their coverage as they were awaiting a press conference from officials, but as 1:00 AM EST approached Tamsen and Scott signed off after three full hours of coverage. As of 2:00AM EST developments were ongoing, the suspect is still at large, reporters are still awaiting a press conference outside the mall in Paramus, and reports stated that a residence in Teaneck NJ had been raided in connection with the shooting. As the morning presses on viewers can expect full coverage of the events on all stations. Popular PIX 11 Morning News anchor Frances Rivera signed off for the last time Thursday morning. First reported by TunnedInNYCs Jerry Barmash last week Rivera was bought out of her contract with the station in an attempt to re-brand. Rivera a New Jersey native has been with WPIX for the past two years. Rivera seemed her normal self this morning as she anchored from 6AM-9AM. The show went on as always with news, weather and traffic updates. The show was filled with live reports from anchor Sukanya Krishnans home where reporter Dan Mannarino was talking with Krishnan about coming back to work after a few months on maternity leave. Rivera and fill-in-anchor Craig Treadway signed off at 9AM. Rivera said no on-air goodbyes to viewers, but she did send out a tweet earlier in the week to her followers. The tweet read “Never been into on-air goodbyes, so for my last week at work, I insist on a no fuss, genuine one right here: Much love and goodbye for now!” Fridays edition of the PIX11MorningNews from 4AM-9AM will be anchored by Craig Treadway and Dan Mannarino as Rivera is gone and Krishnan finishes up her maternity leave. WPIX has named Riveras replacement Kori Chambers who currently anchors Good Day Chicago in the windy city will relocate to New York and take over sometime in September. Krishnan is set to return to work Wednesday September 4th after the Labor Day weekend. For more updates follow @NYNewser and @Ny_NewsObserver on Twitter.
For the second time in a week, Time Warner Cable has dropped CBS Owned Television Stations. This blackout affects millions in areas including New York City and Los Angeles. Last Sunday at midnight, the contract between TWC and CBS officially expired, and CBS programming was pulled from Time Warner systems. However, just a half hour later, at the request of CBS, Time Warner Cable restored programming in all areas affected. The new deadline passed at 5pm today, and Time Warner Cable pulled CBS from it's systems. In New York City, WCBS-TV and WLNY-TV were pulled from the number one television market in America.
Image Courtesy WABC-TV
With the New York City mayoral race coming in November, the New York City Campaign Finance Board issued it's debate schedule. Debates will be held on WCBS 2 and WNBC 4, but WABC 7 was left out in an unexpected move by the Board. WABC, the number one station in New York, drawing the most viewers in most timeslots, was not selected for a debate. That didn't stop the team at Channel 7. WABC managed to bring all of the candidates on board for an independent debate, one not organized by the Finance Board. Here is the Channel 7 debate schedule: Comptroller, Democratic: Stream on 7online.com Friday, August 9th at 10am, broadcast on Channel 7 Sunday, August 11 at 11am. Mayor, Republican: Stream on 7online.com Friday, August 9th at 1pm, broadcast on Channel 7 Sunday, August 11 at 12pm. Mayor, Democrat: Stream live on 7online.com & broadcast live on Channel 7 on Tuesday, August 13 at 7pm. Channel 7 is asking viewers to submit questions for the debates. Viewers can submit by email, Twitter, or Instagram. Visit the Channel 7 website for more information on submitting a question. The sponsors of the Channel 7 debates are WABC-TV, the New York Daily News, Noticias Univision 41, and the New York City League of Women Voters. Click here for the schedule of official debates organized by the NYC Campaign Finance Board.
WABC's Breaking News Graphic
Today was one of those days when news producers appreciate being the only station with a 4pm newscast. WABC-TV, Channel 7, was the first to report on the major delays at the Lincoln Tunnel today. A dump truck spilled debris on the Lincoln Tunnel outbound helix, on the New Jersey side. This caused the Port Authority of NY & NJ to close both outbound tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel, resulting in over two hours of delays. At one point, the traffic on 9th Avenue in New York City was delayed over 7 blocks to Central Park. WA WABC was first to report on the delays, with NewsCopter 7 in the air over New Jersey, and later New York City. Eyewitness News First at 4 began with live images and a statement from New Jersey Transit, announcing that they would cross-honor bus tickets system wide. WCBS, WNBC, and WNYW reported the news on their news at 5pm. The Lincoln Tunnel has since reopened the outbound tubes. Viewers of TV 10/55 News at 9 are seeing two new but familiar faces anchoring the newscast. Alice Gainer and Dick Brennan began anchoring the program together on Monday July 29th. Brennan will take the position left empty for months by Chris Wragge who is currently anchoring CBS 2 News This Morning on WCBS, which is WLNYs sister station. Gainer takes the place of Dana Tyler who’s been co-anchoring the program since it debuted last summer. It is not clear if Tyler will continue to anchor WCBSs News at 6PM. It is also not clear yet if Brennan will continue to anchor the weekend edition of CBS 2 News This Morning. Gainer and Brennan are both reporters and fill in anchors on WCBS and will continue to report for the station. Both are experienced NYC reporters and both came to WCBS/WLNY from WNYW the FOX-TV affiliate for NYC, Fox 5 News. At midnight, when the final extension to the negotiations between CBS and Time Warner Cable concluded, it was announced that CBS would be removed from Time Warner systems immediately. And they were, for the most part. New York subscribers to Time Warner Cable lost access to Channel 2, WCBS; and Channel 10, WLNY; along with CBS' cable networks such as Showtime and Smithsonian. However, shortly after 12:30 this morning, Time Warner announced that, per a CBS request, CBS programming would return to TWC. But a deal is by no means reached. In fact, the CBS Chief Executive called this a "war" with Time Warner. So, for now, CBS is back on for Time Warner Cable subscribers in NY, and across the nation. Stay tuned for updates. |