Studio 59B Repaired

"The News This Morning" was broadcasting from the CBS 2 newsroom Thursday and Friday because Studio 59B, their morning and weekend studio, was damaged in Wednesday night's heavy rains and strong winds. Last night at 11:00, "The Weekend News" was back in Studio 59B. There did not appear to be any changes to the set which could mean that there was damage behind the scenes.

A New Anchor Opening at 5:30!

This afternoon at 5:30, CBS 2 opened with a new opening, with the anchors in it! This is the first time a "regular" opening has had anchors in it since they changed from "NEWS 2" to the "CBS 2 Information Network" on October 30th. CBS 2's "Nightcast" first introduced the anchor opening on January 28th. The new openings begin with the normal "You're watching the CBS 2 Information Network," but it had the Information Network "sounds". Then the announcer says, "Now, live from Fifth Avenue, this is The News at 5:30, with Angela Rae, Todd McDermott, and David Rogers' forecast." It ends with the CBS 2 logo in front of a city bridge. The music is also different than the old openings. The News at 5:30 is the only newscast so far with these new openings. Here are snapshots from this evening's new opening:

The News This Morning from the Newsroom!

This morning on CBS 2, Lisa Hill and Hazel Sanchez (who's filling in for Michael Pomeranz all week long) anchored The News from the CBS 2 newsroom, but because there is only one camera in the newsroom, they each anchored solo for a half hour (Lisa at 5, Hazel at 5:30, Lisa at 6, and Hazel at 6:30). They said it was because of the rain storm. I'm guessing that it has to do with the Control Room for their morning studio being a few blocks away from Studio 59B. Tony Pann did the weather from the weather center, Carrie Lee was in the traffic center (as usual), and Susan McGinnis did the CBS MarketWatch report from the Nasdaq Market Site. Here are a few snapshots from this morning:

Larger Font for Graphics

A slight but noticeable change in CBS 2's graphics: the font in the graphics is now larger than it has been. The font, which is called "BellGothic BT", first changed sometime over the weekend. Kevin tells me that he noticed it last night on The Weekend News at 11:00. The font size change appears in all graphics, including the lower-thirds and "live" elements. This is the second change to the graphics since their debut last year on April 27th (the "NEWS" was replaced with "CBS" on October 17th).

Tiki Barber Re-Signs with Giants

CBS SportsLine.com reports that 25 year old Tiki Barber has re-signed with the New York Giants as running back. The six-year contract is worth $25.5 million, and a signing bonus of $7 million. Tiki Barber joined CBS 2 on March 2, 2000 as morning sportscaster, and stayed until June 23rd. It is expected that Tiki will re-join CBS 2's "The News This Morning" sometime next week.

CBS 2's Morning Storm Watch

As planned, "The News This Morning" started extra early at 4:00am. Michael Pomeranz co-anchored with Cindy Hsu, who was in for Lisa Hill. David Rogers was live on the roof of the CBS Broadcast Center on the West Side (as he has been for all major snow storms this season). Tony Pann was in the studio with more on the forecast. Aimee Nuzzo was reporting from Hopatcong, NJ. Hazel Sanchez was in the newsroom with updates on school closings. Carrie Lee was at Metro Traffic with the road and rail situation (she was also on CBS 2 last night at 6:30). John Slattery was live in Coney Island, and Morry Alter was in Paramus, NJ.

The Big Snow Storm is Almost Here!

This evening "The Weekend News" came on the air at 6:30. Vince DeMentri and Amanda Grove were live in Studio 59A, the first time CBS 2's weekend newscast was in that studio (The Weekend News has always been from 59B since early last year). Team coverage of the big snow storm headed our way started off the newscast. Aimee Nuzzo reported from New Jersey and Sukanya Krishnan reported from New York. Craig Allen was in the studio with the forecast. And at the end of the newscast, it was announced that an extended edition of "Nightcast" would begin at 11:15pm (delayed fifteen minutes because of a CBS primetime movie). "The News This Morning" will start off tomorrow morning at 4:00, adding an additional hour to the newscast.