Shorter, Music-less Teases

CBS 2 News is following in the steps of cable news networks in the way they tease stories in the newscasts. Beginning on today's 5:00 newscast, teases have been cut to just one or two stories. Most notably, there is no music playing underneath. The regular "Coming Up" animation wasn't used at 5:00; instead, a lower-third banner usually used in promos. "Coming Up" was used in the 6:00 newscast, though it likely appeared to be in error.

The station had been tinkering with the way they teased stories since last week. The first story was often done with the anchors still on camera and using the alternate banner before promoting the other stories with the regular animation. The usual music was still being used.

This style seems to have been copied from channels like CNN and FOX News. Many of those cable newscasts employ the short and music-less teases with the theory being that viewers tune out whatever an anchor says after the words "coming up" or the news theme begins playing. Unfortunately, this style is also rather boring as much of the urgency is taken away. This blogger hopes CBS 2 was just doing this as a test today and doesn't do it again.