CBS 2 Airs Tunnel To Towers Run

CBS 2 will again air the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Run this morning. The hour-long broadcast, which is aired on a tape delay, begins at 10:30.  More information on the event can be found at cbsnewyork.com/tunneltotowers.

"Face The Nation," which usually airs at that time, will instead run at 1:00.

New Graphics Notes

Now that it's been a full work week since CBS 2 launched the new graphics package, it's time to look back on some notes:

1. This is the first time the newest addition to Manhattan's skyline, One World Trade Center, has appeared in CBS 2 News opens (in the morning, at 6:00 and at 11:00). Its predecessors, the Twin Towers, had been featured in some opens prior to 9/11 (though not the opens used immediately prior).

2. This past Tuesday was National Punctuation Day but don't tell that to CBS 2.  Their new lower-third banners appear unable to display apostrophes. In these snapshots taken today, the apostrophe in "McDonald's" was omitted at noon while places where an apostrophe should have existed showed up as a blank space this evening: [9/28 Update: It appears that this issue has been resolved as of this morning.]

3. The lower-thirds place the @CBSNewYork Twitter handle (or @CBSThisMorning in the morning) beneath the anchors' and reporters' names.  It would seem to make more sense to put that person's own Twitter name in that spot, especially as the station's Twitter account is already being promoted on the bug.

4. As there is no shadow behind the website, Facebook and Twitter section of the logo bug, the white text becomes unreadable whenever it appears over white.

5. The split screens appear to be designed for widescreen use but the camera shots are only sometimes framed correctly for 4:3 screens. In the below GIF, the Mary Calvi/Weijia Jiang screen is framed correctly, though it appears weird for viewers watching in high definition as neither talent is centered in the box. The second snapshot shows two anchors in both boxes and they will get cut off on some standard definition television sets.  (The black overlays show the "safe area.")  Many channels on both cable and broadcast now take advantage of the entire 16:9 widescreen space and letterbox their broadcasts for SD viewers.

6. The previous logo still appears on the Mobile Weather Lab, which is seen in promos as well as in an ad on the bottom of the screen during some weather forecasts.

7. The logo has also yet to be replaced on cbsnewyork.com, which would seem to be simpler than replacing it on a vehicle and redoing promos. In addition, the Facebook page continues to use some weird do-it-yourself version of the previous logo.

8. Sister station WLNY has yet to see the new graphics for the most part. The lower-thirds did receive a slight update, changing the color from a semitransparent black to blue on the two-line banners. They are also now using the new "live" bug CBS 2 is using. (And the 2012 copyright is used, at least Tuesday night when the below snapshot was taken.)

Regarding the music: The old theme is still used in teases for the noon and 5:00 newscasts during the day. CBS 2 News This Morning reverted to the previous morning theme Tuesday morning (though the open still uses the new theme).

Slideshow of New Graphics

We've compiled this gallery of snapshots showing CBS 2's new graphics:

CBS 2 to Host New Jersey Governor's Debate

CBS 2 will host a debate with the two candidates for New Jersey governor.

The debate between incumbent Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican, and State Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democrat, will air Tuesday, October 8th at 7:00 p.m.

CBS 2 anchor and New Jersey resident Kristine Johnson will moderate.

New 6:00 Open

Here's the CBS 2 News at 6:00 open... Video includes the end of the 5:00 as well as the "Campaign 2013" animation:

New 5:00 Open

Here's the open to CBS 2 News at 5:00 (apologies for the audio hiccups):

Noon Graphics Recap

Continuing our roundup of CBS 2's new graphics, here's a look at the noon newscast:


1. The open follows the same wording as the morning: "Live from Studio 46, this is CBS 2 News at Noon." (Last night, it started out: "Live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City...") Since the HD launch in April 2007, only the morning newscast's open had a specific mention of the time of day -- all other opens named the newscast simply "CBS 2 News."

2. The "@CBSNEWYORK" Twitter handle appears on most talent lower-third banners. (Anchors previously did not have any other text below their names. Reporters in the field used to have "CBS2 NEWS" written beneath.)

3. The lower-third graphic does not loop smoothly and appears to "restart" when it reaches the end of the animation.


5:00 p.m. promo:

New Graphics Make Morning Debut

This morning starting at 4:30 brought us another look at CBS 2's new graphics and a the new Enforcer's morning cuts.  A video montage is in the process of uploading and will be added to this post shortly.

Some notes:

1. The wording in the opening is changed a bit: "Live from Studio 46, this is CBS 2 News This Morning." Last night, it was: "Live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, this is CBS 2 News at 11."

2. The social media and website portion of the logo bug did not appear for the first two blocks (approximately 20 minutes) this morning.

3. The ticker was originally in sentence caps, meaning that most of the letters were lowercase, until a few minutes into the third block when the text became all capital letters.

4. The WCBS Newsradio 880 logo does not appear in the ticker anymore, making the "Traffic and Weather Together on the 8's" mention seem out of place.

5. The old morning theme was used a bunch of times today, including as a bed during top stories recaps as well as for local cut-ins during CBS This Morning.

6. The old logo has pretty much been wiped from CBS 2's air, except for in a few small spots.  The cups used by Chris Wragge and Mary Calvi still show the "CBS 2 HD" logo and it can also be seen in the close, which is a promo for the "YourDay" mobile app. The desk still has the same CBS 2 logo inside a box, which has been used since the studio debuted nearly two years ago, but still does not directly match the new look.

7. There does not seem to have been an update to WLNY's "The Couch" presentation, which used a look very different from the regular graphics.  WLNY's next newscast is tonight at 9:00 and that newscast's graphics have been more in line with the CBS 2 look (though maintaining its own style).

8. These graphics have also debuted on KYW in Philadelphia and KCBS in Los Angeles. KYW has already added the new gold-3 logo to the top of CBSPhilly.com.  KCBS's logo already had a gold 2 in their logo. (WCBS's gold 2 has not been added to CBSNewYork.com yet but it's possible that it'll stay all blue as they're using an all-blue WLNY logo as well.)  It looks like the other CBS O&Os will eventually get the upgrade.

9. The previous theme is being used in teases for the noon news again this morning. Also, Dana Tyler is doing the teases. (The noon newscast is usually anchored by Chris Wragge and Dana Tyler.)

Update:
Here's the video:

New Graphics and Enforcer Music Debut

CBS 2 debuted a new graphics look as well as a new Enforcer theme tonight.

Here's the open: "Live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, this is CBS 2 News at 11."


This post will be updated with more video shortly...

Update:
Here's a promo for CBS 2 News This Morning, which includes a morning version of the new Enforcer theme:



Here's a Twitter promo:



Stay tuned for a montage in a few minutes...

Update:

The microphone flag has been updated. (The other two sides of the cube likely have the WLNY 10/55 logo.)

Update:

Here's a montage of tonight's broadcast, including the open, teases, weather and close:



Some notes:

1. The bug uses the correct Twitter bird icon (as does the promo above). The long outdated "t" icon was seen in last week's leak and had been appearing in promos for months.

2. Also about the bug, most of it (the time, temperature and logo, leaving only the social media/website line -- which is still very distracting) disappears during the seven-day forecast because it would otherwise cover up parts of the fifth and seventh days. This leaves the screen logo-less as it does not otherwise appear on the weather graphics.

3. For the first time since April 2006, CBS 2 is using new weather icons (sun, clouds, etc.). (The leak showed the previous icon set still in use.) The Titan radar/satellite map has been renamed Vortex. The seven-day still shows days six and seven on top of each other (which started as a five-day forecast with a "Plus 2" bonus even before the station went HD in 2007 but now seems to be out of place).

4. Team logos were not used in the sports score lower-thirds tonight, though they were seen in the leak.

5. Nearly all mentions of "high definition" have finally been removed.  It's no longer announced in the open and the logo no longer has the "HD" letters growing out of it. But the closing voiceover still says, "You've been watching CBS 2 News in high definition," the same that's been used since the April 2007 HD launch.

NewsByte2 will have more video from other newscasts tomorrow. We're also waiting to see how WLNY will implement the new look.

New Graphics Debuting Tonight

A few minutes ago during the Primetime Emmys broadcast, CBS 2 showed off the new graphics that appear to be debuting tonight on CBS 2 News at 11:00 after the Emmys. Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson are anchoring and the same cut of Enforcer is used in this spot:



According to this post on TV News Talk, KYW in Philadelphia launched the new look, along with a different version of Enforcer, this evening during an NFL halftime broadcast and during their 10:00 broadcast on their CW sister station.

We'll have more on the new look shortly...

New Graphics Leak

It appears that we have a sneak peek of CBS 2's new graphics package.

The user "HulkieD" on the TV News Talk message boards uncovered an online video, which was pulled this morning, showing a new look as well as a newer version of the Enforcer theme.

The look incorporates the HD-less logo with the gold "2" that debuted in promos in late April and looks to be heavily inspired by graphics used by NBC's owned stations, including WNBC, as well as the circular CBS network graphics used in primetime.

The CBS 2 logo bug has a subtle animation, something the station has not done since the April-August 2006 look. Below, the website, Twitter (with the outdated "t" logo -- the service's logo is simply a bird these days) and Facebook handles take turns appearing. (This is something WNBC does but has also been the trend among stations across the country as well.)

The lower-thirds and full screens change from blue to red for breaking news. (One hopes that Lindsay Lohan's troubles won't regularly be treated with "breaking" intensity.)

One other note: If the placement on the video is final, the lower-thirds, bug and ticker are positioned noticeably lower than the current on-air look, which were higher than in the past and as compared to most other stations' graphics.

Overall, it seems to be a much more highly detailed graphics package, using colors other than just blue and includes multiple full screen background animations, than the one the station and most other CBS O&Os have been using for the last three years.

It will be interesting to see how the graphics are modified to fit WLNY.

For a closer look, check out hulkied.com for a gallery of snapshots and a few more on TVNewsTalk.net.

CBS 2 Produces 10 p.m. Primary Special

CBS 2 News will air a special 10:00 newscast tonight to cover the results of the New York City primary elections.  Voters will narrow down the parties' candidates in races for mayor and comptroller.  Polls close a 9:00.

CBS 2 News at 4:00

It's not a permanent addition to the lineup but CBS 2 News will air a 4:00 broadcast today. It's due to CBS Sports' coverage of the U.S. Open men's championship, which begins at 5:00 and will preempt the usual 5:00 and 6:00 newscasts.

This is the first time the tennis tournament has been scheduled for this day from the start as opposed to it being forced due to postponements caused by rain.