TV News for Early Risers

By Brian Stelter

<span style="font-size:110%;">Last season, the big battle in television was fought over late night. This season, the battleground is shaping up to be the early morning. Very early.

The television business, it seems, is learning what the predawn buyers at the fish market already know: starting the day earlier can be a competitive advantage.

Stations in Boston, New York, Washington and other cities are adding 4:30 a.m. newscasts this month, joining a backward march that started in earnest a few years ago. And those are not even the earliest. One station in New York, WPIX, will move up its start time to 4 a.m. on Sept. 20.

In catering to the earliest of the early risers, stations are reacting to the behavior patterns that are evident in the Nielsen ratings. Simply put, Americans are either staying awake later or waking up earlier — and either way, they are keeping the television on.

Continue here.</span>

Edited September 3, 201015 yr by Sylph

ABC has news here starting at 2am, cbs at 3:30, nbc at 4, the cw at 4:30, fox at 4:30.

I used to enjoy World News Now on ABC for years. I enjoyed that more than most of the other news broadcasts.

Give me this over pathetic Katie or comatose Brian Williams any day.

Really? WNN was way more fun in it's early days. I think in the mid 00's, there was this tendency at WNN to focus way more on the "snark" and mugging for the cameras instead of the actual reporting. WNN was so good at balancing that and now it's just one big variety show. Douchebag Hubbard is gone which is a major plus in my book, but there's still way too much snark and commentary after the news stories, something I feel should be used sparingly. Nothing's as bad as Ryan Owens and Taina Hernandez. YouTube them...those bitches were a real piece of work.

Really? WNN was way more fun in it's early days.

I don't know when their early days were -- I watched mostly from about 95-98. I just couldn't find any clips from that era so I posted one with the polka.

I don't know when their early days were -- I watched mostly from about 95-98. I just couldn't find any clips from that era so I posted one with the polka.

God, you'd be disgusted with it these days. Just don't even bother watching it when you're up late. You'll be spending the time rolling your eyes.

These days it's a lot less unprofessional, but not by much.

Wow! The news today is often callous and fake but that is blatant even by those standards. And that set is so ugly. They look like they're on the set of that Jefferson Airplane "White Rabbit" video.

She seems like a very dumb version of Thalia Asuras (?), who used to anchor that years ago before going to CBS or CNN.

Thanks for showing me that. I'm glad I haven't watched recently.

I have always had trouble sleeping so back then I would watch for quite a few hours as they repeated the same few stories and then just had some banter. I still remember the story they repeated on Jerry Garcia's death.

"Thalia Asuras (?)"

The first thing (person) that came to mind when I opened this thread, I remember her from my high school years. I was a terrible procrastinator and would often get up before dawn, make VERY strong cups of coffee, and write papers while she gave the news. And then there was Gordon Elliot and Rchard Bey...

These days, I'm usually going to bed when these broadcasts come on. It's funny, but to this day whenever I look at the clock and it says 4:30, I think, "Well, Susan Lucci's getting up for work right about now..." I always thought those super early news broadcasts were unnecessary but after taking some work-related super early flights and trains, I realized just how early a LOT of people are up and functioning. I can hardly believe there was a time where I went to bed before Leno/Letterman, I don't think I saw either show until I was a junior/senior in high school. On Sunday nights I often am up late to catch The Jeffersons on WPIX and sure enough there comes the news like a total buzzkill.