Fox Report says goodbye to teases
Don Day August 8th, 2007
Fox News Channel’s 7 p.m. ET newscast The Fox Report with Shepard Smith will relaunch in September with new graphics, a new set, and a “new way to approach stories.” Smith talked with TVGuide’s Stephen Battaglio about some of the changes - and noted that his show has done something many local newscast producers would find Shocking! Stunning! and Unbelievable!: they dropped the teases. “We’ve already given up the “coming up” teasing that we were known for in the early days. We’ve taken all of that time and put it into content,” Smith said. “We did that because viewers said that’s what they wanted. Viewers have said, ‘Stop telling me for 45 seconds what you’re going to do in the next four minutes.’ So we have. We’re not going to do more crap.” (via ICN)
9 Comments Add your own
1. CBSsucks | August 8th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Finally… someone’s getting intelligent in the News Biz.
And ironically, VERY ironically…. it’s Fox.
2. Shannon L. Cheesman | August 9th, 2007 at 2:46 am
It’s about time. It’s amazing how much time my station wastes on writing teases, having reporters doing stand-up teases and even having them do a mini-package called a ‘whip,’ which is basically a big tease for the big story coming up in the next hour. In the time it takes to tell people what you’re going to tell them, you could have just told them right then and there. People are too busy these days to sit around and wait for what you promise will be there at a later time. Give it to them when they want it - now.
3. Allen | August 9th, 2007 at 4:41 am
I’m watching SportsCenter right now and not only do they run teases going into breaks, but they have a “rundown” on the right side of the screen that shows everything that is coming up in the show.
4. Dave | August 9th, 2007 at 7:49 am
When they get rid of the crawls, the lower third banners, and the rotating logos, then maybe I’ll watch.
What crap.
5. John | August 9th, 2007 at 8:32 am
There is so much wrong with the way news is done, so I can’t help but hope that this is one of what will be a dozen or so steps stations/nets will take to make news more inviting and less full of trickeration, to steal a line from ESPN.
Hopefully, the next move will be to listen to Dave, and get rid of all the hats and horns and whistles and bells. That way, we’ll actually be able to see the good work being done by photographers.
Next after that, complete sentences would be nice.
“Investigators telling Media Outlet X they’ve arrested the man . . . .”
No one has ever said to me, “I watch your station because the verb tense makes the whole story seem so much more immediate. I love that.” Grammar still counts, people. No one will change the channel if you say “told” instead of “telling.”
And perhaps after that, we can stop saying, “Battle of the bulge, on edge, on alert, more than he bargained for, the ride of her life, went missing, lost his life, speaking out and reportedly.”
Thank you. That is all.
6. Tim | August 9th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Well, as many times as I’ve complained about teases and such, I just have to say “Hallelujah!” - I guess somebody gets it.
7. Rocker | August 10th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Sounds good in theory…but are y’all absolutely certain their “minutes per viewer” (or whatever the relevant metric is) will not now decline?
8. The Tony | August 10th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
It’s all content, man. I’ve never seen an episodic Jeopardy! promo, but I watch it because I know what I want will be there.
If newspeople would fill their shows with what people want instead of half-arsed, played-out cliche stories, they wouldn’t have to hand-hold viewers to or through a newcast every night.
9. sundrop | August 10th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
there’s one thing that everybody wants and we just choose not to give it to them? hmmmm…
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