#05: DFW Metroplex over the past year.
The only changes that were made came from one station, and one was pretty controversial if you ask me.
Not much change here as we enter the DFW Metroplex except in one duopoly.
First, at some point over the past year, KTVT moved its half-hour 6:00 p.m. news on Saturdays over to 5:00 p.m. which puts them up against WFAA (ABC) for local news at that time on Saturdays.
Also, KTVT cut their weekday morning news at 4:30 a.m. The station now airs a repeat of last night’s 10:00 p.m. newscast instead, which leads prior to its live weekday morning newscast which now airs from 5:00-7:00 and 9:00-9:30 a.m. Its so far the first and ONLY station to cut that half-hour of news in the morning (KDFW - FOX is an hour starting at 4:00 a.m.)
But a much bigger move happened and it was controversial, by some observers. First, before that, KTVT became one of those CBS O&Os who’ve changed their general and newscast brandings over to CBS Texas and CBS News Texas, which makes no complete sense considering the other CBS affiliates that serve the state. Nonetheless, I digress.
But the much bigger move that got people talking was KTVT cutting its half-hour weeknight news at 6:00 p.m. to allow for a new episode of Jeopardy! to air there and create a J!/WOF hour from 6:00-7:00 p.m. Also, they moved sister station KTXA’s hour-long nightly newscast at 9:00 p.m., ended the News NOW format and the weekend editions, changed it to a traditional format, and moved it to true primetime at 7:00 p.m. Now, its CBS News Texas at 7:00 on TXA 21, the ONLY newscast at that time in the market.
Claims were made to say that ending the 6:00 and adding the 7:00 (which really wasn’t an add if you ask me) would provide more local news from KTVT. In reality, a half-hour’s worth of news was actually cut entirely from KTVT’s lineup as the 9:00 on KTXA was simply moved up to 7:00. Don’t buy the claims that you're getting more when in reality, you’re getting somewhat less.
Also, this was supposed to debut on Tuesday, September 12th, but they moved up a day and ended up debuting on Monday, September 11th, the same day the 6:00 p.m. news was cut.
KXAS has also dropped its 4:30AM newscast to start at 5AM. They launched at streaming only newscast at 8AM this month.