London Live

This cannot be repeated enough imo. It's why trying to drawing comparisons with these UK local stations and the big US stations like WNYW, WGN and KTLA is beyond futile. These affiliates have been around since the 1940's!

I'm still amazed they're attempting a 3 hour breakfast show. ITV are about to relaunch their breakfast show for the third time in four years, Channel 4 gave up a decade ago, so the fact that it isn't a total disaster for London Live is quite an achievement. But I agree more news in prime time would make sense, it's bizarre that there's nothing beyond very brief updates in peak (discounting the showbizzy/lifestyle stuff 1830-2000). As I said before I'm guessing that's a commercial decision - get the quota-fulfilling stuff out the way during the day and show the acquisitions that will bring people in during the evening, keeping advertisers happy.

One thing I was surprised at was the complete lack of Teleshopping - even during the three hours of downtime overnight. Wonder how long before that changes! (incidentally one of the launch presenters kept calling it a 24-hour channel, which isn't true under anyone's definition).

The studio could also do with warming a little. It seems odd that there is little change to the set as the day progresses to reflect the changing time of day, just the same bare loft apartment style that Daybreak mark 1 was crucified for.

Just been watching the Thursday lunchtime slot which appears to change on a Thursday for the Independent's editor to interview some CEO...for an hour. Excruciatingly dull, such a vanity slot. Can't be long before Evgeny Lebedev gets one too...

Finally - I did see the "Partridge moment" on the second Not The One Show - wasn't quite as bad as that actually, just an attempt to show they could take criticism and try and engage with the people who were critical. Didn't quite work but there you go. It's odd how huge chunks of NTOS seem to be the main presenter speaking direct to camera on a wideshot while the three others around the table just sit and watch, with nothing to do.

Their age isn't really the factor, it's more that they are local channels with big budget popular network programming on them.

True that they've been around for a long time - but, as one of the articles quoted states, some of the channels that are now doing great in the mornings were doing terribly up until a few years ago. So being a heritage brand isn't the be-all and end all.

It's got to be worth it just for the Londons Burning rerun from S01. #amazing

Power Lunch was on at lunchtime. An hour with one guest, suited more to a Sunday than a Thursday afternoon.

And why does this need to displace the lunchtime news programme ?

More absurd scheduling.

Power Lunch caps.

FYI - WGN has always had strong ratings and operated for decades completely independent of any network until the creation of The WB netlet. Currently it is now affiliated with CW netlet which it previously owned a percentage of. The CW only provides 2 hours of programming 5 days a week. WGN is still branded as Chicago's Very Own. WGN Morning News Ratings are definitely NOT as a result of any programming from the low-rated CW. WGN produces hours and hours of sports, specifically Baseball and Basketball. So much they often will sublet some games to cross town rival independent station WCIU-26. (WCIU is massively successfully and completely independent, locally owned with 5 sub channels all of which were created in the last few years http://www.wciu.com As well a being involved in a newstyle news/info channel that features no anchors. The interesting concept is called Touchvision http://touchvision.com/) WGN and KTLA are both owned by the Chicago Tribune, which also owns the LA Times.

WGN also operates as a Superstation since 1978. KTLA, WOR,WTBS used to operate similar feeds. A superstation basically is broadcast across the entire country on satellite or cable. WTBS-Atlanta morphed into cable powerhouse TBS and the original Atlanta station (owned by CNN parent Turner) was rebranded and the local feed ended.

WGN remained the only true superstation. In past few years WGN Superstation has been repositioned as WGN AMERICA. Tribune is aiming to create a similar channel to TBS. They dropped most of the Chicago newscasts (caused a huge uproar). They have now launched a slate of some original programming along with its existing syndie stuff. The new show SALEM (about the witch trials is its first production).
Just for clarification.

Discussing empty homes in London on Not the One Show, the male journalist discussing the amount of empty homes across the boroughs... "We'll ignore the City of London because nobody lives there"

While the population of the City is small, it's still 7.375.

But is this mindset the result of something permanent in Britons' DNA -- or are people in the UK simply waiting for the right product (with the right mix of news, talk, and features) to come along? And besides, radio will always have huge morning ratings because people listen to it in their cars.

*****

BTW, since we are talking about local morning shows in the U.S., here's an example from Denver (and no-one is suggesting that London Live should look like this, but it's always interesting to see what other countries are doing):

KWGN -2 (hence the call letters) is owned by Tribune and is a sister station to WGN-TV and KTLA and WPIX amongst others.