SkyNews America

I'm off to the American East Coast tomorrow.

I'll be seeing some of the news studios so I hope to bring all the gossip & presentation news from the US TV stations.

I would have been seeing the legandary Dan Rather, but he's on a family vacation!

US presentation issue: Have you noticed how much more personalised the US news builletins are.

The programmes are known by their anchors - eg. CBS Evening News with Dan Rather & NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. .
So when Rather is off we get the titles saying: 'This is the CBS Eve News with Dan Rather' Anchor: 'Hi, Dan's off tonight/on assignment, I'm John Roberts'

Do you think we should have
In titles 'This is the BBC Six O'Clock News with Huw Edwards'.
Bruce: 'Hi Huw's off tonight, I'm Fiona Bruce'

Don't Tyne Tees have 'North East Tonight with Mike Neville'? Don't know about any other regions, though. Personally, I quite like the idea of having the presenter's name in the title of the programme - I think it makes everything much more personalised and friendly. I guess that's the thinking behind it!

Is it still North East Tonight when Mike Neville is on holiday, or is North East Tonight with some other presenter, or just plain old North East Tonight ?

All of the main American news anchors are legendary. They're some of the many 'American' icons (at least to us). Plus it's beeen proven that adding the famous broadcasters name to the news programme increases it's ratings. I, personally, like it.

And just to tell you the times of the main news programmes…

NBC:Today Show (Katie Couric and Matt Lauer): 7.00 am ET-10.00
Nightly News with Tom Brokaw: 6.30 pm ET -- (main sub=Brian Williams)

CBS:Early Show (Bryant Gumble and Jane Clayson): 7.00 am ET-9.00
Evening News with Dan Rather: 6.30 pm ET -- (main sub=John Roberts)

ABC:Good Morning America (Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson [i think that's his name]): 7.00 am ET-9.00
World News Tonight with Peter JenningsL 6.30 pm ET -- (main sub=various)

CNN:First Evening News (Bill Hemmer): 6.00 pm ET (new programme, started Monday)
CNN Tonight (Bill Hemmer): 10.00 pm ET

Fox News Channel:Fox and Friends: 7.00 am ET-9.00
Fox Reports with Shepherd Smith: 7.00 pm-8.00 pm ET

MSNBC:The News with Brian Williams: 9.00 pm ET
*note: The News will be moving to 8.00 pm on Monday -- this could signal a relaunch for MSNBC (though I doubt it) - they are in desperate need of one anyway

Gumble is the really funny one who always makes political errors, The Gumble Stumble.... more @ www.mrc.org

I have heard about CNN's First Evening News, any good Alek?

Also, I saw a very funny moment on NBC Nightly News (which has the least amount of news on! -- I personally prefer ABC WNT), Brian Williams was presenting and at the end he said...
'I'm Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw is back tomorrow, I hope you'll join me for The News on MSNBC at 9pm and later at 10pm on CNBC and for the Today show on NBC tomorrow morning, but until later, good night'
Does that man run the whole of of NBC News?!

Interesting to see CNN have adopted the 'First' slogan, used by Sky.
I'm sure CNN and Sky News chat about presentation, they do things at exactly the same time and they both do everything (presentation and presenter wise) in similar ways.
(Although the astons and graphics are obviously different!)
But it does seem odd that when Sky moved its breakfast presenter to the late night shift, so did CNN and there have been loads more examples of this, all happening at the same time, weird!

News anchors in the US are idolised, the NBC ones especially.
I'm not sure why really, I guess it is just because they stay at the same bulletin for years on end.
And don't forget, Trev is very popular over here, even if he does present the worst bulletin on TV!!!!

Chesh, I must have seen NBC Nightly about twice in the last month & I saw that one with Brian Williams announcing his appearances!

Brian Williams is everywhere on the NBC networks. I was surprised that he co-hosted the Today show. He never does that. I forgot to wake up and see it though.

IMO he's the best presenter I've seen. He knows everything about anything. It's amazing! And he's hilarious! He's on Jay Leno a lot too.
He used to be the White House Correspondent, until MSNBC launched

Nightly News is the most popular network newscast in the country. Today is the most popular 'news' programme in the States. I generally watch the CBS Evening News. I don't really like Brokaw and most of the reports are featured again on 'The News' which i usually watch.

'First Evening News' is okay. it's just basically a news roundup. Bill Hemmer, CNN's main presenter, is okay. He kind of annoys me though, don't know why.
CNN built a new studio in the back of the newsroom for the programme. It's pretty good. I just really don't like the colours and design that they use in their newsroom though.

I hate Bryant Gumble. He really doesn't have any sense of humour. The Today show got so much better when he left. Plus, he is screaming liberal (that doesn't bother me, I'm one, but NOT ON THE NEWS!). Plus he's got a very sordid and scandalous married/private life.

What you'll see in every CBS Eve News:

Reports on:

*Medi Care
*Tax cuts
*latest health scare or hidden danger - eg. 'We drink it all the time, but tonight a CBS News investigation reveals why water is bad for you'
*hardly ever a sports section (ex. this week's with Sampras' defeat)
*Defenc(s!)e: either problems with army machinery/army blown-up their own people/army veteran

Over the next month, they're doing CBS News Investigations follow-ups

This means: it's the summer, we're not going to do any new investigations - so let's re-hash the old stuff!

I like the ABC WNT 'National Briefing' and 'World Briefing'.

It strikes me that the American networks are far more concerned about national news than international news, wheras the UK ones are more internationally focused.

Take yesterday's Russian plane crash for example.
On the BBC News at Ten it got a report, and a live to Moscow, yet on ABC (CBS didn't have it I don't think... and didn't see NBC) it only got a short slot in the 'World Briefing' section.

Alek, on the whole, which is the best news channel in the US?
I know that is a very sweeping statement, and my experience suggests that CNN is good for news, Fox is good for news but likes talk shows in the evenings and MSNBC is more into investigations.
Just as an overall view which is better?

The US news stations either like international feature packages or MidEast violence.

I don't think the UK elections even got a mention in some programmes!

Even with its faults, CNN domestic gives the impresssion of less laid back than Fox on Breaking News. The Fox main NY news set doesn't have a newsy feel about it, whereas as CNN's gives more of an impression that they are more news geered.

I don't like the fact that the American news programmes don't have any world news. It really pisses me off. It's like there's nothing else going on in the world, or the world is the US. Americans are very ethnocentric.

CNN is the best news channel for news. It also has pretty good presenters. Fox News Channel actually does have a lot of news on it, but a lot of the stuff on it is sensationalist and a lot of sex. There presenters are okay. You do get a feeling that it's a 'family.' (I know its really corny). Fox's studio got an upgrade about a few months ago - it's a little better, but not very newsy. MSNBC really isn't that good at all. I don't know why I watch it. I like the people (thery're the best I think) and I love the studio. I've just been watching MSNBC for three years now, loyalty I guess.