Channel
Surfing
By Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
[email protected]
February 8, 2001
Monique Braxton lasted exactly one week as the co-anchor of the new 10
AM newscast on NBC-10, which began January 22.
Since September, Braxton had been the “interim” anchor along
with Steve Levy weekday mornings 5-7 AM after Connie Colla didn’t renew
her contract. Through a
station publicist, NBC-10 news director Steve Schwaid confirmed that
Sharon Reed, who was the evening weekend anchor, is being scheduled as the
weekday morning news anchor. Braxton
said she was “taken by surprise,” by the move, but added “that she
was used to doing all shifts.” Braxton
moves to Reed’s weekend 6 PM and 11 PM newscast and is now a weekday
reporter. However, there is
one hitch. Asthma sufferer Braxton, who is expecting her first child April
6th, was given doctor’s orders not to hit the streets at this
late stage in her pregnancy. So
NBC-10 has a reporter that is “reporting” from the studio. Braxton, a
former MSNBC anchor arrived in Philadelphia in 2000. She is married to John Street aide Shawn Fordham.
Thanks to “The Super Bowl” and “Survivor,” KYW-3 got some
much-needed exposure for its usual third place newscast on Sunday. Weekday
anchor Larry Kane and the rest of the KYW “tribe” including Dawn
Stensland and Beasley Reece were rewarded with a 15.3 rating/28 share,
beating the ABC-6 and NBC-10 “tribes”
to win “ratings immunity.” KYW-3
providing live coverage at the game from sports director and former NY
Giant Beasley Reece and anchor Denise Saunders who told us she was
reporting from the “second yard line.”
The Sixers had a Super Sunday too.
Their nationally televised victory over Indiana averaged a 7.3
rating/17 share for NBC-10.
There are some new faces doing weekend weather for
WB-17 and Fox-Philadelphia. Justin
Berk, the weekday noon weather anchor on WBAL in Baltimore, is driving up
I-95 to do weekend weather for WB-17. And for Fox-Philadelphia, Sarah
Caldwell of “Eagles Game Day Live” is getting a chance to try weather.
NBC-10 medical
reporter Cherie Bank returned to the air February 1, as she tries to
recover from a fire that destroyed her Penn Valley home last week.
Both of Bank’s cars blew up in the blaze, however Bank and her
five-year-old daughter Emily were not injured.
The fire was not covered by Channel 10, but was shown on Channel 6.
Former “Philadelphia Inquirer” crime reporter
Buzz Bissinger has moved from the streets of Philadelphia to New York City
as the story editor for “NYPD Blue.”
While with the “Inquirer,” University of Pennsylvania graduate
Bissinger, along with reporter Dan Biddle won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for
his criminal court system investigation.
Bissinger wrote the best selling book about the inner workings of
City Hall and former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, “A Prayer for the
City.”
The local stations will be pulling out all stops for
February “sweeps.” “Sweeps” is the time of year when advertising
rates are determined by the ratings. WB-17 goes to the dogs with a story
about “pit bulls” on February 7.
Valentine’s Day is celebrated with a report on “cheating
hearts” the 14th, and catch an eye opening report about
“snoring” on the 21st.
KYW-3 will ride the “Survivor” juggernaut with reports about
the show every Thursday night (no word if Larry Kane will eat a praying
mantis), and of course NBC-10 will do everything in its power to keep
viewers after “ER” Thursday including sequeing directly into the news
when “ER” ends. And in
the biggest sweeps stunt, newlyweds Larry Mendte of NBC-10 and Dawn
Stensland of KYW-3 become the latest couple to go to “Temptation
Island.” JUST KIDDING.
Did anybody notice former “Inquirer”
reporter Sal Palantonio’s name mentioned on the February 1 episode of
“Will and Grace?” The
frequent WIP contributor, Palantonio works for ESPN.