With the departures of both Frances Rivera and Matt Lorch from 7 News, a major hole is opened within the anchor teams. The question of who will replace the two has yet to be seen. The usual feeder station for WHDH, Miami’s WSVN, has been racked with departures as well, losing both weekend anchor Reed Cowan and reporter Vanessa Ruiz. Ruiz has taken a job with TV Marti but Cowan has been reportedly in line for an anchor position in a top-20 market. The obvious connections to be implied are quickly smashed, however, as Cowan has been reportedly seen in Los Angeles.
The question is now turned over to you, the btvn reader. Who do you think will replace Matt and Frances at 7 Bullfinch Place? There have been a few guesses ventured on our forums and in the commentary areas on the blog. Here is an area for ideas to develop and be expressed.
I think that Amanda Grace will be promoted and Sorbonni will take over on Today in New England
Amanda Grace is an excellent choice. She would be a perfect fit my fear is that some other morning anchor could get promoted and Amanda would continue to have her talent wasted on the morning show.
Amanda is far more important in the morning than at night. It is a far more important time slot in terms of money for the station. 7 is not doing well in the morning which is why they added Amanda to that time.
Another perfect fit would be to team Karen Marinella with Kim Kahzie as the primary anchor team.
My heart says it should be the long-serving and vastly under-rated Jonathan Hall. For the record, when Sunbeam bought 56, I thought they ought to have retained Karen Marinella so as not to alienate the old WLVI audience, and paired her on the secondary newscasts (including 10pm) with her husband, but it wasn’t to be.
My head, however, speaks to me from having covered the workings of Ed Ansin for nearly a decade, and wonders if they might promote Christa Delcamp, but have her and Kim Khazei do ALL the broadcasts from 4PM onwards in the day? If they bump up their salaries slightly, and/or maybe even kill the 4PM hour in favour of syndicated programming, they’d stand to save a lot of money, something which I’m fairly sure Sunbeam management would be keen to do.
The 4pm is pretty much free money for 7, as most (if not all) elements are carried over from other broadcasts. Perhaps the positions will remain vacant until they have time to hire some new faces, have them report for a few months, then fast-track them to promotion with a succession of timeslots to anchor? 7 doesn’t typically hire fresh blood to anchor weekdays, so perhaps they’ll just Amanda Grace-it.
I think they should promote Christa Delcamp with Kim Khazei for 7 News at 5, 6, 10 & 11. Have Jonathan Hall & Amanda Grace do 4, 430 &530. Promote Banerjee to take over for Amanda on Today in New England. Have Janet Wu and Tim Caputo to the weekend Nights 6, 10 & 11. Have Dan Hausle and Victoria Warren do the weekend edition of Today in New England.
Just saying.
7 should see if the can nab Sara Underwood from being a stay at home mother. Also the should try and get Catarini Bandini back to. Catarini was the best!
In my opinion, bring back the old school today in new england team for 5, 6, 10, 11: Christa Delcamp, John Hall, Pete Bouchard
4, 4:30, 5:30: Kim Khazei and Dan Hausle
Leave current TINE alone, it’s working for them
IIRC Hall & Marinella have a rather large brood, so I’m going to guess even if Hall is offered the 6 & 11 he’ll turn it down unless the money is too much to resist. I tend to think he prefers his current schedule where he gets to spend evenings with his family.
With all the defections taking place at both of Ansin’s stations, I could see 7 rotating different co-anchors in with Khazei for awhile until they can lure someone from another market (they could try anchoring Khazei solo). Could they possibly try and promote Adam Williams from mornings? Another short term fix might be having one of their sports guys (Rhett Lewis?) start doing some news anchoring.
If Sunbeam wasn’t so cheap I’d be curious to see them try and poach an anchor already working in Boston, like one of Bianca De La Garza, Kim Carrigan or David Wade.
Knowing a little how Ansin works, maybe he’ll use this opportunity to totally de-emphasize anchors and just rotate different folks in the slot.
The big days of 7 are so long gone I don’t know that it makes any difference whatsoever what they do there. And from what I know of that shop, the salaries are so low that they couldn’t possibly lure anyone of any substance from another market. And I doubt very seriously that someone like Bianca de la garza would have any interest in going from her top rated perch at the number one station to one of the worst places to work where people are exiting it seems every day. And Kim Carrigan?? LOL I do think her memory is not that short! Ed Ansin treated her like he treated Randy Price and most of the people of substance who are doing much better now that they are not there.
I could see Amanda Grace promoted to the 4, 4:30 and 5:30 slot. I;m not sure about about the Frances slot, but I would like to see 7 try to get a name from another station maybe to team with Khazei.
KIM CARRIGAN?! You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you know why that wouldn’t be a good – or even possible – idea!
I don’t think many women would go back to a station that fired her randomly at 8 months pregnant.
I sincerely hope they do not break up the TINE team of Adam and Anne – they have great chemistry and seem to be a fairly strong second place behind the dominant Eyeopener.
I think that Jonathan Hall would be an excellent replacement for either Lorch or Rivera – his record is solid and his talents are so underused. It would bring some true credibility back to the newscast. I have a feeling that Anne may be tapped as she has been filling in on the night shift very frequently lately…although I’d hate to see the Adam-Anne team go away.
We are sorry to see Lorch go and have enjoyed his shows the last 5 years. Lucky Seattle.
JULY SWEEPS
http://www.boston.com/Boston/businessupdates/2011/07/wcvb-newscasts-draw-most-viewers/RKhVW7TTGMSOagudFYUloO/index.html
7 news weekday evening situation:
Kim Khazei has a broken hamstring…will be out for a while
Frances Reveria vacation I’m assuming.
Christa Delcamp:Works Mon.-Thurs. evening shows since she works the sunday evening shows. I think they let her have fridays off.
On Fridays Matt Lorch is either with Frances or kim.(both are away). So people like Anne Allred and Amanda Grance fill in.
I like Ann Allred and Adam. Also think Jonathan Hall is great. I’m thrilled Francis Rivera is gone to NYC. She drove me crazy.
it seems that Kim Khazei has been on some sort of sabbatical, as she has been out the past three or more weeks…ironic that 7′s ratings do better when she’s not there
Lorch and Delcamp are a good team
After Matt and Frances leave:
Mon.-Fri. Am/noon:Ann Allred,Amanda Grace.Dylan Dreyer..Steve Cooper in studio reading headlines
Evenings: 4-5pm:Sorboni Banerjee Adam Williams,Pete Bouchard
5,5:30,6,10,11:Christa Delcamp,Kim Khazi,Pete Bouchard
Weekend AM:
Janet Wu,Ryan Shulteis,Chris Lambert
Weekend PM:
Michelle Releford,Dan Hausle,Jermey Reiner
Meterologists switch on weekends—Chris L. do evenings and JR do mornings???
Dan, Accroding to Kim’s facebook page she said she injured her hamstring. She will be back at some point. Lorch is on his way out so let’s see how the ratings are in September after him and frances are gone.
Today’s Globe story about the search for Frances’s replacement
http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2011/08/03/channel_7_auditions_in_house_for_spot_vacated_by_frances_rivera/
http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2011/08/03/channel_7_auditions_in_house_for_spot_vacated_by_frances_rivera/
Well, I would argue that there are a number very talented and suitable possibilities inside, and because of the money situation at that station, it will definitely be someone who can be bumped up for very little money. Not that the anchors don’t play a big part, they do, but the real question is the quality of the content on the station. If that doesn’t change, you won’t see numbers change. 7 has a well established track record of weak journalism and standards and that is the bigger issue when it comes to New England audiences. There is a reason that 5 dominates the marketplace.
Proposed-Weekend news team:
AM:Sorboni Banerjee,Dan Hausle,Chris lambert
PM:Janet Wu,Ryan Shulties,Jeremy Reiner