Hot off the heels of the announcement of reporter Victoria Block’s retirement, multiple sources have informed btvn that 7News has reportedly decided to blow up their anchor teams. The changes begin on Today in New England, where Christa Delcamp returns to the anchor desk, a spot that she occupied until 2007, when she was switched with the now-former 7er Anne Allred. Newcomer Kayna Whitworth officially assumes co-anchor role in the morning. The 2006 theme continues with Jeremy Reiner’s official return to the morning weather desk, a position he held until he was swapped with also now-former 7er Dylan Dreyer. The more things change…
The changes continue into the afternoon, where Adam Williams will co-anchor First at 4:00, 4:30, and 5:30. Rising star Sarah French will co-anchor the afternoon shows for the time being, until Amanda Grace returns, when she will switch over to the weekend evening shows.
The only slots not affected are at 6:00 and 11:00, where 7’s primary anchor team of Kim Khazei and Reid Lamberty will be spared. Sources tell btvn that drastic changes were contemplated but because of strong 25-54 demographics, were left alone.
The musical chairs went into effect on Monday.
Anne Allred must be kicking herself. She put six years in on the morning show and three months after she leaves for what some posters on this site have said is a dreadful job, the morning team is promoted to nights.
Promotion? A kick to a 4-5p timeslot is a demotion for both Adam and Sarah, and they likely know it too. Both have reporting duties for the later shows. The fact is the writing was on the wall when both Dylan and Anne left – it’s a crappy morning broadcast that gets schooled by the Eyeopener every morning. It was just waiting for a revamp. I like Christa, so I’ll give TINE a shot now.
Actually Dan, its a promotion. Most people who have anchored the early evening shifts often end up getting the main anchor gig in the long run. Plus there is more viewers in the afternoon/night than the mornings.
It’s not a promotion – think about it…it makes no sense. Why would you promote a team that responsible for losing audiences in the timeslot they’re already in? And for the same number of instances where the 5:30 anchor might get promoted to 11, there’s instances where the AM anchors get promoted to 11 (e.g. Heather Unruh at WCVB). The old 4pm anchors at WHDH (Christa and Amanda) actually attracted viewers to that timeslot and nearly made it to #1 over the past year or so (at least during a couple of the sweeps) – WHDH is seeing if they can do the same for mornings with those two and it’s pretty obvious. And you noted on Twitter, I’m not sure how that can possibly be construed as congratulatory.
Louis, Anne Allred chose to leave WHDH after her contract was up. She wanted to be closer to family. From what I see on Twitter, Anne congratulated Adam on the promotion.
Talk about wrong information. ‘Multiple sources’? Reiner has been on the morning show for months. French was moved to weekends, not Amanda. The numbers have only been awful in mornings, main team wasn’t in conversation. Get your ‘facts’ straight.
In my view, it’s unlikely those changes would have been made if Anne and Dylan stayed at 7. The morning team worked well together and they had great charisma.
Any word on Feb. sweeps ratings? It would be wonderful if those could be made available and posted here.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled, but they don’t typically see the light of day unless something dramatic happens (i.e. 4′s win at 11, major newscast changes, etc)
She’s not regretting a thing according to her twitter she is engaged to get married. That’s the reason she ran out of 7 and Boston.
This is inaccurate.
First of all – mornings are the FOCUS of every station in this market. It is where all of the resources and promotion are going. “Getting off” mornings is no longer a ‘promotion.’
Secondly, ‘Rising star’ Sarah French is moving back to weekend nights when Amanda returns from maternity leave. And it’s a safe bet the morning met position is far from settled. Kim/Reid were never in trouble – again, the focus is on the mornings.
As for Louis’s comment, Anne got to move back home. Given what is happening now, wanting to be near her family sounds like a pretty good deal if you ask me.
Here are your ratings in a nutshell.
Clean sweep for 5 in households and demos Mon-Sun, and M-F except…
4 can claim a technical victory in the 11pm M-F 25-54 demo, sneaking by 5 by one-one hundredth of a point. FOX showed strong demos at 11 on American Idol nights, which may have hurt 7 late.
5′s Eyeopener is the big story. It’s shown massive growth and beat all competitors COMBINED in the demo. So no matter what you think about Adam, Anne, Amanda, Dylan, Sarah, Nancy, Mo, Larry, Curly, and Shemp, they had plenty of chances to deliver and didn’t.
Remember posters – mornings are the new evenings! Oh, and maybe people liked that Randy Price guy.
Agreed on WCVB’s morning team. I’d watch J.C., Bianca, and Dorothy read the phone book, even with the sound turned off.
WHDH’s Anne Allred was awful, just awful.
Where does Nancy Chen fit in? Who replaces Kayna on weekend mornings?
If you look at Sarah French’s FB Post, she says that they have been moved to week nights. You might have to scroll down a little.
http://www.facebook.com/sarah.s.french?fref=ts
IF 7′s morning ratings were as terrible as is being insinuated here, it’s probably no coincidence that the Today show gang decided to do a show in Boston a couple weeks ago.
This comment has been removed due to a violation of the btvn commenting policy.
For the life of me I do not get the obsession that Boston viewer have for Anne Allred. She has over 7100 twitter followers and at least a half dozen different ones send her tweets begging her to come back to Boston or telling her how much they miss her daily. She responds to them and says thanks. This site has 31 comments about her leaving and some say they continue to watch her online.
As for Adam and Sara. Sara is a rising star she will be going to something bigger in NYC or the network real soon.
Adam I feel sorry for he is the sole remaining member of the morning show. He has been demoted and will I fear be let go when his contract is up.
Way off base AJ. Mornings should be/are your #2 anchor team at least, and in the case of 5, their morning group has ridiculous name recognition in the market.
Getting bumped from a morning show that some days loses to WMUR is 100% NOT a promotion. That show has been in a ratings free-fall since 2009, so clearly ‘the 7 way’ does not work in the AM. And its really hurting the Today Show – that’s exactly why they came here.
By the way, it’s no secret Sarah is going back to weekends when Amanda returns from maternity leave. I don’t blame her for not publicizing that on her Facebook page.
Agreed with KFC. Mornings are the new nights. Look at the growth that 5 is seeing. AJ is off the mark. While I haven’t seen raw numbers unfortunately, it’s clear that the audience in that timeframe is growing or has the potential to grow (guess why? While getting dressed and eating breakfast, it’s just easier to watch TV than go on the iPad to do Twitter/FB/websites/etc). 5 has done a truly fantastic job with the EyeOpener. I was a big fan of the Anne/Dylan/Adam team on 7, but without Anne and Dylan, something was missing. I hope they are able to pair Christa with a prominent male anchor (um, Jonathan Hall anyone?) because at 5, it’s clear “younger isn’t better”. It will be interesting to see what happens at WBZ too.
Hi I watch WCVB every morning, at noon, 5, 5:30, 6 pm and 11 pm I think they have the best news coverage and there ratings show it. WCVB #1 in all newscasts. I think 7 News did need to make a change. I think all the 3 other Boston News Stations have had a hard time with ratings in my opinion from What I have seen WCVB has been #1 for awhile. In my opinion I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I like WCVB they provide a Great Newscast Every Day Keep it up WCVB
It looks like Janet Wu will be replacing Kayna on weekend mornings. Until Sarah moves back to weekend evenings, Janet Wu will be doing morning and evenings on the weekends.
Janet Wu seems to have been a constant on the weekends, dating back to the days when she and Sorboni were supposed to be the lead weekend anchors.
Starting off I was a fan of Anne, Adam & Dylan for six year watched them 5 days a week, started watching them on Sat & Sun mornings in 07. They had great chemistry and were friends on and off TV. That showed. WHDH had been and continues to be a transient station with anchors and reports coming and going frequently. Thats the business. Those three added stability to WHDH which it lacks. Katarina, Francis, Randy all gone.
I started watching morning news in the early 90′s because I get up early and watched WBZ because back then it started at the ungodly hour of 5AM. Joe Shortsleeve, Suzanne Bates, Ed Carrol. This was another team with great chemistry. WBZ made a mistake when they move Joe and Ed to 6 and 11. WHDH made a mistake when it allowed the the morning news show to become the Anne, Adam & Dylan show. When Dylan and Anne left you knew the inevitable was going to happen.
Adam is a nice guy and a good anchor, if you have watched him for anytime at all you would know this. His days at 7 are obviously numbered . I hope he stays in Boston or goes to New York because he has tremendous future ahead of him. Weather WHDH management did enough to keep this team doesn’t matter now. The show goes on I have changed the channel this week and know watch The Eyeopener on 5. Many of the loyal 7 views have also moved on as evident by the ratings.
Why does everyone think Adam Williams is definitely gone? Hopefully he can land a plum spot instead of being let go.
What will happen to the newly hired weekend anchor, Brandon Gunnoe?
Adam Williams looks so lost and alone since Anne Allred left. 7 tried pairing him with Sarah, Nancy and Kayna but it didn’t work. There was just not the chemistry that he had with Anne. Hope that they give him a chance at the 4:00 PM news but once Christa and Amanda return I don’t think there will be any place for him and 7 will not renew his contract. Its really sad that in six months Dylan, Anne and Adam are gone. They were so enjoyable to watch in the morning.
Why does everyone think Adam Williams is getting demoted or fired because he got moved to evenings?? Working the 4:00, 4:30 and 5:30 newscasts is a promotion. Just think, when Reid Lambery is on vacation or on assignement etc, Adam will be his replacements those nights for the most important newscasts at 6:00pm and 11:00pm and even the 10:00 news on the CW. He is not going anywhere. Now, if Sarah French goes back to weekend evenings, that would be a demotion.
See all the posts above regarding this. It’s considered a demotion in the industry. Frankly, the people watching the 4pm program are not the target audiences for the companies who spend money to advertise on these channels. As a result the ads generate less revenue and it’s a less desirable timeslot from an anchor perspective (maybe not sleep perspective). As has been discussed above, the mornings pull in higher viewership numbers and ad revenue. It’s that plain and simple.
miss the chemistry of adam and anne together. please don’t get rid of adam. He’s terrific.
Raw numbers?
Channel 7 news has become “kid’s news.” Their numbers are bad and switching around anchors isn’t going to change things. Time to blow it up, add some maturity and start over.