Summer is a tough time to launch a local newscast.
Two Denver stations are trying: the 3 p.m. news on KMGH- Channel 7 is beating “Dr. Phil” and “Ellen,” thanks to summer storm coverage; the 4 p.m. news on KCNC-Channel 4 (which took Oprah’s place), could be doing better.
Despite negligible ratings for August so far — a 0.4 rating, 3 share among 25- to 54-year-olds at 3 p.m. for KMGH; 0.3 rating, 2 share at 4 p.m. for KCNC — the saving grace for both efforts is that they’re much cheaper than syndicated daytime programming. The staff’s already there, the material is already underway.
Jeff Harris, 7News boss, calls the performance of his afternoon news “outstanding.”
In TV-exec-speak, it’s called “managing for margins, not for ratings.”
Other local items:
• Sarah Burke, executive producer of CBS4’s late newscast, jumps to the same big job in early September at WCBS-TV in New York — the key newscast at the flagship CBS Television Stations Group station.
“On any given night, that (11 p.m. program) is the most- watched local newscast in the country,” CBS4 news director Tim Wieland said. No replacement has been named.
• Nick Griffith, a sports anchor at Kansas City’s KMBC since 2008, joins Fox31-KDVR as sports director. And “Everyday,” with anchors Chris Parente and Natalie Tisdale, sees a new dawn, moving up from Channel 2 to sister station Channel 31 at 10 a.m. Sept. 12.
• 7News will broadcast high- school football games this fall. “Sports Xtra High School Game of the Week,” Sept. 4-Nov. 6, produced by Jeff Ingrum’s Ingrum Sports Production Network, will air (delayed) Sundays at noon and on Comcast channel 247 on Sunday and Monday nights, 7:30-10.
• News reporter TaRhonda Thomas and photojournalist Byron Reed picked up awards at the National Association of Black Journalists national convention, for the sports and feature categories. Thomas also won the specialty category with photojournalist Ken Mostek for a story about local African-Americans quitting smoking.
• Jennifer Zeppelin, a CBS4 staffer since 1999, is leaving at the end of September, following family to Oklahoma. Evrod Cassimy joins Channel 4 as a reporter and weekend morning anchor, from Richmond’s NBC affiliate.
• And BBC America is filming a reality series in Denver this week. “Richard Hammond’s Crash Course,” featuring “Top Gear’s” Richard Hammond, will be shooting Thursday at the Denver Regional Landfill.
Speaking of the BBC.
Imagine a 1950s newsroom, a mostly male preserve with teletype and ashtrays, where canned government announcements are written and read on the airwaves. Especially at the staid BBC.
It will take a young go-getter with a nose for good stories to invent a hot newsmagazine, an hour that will change the British public’s perception of what TV news can be. That hour will push the limits of journalism and free the network from the control of Westminster.
“The Hour,” premiering Wednesday, 8-9:15 p.m. on BBC America, offers a satisfying look at the social mores of the time, within the context of a fictional spy thriller. Think “Mad Men,” slightly earlier, with postwar London as the backdrop. Plus a love triangle.
Comparisons to “Mad Men” are inevitable, but executive producer Derek Wax said “The Hour” is something else:
“We do open in quite a drab, postwar world of rationings … and although there is a transition to something a bit more bright and colorful and vivid as we move from the old world to the newsreels … to the new current affairs show that’s been launched, it’s completely different in terms of characters and the flavor from ‘Mad Men.’ “
With Dominic West of “The Wire” using his native English accent, the piece is enticing even before the thriller takes shape. West plays a secondary role in the opening episode; Ben Whishaw is Freddie Lyon, who carries the story.
“The Hour” is set for a six- episode run.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
