With today marking the launch of WNBC New York’s new lifestyle program, LX New York, at 5, Fox O&O WNYW takes a shot at its NBC O&O competition with a promo about the death of 5 p.m. news on WNBC.
The 20-second promo starts with a NYPD cruiser skidding into a crime scene. A detective and a plain-clothes step under the police tape and examine the victim–a TV with a smashed screen.
“One station just killed its 5 p.m. newscast,” the voiceover says in its best noir. “Now that’s a crime!”
The voiceover then tells the viewer that 5 p.m. news on Fox 5 is “still very much alive.”
I’m a wee bit surprised WNYW didn’t call out WNBC by name, seeing as the typical viewer probably doesn’t know which of the stations is scrapping its 5 p.m. news as of today.
Unless, of course, the typical viewer reads B&C.
Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.
