UPDATED: With Hurricane Matthew still very much a threat to the southeastern U.S., the network news outfits are set up on the northeast coast of Florida for the Friday evening broadcasts, with correspondents pitching in in neighboring states up the coast and beyond.
CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley hosted from St. Augustine and ABC World News Tonight’s David Muir anchored from Jacksonville, while NBC’s Lester Holt is set up in Daytona Beach, around 95 miles south of Jacksonville.
Correspondent corps are there in full force. CBS has Errol Barnett, Manuel Bojorquez and Mark Strassmann in from Florida, with Omar Villafranca in the Bahamas and others stationed up the coast.
At ABC, Muir gets an assist from correspondents Gio Benitez and Eva Pilgrim, as well as chief meteorologist Ginger Zee.
Holt is joined by 16 NBC and MSNBC correspondents, including Tom Costello at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chris Jansing in Savannah and Tammy Leitner in the Bahamas.
Fox News, for its part, is live starting at 8 p.m. Friday with The O’Reilly Factor, The Kelly File and Hannity storm-focused. At 11 p.m., Happening Now co-anchor Jon Scott anchors an hour on the hurricane from the Fox News Deck. FNC also is working drone news gathering into its coverage. Correspondent Bryan Llenas, for one, put the drone to use Thursday, showing aerial footage of a battered shoreline in Vero Beach, Fla.
CNN too has converged personnel in Jacksonville, with Chris Cuomo, Poppy Harlow, Rosa Flores and Victor Blackwell on site. Like its rivals, CNN has correspondents situated all over the southeast; Havana-based Patrick Oppmann also covered Hurricane Matthew’s arrival from Cuba.
While Matthew's epicenter may have stayed offshore, CNN.com makes it clear that the category 3 storm, featuring 120 mph winds, is still a potent threat. “Worst effects are still likely to come,” reads the CNN.com home page Friday at 4:15 ET.
