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At Least the Eyewitness News President and General Manager isn’t Bullshitting Anybody
Published:
It’s a good read and worth a click.
The CliffsNotes is that Eyewitness News* will have weekend morning anchor Jan Carabeo join Janelle Burrell on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, while Burrell will anchor solo on Monday and Tuesday. They aren’t replacing Jim Donovan at all; they’re just adjusting Carabeo’s duties appropriately, which makes sense in this media climate. Television isn’t exactly as lucrative as it used to be.
But it’s still a little jarring to think about a single-anchor morning show in a top 5 media market. You’re typically doing several hours in the A.M., which amounts to a lot of talking. That’s a much bigger lift than Ukee Washington doing 30 minutes solo at 11 p.m., which comes out to about 20 minutes when you account for commercials.
This passage from the story stood out, as did the quotes from President and GM Kelly Frank:
Frank acknowledged the arrangement was unconventional in local television news circles but said it is the best use of resources on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – usually the busiest news days.
She said CBS3 did not conduct a search to replace Donovan and was not certain it would fill the role.
“With the state of the industry, and looking at the way people consume media, we were evaluating whether you need to have an anchor team,” she said. “So, for a while, we just let it sit, and what I saw in working with our news director was that extra added anchor was also another gatekeeper through the course of a very big day.”
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…(Jan) and Janelle have incredible chemistry. Once we started seeing them fill in together, it made sense. But we also looked at not wanting to lose her on weekends, wanting to keep in mind operational efficiency.”
Those are transparent comments. She’s definitely not bullshitting anyone when she talks about the “state of the industry” and “best use of resources” while also using the term “operational efficiency.”
Translation: these aren’t the halcyon days of big-money local television, when people tuned in at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. to get the news. Now they get it on their mobile devices.
Zooming out, a few years back is when CBS decided to shift to single-anchor shows. That’s coming from the typically useless corporate suits in New York City, though in this case it’s a strategy that makes sense. You don’t need two six-figure salaries to co-host a show anymore, but morning news has been the last holdout on that front. You would never, for instance, think about Mike Jerrick or Alex Holley hosting Good Day solo. But you can get away with it at the other stations, which do straight news without the quirky feature stuff.
I mentioned this to someone the other day as a rhetorical question – What does Eyewitness News have in 2026 that gives them an advantage?
Action News is Action News and always will be. They’re boring now, but that’s the brand. It’s steady and consistent and they retain legions of loyal viewers. NBC has the backing of Comcast and their connection to NBC Sports Philadelphia while operating in ownership’s back yard. FOX has Good Day Philadelphia and The Phantastic Sports Show and they find ways to get eyeballs on their product through social and other means. They’re more relevant I think in this zeitgeist of local news consumption because the brand is shareable to a wider demo.
Eyewitness News no longer has the KYW Newsradio partnership. They don’t have 94 WIP as a sister radio station. They just sort of exist. They have some quality anchors and reporters, but they don’t have more money or resources or leverage than 6, 10, or FOX, which makes it hard to be a major player in this market.
The other thing that doesn’t help is negative optics and publicity surrounding CBS at the national level, with the cancellation of Stephen Colbert, the criticism of Bari Weiss, and now Scott Pelley’s firing. It’s all part of a general critique that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is cozying up to the Trump administration, and whatever amount of truth exists there, there’s no doubt the CBS news brand has taken a hit. It’s just not a very strong brand at the moment, through no fault of the people working at channel 3 or any of the other O&O stations. As is typically the case, the blame lies with the suit and tie guys at the top of the food chain.
Maybe Eyewitness News needs a viral moment to reclaim some headlines and get people to pay attention. Perhaps we can work together to manufacture this interest. I think one of the anchors should hack another anchor’s email. That would be juicy. Then the second anchor goes up to New York City and punches a cop in the face. What a story that would be!
*disclaimer: I’ve informed Crossing Broad staff that this station is to be referred to as “Eyewitness News.” Anybody who calls it “CBS Philadelphia” will be terminated with the utmost prejudice.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com