Wicked weather disrupts sports, Casey Anthony coverage

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It’s not just Casey Anthony who can scramble Orlando TV programming. Mother Nature also has some clout.

Late afternoon tornado warnings on Saturday disrupted Orlando’s already mixed-up TV programming. Sports fans hoping to watch the U.S. Open golf tournament on WESH-2 and the Yankees-Cubs baseball game of the week on Fox 35 had to settle for split-screen coverage. [Update: A reader noted that WFTV left NASCAR coverage at the start of its storm coverage.] After briefly returning to regular programming around 7 p.m., Orlando’s stations were back in a flash with more weather warnings. The last batch even managed to knock off WFTV-Channel 9′s weekly Casey recap special. It will be rescheduled.

Despite four separate tornado warnings over two hours, there were no confirmed twisters. A look below at Orlando TV on Saturday afternoon:

WESH-2, which moved the U.S. Open to sister station WKCF-CW 18 during the week, shrinks coverage on Saturday to make way to weather warnings.

WOFL-Fox 35 broke into the baseball game of the week with its weather warnings. Even though it kept the split screen throughout the tornado warnings, it did resume audio from the Yankees-Cubs game from time to time.

WFTV-Channel 9 was able to air a few minutes of its weekly Casey Anthony trial recap before having to ditch it completely for more severe weather coverage.

 

Fox 35 top choice for Casey coverage

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As the Casey Anthony trial finished its third week, we are seeing an Orlando TV trend continue: WOFL-Fox 35 continues to be the top choice for local viewers in the most important demos. And it’s winning both the morning and afternoon sessions of the trial.

TVSpy.com reports that for the week of June 3-9, Fox 35 led it’s O-Town counterparts in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. Here are the ratings in the 25-54 demo. Read the full TVSpy.com story here.

Casey Anthony trial: A tour of media village

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The Casey Anthony trial has brought unprecedented media attention to Orlando — as well a horde of reporters and satellite trucks now camped outside the Orange County Courthouse. Here’s a quick tour of this temporary media village, which some have dubbed “Casey Town.”

This is the main media village area, directly across Orange Avenue from the Orange County Courthouse. This is where the broadcast and cable networks are positioned, as well as Orlando stations WKMG-Local 6 and WOFL-Fox 35.

This is the south "suburb" of Casey Town, located south of the courthouse and home to WFTV-Channel 9, WESH-Channel 2 and WDBO-AM radio.

This is the northern boundary of Casey Town -- one of the Orlando Sentinel's parking lots. Univision secured space here, with a view of the courthouse parking garage as a background.

WESH joins Casey Anthony coverage parade

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After ending up as the only network broadcast station in town not to be offering wall-to-wall coverage of the Casey Anthony trial, WESH 2 will join the crowd on Wednesday.

“We took a deliberate approach and put our resources online and into newscasts,” WESH General Manager Jim Carter told the Orlando Sentinel. “The interest continues to be overwhelming. We feel with our people we can do a terrific job, a better job than others.”

WESH will move its regular programming to digital channel 2.2 when showing Casey Anthony coverage on its main channel.

Why did WESH blink? I had someone who used to be in the TV news biz explain that Casey coverage could be a game-changer in the TV ratings pecking order. Depending on what station viewers gravitate to for coverage, that decision could change their nightly TV news habits. We’ll see.

Laura Diaz leaving WKMG — and TV news biz

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“The news is out! Read some of the comments people wrote…they are hilarious. I want what some of them are having.”

That’s how WKMG anchor Laura Diaz responded on her Facebook account to the Orlando Sentinel’s online story about her departure from Local 6 and broadcast journalism. Her last newscast will be Friday morning. And, she says, it will be the last time she does television news.

“I don’t think I can do television anymore,” she told TV Guy Hal Boedeker on Monday. “It’s just a lot of pressure. I got into it young. I moved up quickly. It’s really a tough job to do. You have to have a certain thick skin.”
She added: “Being on the air every day is getting to me. I’m too down-to-earth to be an on-air personality. There’s a lot of wondering in my mind and heart. I don’t want to wait another 10 years and be too far in my career to make a switch.”

WKMG GM Skip Valet stressed to the Sentinel that this wasn’t the station’s decision. In fact, he says had been trying to talk Diaz, 28, out of her decision. No luck, though.

Starting Monday, Matt Austin from Oklahoma City — who was hired to be Diaz’s co-anchor — will helm the Local 6 morning newscast with traffic reporter Jessica Sanchez and meteorologist Troy Bridges.

WFTV very happy with Casey Anthony ratings

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The Orlando TV ratings for the Casey Anthony trial continue to be amazing. And WFTV-Channel 9 News Director Bob Jordan is very pleased with what he’s seeing.

Here are some recent tweets from his always entertaining and informative Twitter account:

  • Saturday ‘Casey on Trial’ draws a combined (WFTV+WOLF+CFN13) 41 share at 11:00 am. WFTV’s 7PM Casey special wins TP. Interest unabated.
  • 4PM Friday: ‘Casey on Trial’ on WFTV draws a 16-share. News on WESH, a 1-share.
  • ‘French Open’ on WESH attracts NO MEASURABLE audience (A25-54) against ‘Casey on Trial’ coverage on WFTV, et al.
  • WFTV wins 20 of 29 qtr hrs of ‘Casey On Trial’ coverage Friday. Kudos to our trial team, headed up by EP Amy Coulter.