Wide World of Women

another 1 bites the dust.
http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2015/09 ... -29-years/

Geez, that's messed up. One my faves and she was not capped on here even though she should have been.

That's a shame......wonder if she jumped ship or was forced out
Sad to see one of the last babes from TWC 's glory days bowing out

Noooooooooo my favorite weather channel eye candy. she will be truly miss.

Al's out, too. Sounds like more to come: http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/9/2/gutting-the-weather-channel

TWC should have given Vivian one more year or at least let her celebrate her 30th year then have her leave. Also I'm Guessing if Wake up with Al is gone that Stephanie Abrams is gone as well.

<ramble> There is no way they could do that, from a business-sense. When you lose over 200 million dollars in value in less than a year, and your credit is no longer considered high enough to be a "must have channel," your cable channel is in huge trouble. In order to sell, which seems to be their only option at this point, you have to make it as cheap as possible. I would presume SA would be in trouble with her job, as would Jen Carfagno (I'm just assuming their contracts are the highest, given their tenure and usage). It's impossible to tell, b/c you also have to sell the station so you have to maintain some semblance of quality. Cantore will likely be fine since he is the face of the network. Maybe someone like Carl Parker could be gone, too. It's hard to say.

But they are going to need to sell fast and, I guarantee you, they are praying for a large hurricane to come near the coast as soon as possible. They need those ratings.

It was inevitable. If they stuck to just pure weather, they compete with everyone's modern ability to get weather via the internet, and they can't target ads. Doing "shows" gave them targeted-ad potential, but incredibly difficult to maintain and upset those who just want to watch weather. They've been stuck between a rock and a hard place for nearly a decade now, and haven't had a good captain to steer the ship --a recipe for disaster, IMO.

200+ million dollar loss in value is just hard to fathom.

</rambling>

This word coming from a number of sources, that "Wake Up With Al"
is likely to be shut down before the end of September:

http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2015/09 ... p-with-al/

http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/weather- ... -al/271007

No word on how Roker's co-host, Stephanie Abrams -- a TWC fixture prior to her
pairing with Roker - will be affected by the move.
It's also reported that 29-year-veteran forecaster Vivian Brown is departing after
her announcement this week:
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/vivian-b ... nel/270982

Many of these moves are said to be tied to the plan by Comcast and its partners to cut costs
as they attempt to sell off the network to potential buyers.
_________________________

I've really never heard a sensible explanation of how TWC saved any money or
achieved any higher ratings by shedding so much of the original weather programming and
plugging in all of the "reality" shows to begin with.
It would seem to me that paying for production of a program that needs to be filmed in far-off
or exotic locations, with casts and crews would be multiple times more expensive than
a simple studio weather broadcast with minimal staff and no exposure to the elements or delays.
How did the bean-counters ever figure that was a smart move?





.

I don't completely buy into it that going the reality show route so much the last several years
ever had the potential to be a huge windfall for them...
All I see is that some consultants they brought on board make one gigantically massive miscalculation,
and NBC/Universal (even before Comcast came along) fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
Cost wise, I can't fathom how this ever made sense.

I posed this same question earlier in my own Vivian thread down in "News Ladies Discussion":

I've really never heard a sensible explanation of how TWC saved any money or
achieved any higher ratings by shedding so much of the original weather programming and
plugging in all of the "reality" shows to begin with.
It would seem to me that paying for production of a program that needs to be filmed in far-off
or exotic locations, with casts and crews would be multiple times more expensive than
a simple studio weather broadcast with minimal staff and no exposure to the elements or delays.
How did the bean-counters ever figure that was a smart move?






.

Ok I am going to buy it keep the Weather Babes and sell the rest, then they will all be mine, yeeesssss

Not everyone agrees but Steph made that show and only hope she lands somewhere where we get more caps of hier.

TWC is owned by NBC and NBC has no idea anymore how to run a network.

Bravo, well said.

To be clear, PacificRT, I was talking about all shows..Wakeup w/ Al, flick and a forecast, reality shows, etc. But your point is well said, for sure.

About reality...most networks only pay a flat fee for the program. A production company handles the costs. Networks provide a payment and, in turn, have to sell enough ads to cover that cost. They usually aren't funding the actual costs of production (Im not talking about shows like Survivor or The Bachelor here). Regardless, it's still about costs vs ad revenue per hour or 15 min cycle or what have you.

Shows like wake up with AMHQ are produced BY TWC, so it's a little different. Still comes down to ads, obviously.

Sorry for any typos...I'm on my phone.

At least I'm fairly certain this is how it all goes down I'm sure someone knows more than I do about this.

I agree

Hi Vivian you may want to contact the law firm of Dewey, Cheatam, & Howe. Funny that the 2 most prominent black stars of twc get booted on the same day. Also you are 2 of the Oldest people at twc.

Usually I am the first to pooh pooh lawsuits but with the twc track record of treating people like $hit a case can be made that this smells like racism & ageism rolled all together & tied with a bow for a good lawyer!

See Al is still at NBC so that saves them from a suit from him but Viv I suggest you contact Nicole Mitchell & ask how twc treats MILITARY MEMBERS & ask her to testify!

Get them MF's Viv!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS FU(K JIM CANTORE!

If Steph goes I will call my cable company ( time warner ) & ask them to Yank twc & replace it with a diff weather channel!

FU(K JIM CANTORE! May you get struck DEAD by a lightning bolt in the next thunder snow storm on live tv so we can all watch it & hear your annoying Yelps while it happens!

Makes since to save the $ if TWC is for sell.I It sucks for Steph and others who work behind the camera and moved from Atlanta to New York, but Roker would have been gone once TWC is sold. I'm sure his contract doesn't allow him to appear on other networks in a weather forecasting capacity.

I can't see NBCU/Comcast letting Abrams go before they find a sucker... I mean buyer for the network they've nearly destroyed. Sure, people seem to love or hate her simular to Cantore, but that comes with the territory. Her name recognition would be helpful for the 2-3 groups trying to launch a competiting network.

Al only became part of TWC about 6 yrs ago when the NBC Universal takeover happened,
but Vivian dates back to 1986. (Unless by "oldest" you meant their age)

But none of this explains all of the contracts TWC has chosen not to renew over the last 2 or 3 years alone.
It's staggering how many faces are gone in all the cuts they've made. Race apparently was no
consideration -- given that most of those let go have been caucasian.

Bottom line is the network's on the selling block, so not only is cost trimming part of that,
even if they had a bias of some kind, doing it to a property they'll have off their hands soon anyway
wouldn't add up to be the only reason.




.

Pathetic! Vivian was the Queen of TWC. NBC has been a joke ever since the take over.