Shut Eye at Tribune
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Today is the last day for Tribune's morning show Eye Opener which runs across a number of Tribune stations.
The staff of Eye Opener has been told they are out of a job and the show is being replaced by a show called "Morning Dose" which will be focused on social media and basically cast Journalism to the side.
Both Eye Opener and Morning Dose will be based in Dallas. The Eye Opener staff was regulated to a loading dock temporary studio while crews trashed their old studio to start building the new set for Morning Dose.
The hosts of Morning Does are lacking when it comes to Journalism credentials. Tribune was very excited to land Melissa Rycroft as one of the show's Anchors.
Rycroft's resume does not have any prior news experience, but hey she was on ABC’s “Bachelor Pad” and CMT’s “Redneck Island.”
The male anchor is Brandon London a former a NFL and CFL football player. He has also been seen as a co-host on “The Maury Show” and Esquire TVs “Car Matchmaker” among others.
Laila Muhammad is the third Anchor of the show and they only one to have any news experience. Muhammad previously served as an anchor at WTKR/WGNT, Tribune’s CBS/CW affiliate in Norfolk.
The big question is why is Tribune launching a new morning show, just as they are about to be taken over by Sinclair?
We can only guess that Morning Dose will be done on a much cheaper budget than Eye Opener, which was already run on a shoestring budget.
As Eye Opener broadcasts their last show Today and kicks their staff to the curb, if will be a couple of weeks before Morning Dose hits the air.
The show is expected to be like what Tegna is doing in some markets. It will toss real news aside to cover what some kid posted on Facebook or Twitter.
This is the way that TV executives think TV news is trending.
God help us all.
