Pulling the Main Anchors Off the Late Newscast in Cincy

Scripps-owned WCPO (Cincy) is doing it and word is that other Scripps stations are going to try it as well.

The station has pulled main co-anchors Tanya O'Rourke and Craig McKee from the 11 PM newscast.

It’s "to better position us to meet our goals," says WCPO GM Jeff Brogan.

Since Thanksgiving have seen a parade of anchors on weekday 11 p.m. newscasts – Evan Millward, Bret Buganski, and O'Rourke or McKee working solo, and Millward and Jasmine Styles co-anchoring Tuesday night.

"We recently moved a few of our anchors’ schedules around to better position us to meet our goals. All our newscasts are important to us but so is serving our audience on all platforms. The days of focusing on just one newscast — or newscasts exclusively — are over," Brogan says.

For more than a week O'Rourke and McKee have co-anchored all 90 minutes of the 5-6:30 p.m. local news block, while the other stations mixed and matched anchors.

WCPO is building on its strength. November sweeps ratings show WCPO-TV first from 5-6:30 p.m. with viewers ages 25 to 54, the demographic stations use for advertising rates.

A year ago, WCPO was fourth in the money demo at 5 p.m., and second at 6 p.m.

Also, many people don’t stay up to watch the late news anymore. People are going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. As viewers’ habits change, it appears that Scripps might be looking to change with them.

It will be interesting to see if other stations follow suit.

H/T WVXU