The New York Observer » Sue Simmons

Sue Simmons Admits to Drinking-and-Anchoring During the ’80s

On Thursday evening, on live TV, longtime WNBC-4 news anchor Sue Simmons made a somewhat surprising confession. Back in the '80s, she said, she would on occasion drink cocktails before anchoring the news. Eventually she stopped, she continued to explain, because she noticed the alcohol was making her eyes red.

The admission came Read More

WNBC-4 Names New 5 p.m. Hosts: Goodbye, Sue Simmons! Hello, ‘Oracle of Panache’!

And so the sometimes tumultous transformation of local TV news continues.

Today, NBC Universal executives in charge of local programming officially announced the hosts of their new daily lifestyle show, LX New York, which on September 14 will replace the 5 p.m. news on WNBC-4.

Out: longtime, seasoned journalists Sue Simmons and David Read More

It’s Official: WNBC-4 Replacing 5 P.M. News with Lifestyle Show

Last month, The Observer reported that NBC Universal was working on developing a daily lifestyle show which could, as soon as this fall, replace 5 p.m. newscasts at NBC stations around the country.

Today, NBC made it official.

According to the press release, the daily, hour-long "daily information, lifestyle and entertainment show" will debut on September Read More

Is NBC Working on a Live at 5 Format Killer?

Could the station that 30 years ago gave birth to the "Live at Five" news format now be plotting the eventual demise of the early evening news genre?

Rumors are currently swirling at WNBC-4, NBC's flagship station in New York, that executives at NBC Universal are considering the creation of a daily 5 p.m. lifestyle show Read More

Wood War! Who Wins Today’s Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs? (UPDATED!)

The New York Post: Last night, the President and First Lady arrived in England, bringing along hundreds of security guards and lots of vials of Barack Obama's blood. No, this isn't some kind of remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though the British press is trying to play it that way. And that's a Read More

A Better News Division, Rockefeller Money Can’t Buy

On the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 21, John Wallace, the president of NBC Universal’s local media division, stood in a television studio on the sixth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and spoke to a room full of employees about the future of local news.

The space, which decades ago served as the studio for Read More

Mad as Hell … and Magnificent!

On the morning of Wednesday, May 14, Torrey Meeks, a 25-year-old freelance writer and producer in Las Cruces, N.M., rolled out of bed and checked his various Web pages. “Unbelievable,” he thought to himself. “This thing is blowing up.”

The previous afternoon, Mr. Meeks, along with thousands of others, had taken his first (and Read More