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Normally Chicagoist doesn’t watch the local news. We prefer to read our news on paper or online. We find that local news is too garish, too tainted, too … unhealthy; we just stopped watching altogether.
But we were curious to see Fox’s new news show “The Ten.” We got a press release about it that stated that it was a “fast-paced, concise format designed for today’s news viewer.” We’re not even sure what that means, but what we ended up watching was basically The RedEye for television. It felt like a lot of watered-down information, dispensed rapidly for easy digestion.
One of the things we noticed was that it’s weird to see newscasters standing up. We think they should just sit behind a desk, because they look like fledgling actors who aren’t sure what to do with their hands. The other weird thing we noticed is that they really must love Amy Freeze over at Fox. We have never in our lives seen so much weather on a news show. They’d give one piece of information about rogue elephants and then boom, back to Amy Freeze for another look at a forecast she just gave us a minute ago.
We’re not sure why Fox needs another news show at 10:00 p.m. The only thing we could figure out was maybe they’re planning to expand their prime time, and “The Ten” will be their regular newscast?
We didn’t take much away from “The Ten,” but we can say we know what the weather is going to be like for the next 1,404 days.
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Heh...heh...and here I thought it was just me.I was thinking that I was just having flashbacks to the 9 o'clock news whenever Ms. Freeze came up again. The only real downside to that show is that it is up against the Daily Show. That's where I get all my news from....
Haven't watched Fox in years, but this sounds like a ripoff of "THE 9" on Yahoo (
9.yahoo.com), which is probably a ripoff of something else....
it's many of the same newscasters too, for why hire new people when this 'ten' thing is nothing more than an extension of the hour-long news at 9? but let's promote the hell out of it anyway, cuz we're fox!
"We have never in our lives seen so much weather on a news show."
Well then you should check out Channel 9 at 9. It's 75% Skilling. He does the first look. Then the 20 minutes in the middle with 600 maps. Then the 7 day forecast at the end. But I guess before you do your grilling you gotta check with Skilling.
the chicagoist review of this show was dead-on. i mean, what's the point, if it just follows a one hour newscast? i thought it was very fox-ish, though. 'here's mayor daley speaking for two seconds, here's a video shot, no sound, of a police bust .. now, THREE PEOPLE SHOT IN MICHIGAN! AN ANGRY OUTBURST AT A MEETING IN OKLAHOMA! RAIN IN FLORIDA!' And this is better than the 10pm simpsons rerun?
I'm supremely pissed off that they bumped back the 10pm Simpsons rerun.
me too, especially when my bedtime's around 10:30.
That elephant video was the best example of "get me some of that viral video all the kids are talking about" useless newsblasting I have seen since the kid who invented the beer throwing fridge was on the Today show (I was walking by and saw it - honest) last week.
For years now, local news shows have been "Something you don't know about (any innocuous object) may kill you" or "Could what happened in (insert network's own new show) happen in Chicago? Find out at 10".
I'm with Jeff in that most of my national news commentary comes from the murderer's row of political comedy that is Daily Show/Colbert, but damn, every "serious" newscast I've seen in the last decade is a parody of itself anymore.
Has anyone seen Al-Jazeera English yet?
Whatever for The Ten.
Historically speaking, everytime Fox has tried to mess with any of the daily Simpsons reruns they quickly learn their ratings lesson and go back to giving us what we want from them, which is really nothing more than a good laugh at the end of a shitty day.
Thank you Simpsons. I'll follow you to any timeslot.
All I could think of while watching was they must have gotten all the leftover equipment from "George Michael's Sports Machine". The timing fits...
Fox 32 is funny because they are like that parent who polishes up on all the 'hip' things they *think* their kids are interested in, then they approach their kid and spew all this information they've processed in an attempt to reach them. They started all this with their 'viral videos' and 'myfoxchicago' blogs. Seriously, what do I care what Patrick Elwood thinks? That guy is a tool. :D
For years now, local news shows have been "Something you don't know about (any innocuous object) may kill you" or "Could what happened in (insert network's own new show) happen in Chicago? Find out at 10".
And then we have Amy "Ice Queen" Jacobsen over at NBC5. I seem to recall one particular piece she did where she chased a grieving mother through a parking lot asking "How does it feel?" after the woman raced out of the courtroom upon hearing the medical examiner describe how her husband had put scratches in her daughter's spine when he cut her throat (the Zion murders a couple years back).
I don't think local news gets worse than that.