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ARC Seattle goes behind the dashboard on the new Pope



Scratching my head after watching ARC. Seattle at 10 Thursday night.  Anchor tosses to standard local reaction to the new Pope but has Jackie Kent in a news car talking with Preston Phillips!!  What, she couldn't find a more relevant backdrop along the way to file, even in Tacoma??   No Catholic church fronts there?  It's comical.  And there was no premise for it.  Those in-car shots are usually for traffic stories or sweater coverage, but this idea flopped. At least she was wearing a seatbelt!

In general, I think Steve Soliz in more of a host role is bringing a relaxed touch to a late night newscast which features several longer-form community interviews, something you won't see on the competition at that hour.  Fox 13 is machine gun at 10, but it's a rehash from 9 as is KONG, so this can be an alternative.    

Comments

  1. If Fox 13 is a machine gun at 10pm, what does that make KONG at 10pm, besides just being rehash of the 9pm show? Also, I agree that Steve Soliz is bringing a calmer tone to the ARC Seattle show at 10pm. Nothing against Preston Phillips and his hosting style. but Soliz is offering a clear difference in style and tone compared to the competition. It will be interesting to see how viewers respond.

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    1. By machine gun, I did not mean rehash of the 9 of 13+ as much as I meant the more driving anchor style led by David Rose and the very aggressive weather style of Claire Anderson. Up tempo. Greg Copeland on KONG at 10 fits the KING model. ARC's problem is getting viewers to find it and understand that it is an alternative. I don't hink late night news viewers have time for longer-form community interviews. It is also too heavy on promos for the National Desk, the Daniels sports podcast and the morning ARC show, which they call 'a conversation' on the promo graphic.

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    2. That makes sense. David and Claire are good presenters, but they do have a higher tempo, whereas Greg and the team at KING are at a slightly lower tempo. ARC's tempo is even lower, which is another point of difference, but you're correct that getting viewers to find it and embrace its format is going to be a challenge. The longer-form community interviews are a good idea, but do they really work at 10pm? Maybe they'd fit better in a 7pm timeslot? As for the promos, yeah, there are too many of those. A few sprinkled in are fine, but its currently too much. The show needs more of its own original content. Perhaps thats part of why Steve Soliz was brought on, and is only doing the 3:30pm and the ARC 10pm. To give him time to create more content for the 10pm.

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  2. Guessing Jackie Kent was in a car so that viewers could have a “Popemobile” experience. Seems like a strong tie-in to me!

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  3. Bless you, my son. I was going to use that phrase, but I put on the brakes. LOL

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