The Cheryl and Terrell dance segment was truly the only well-done portion of the entire Countdown 2025 Chicago program. It was polished including editing, and the choreography was good.
The on-the-scene multi location portions that followed were painful to watch, in my wife’s and my opinions. Unscripted, and not in a good way. Many awkward moments. The couple hosting at the Salt Shed had to deal with a psycho (possibly drugged out!) salt shaker mascot who kept freakishly “dancing” and was uncooperative with the hosts. Commercial load was, not kidding, over 50%.
Sad to say, ABC7 is now the only choice for any dedicated Chicago countdown program. I think they should cut the whole program down to 13 minutes, spanning 11:50 to 12:03. Roll local commercials, do the polished dance production, put *two* hosts on from a *single* location who use some form of script, couple more commercials, count down 30 seconds before midnight and roll another 30 seconds after, last few local commercials and switch back to ABC network feed.
Hi Phil, the standards have been lowered. The funding has been lowered. As the older talent retire, it will further lower. Will broadcast TV even matter at that point?
I'm not surprised to learn that. Channel 7 has become to full itself, in recent years. Their New Year's shows really prove it. I didn't watch or listen to nothing this year (old tapes have been doing it for me). Channel 7 acts like they are better than everyone else (no way).
The dance stuff is to terrible audio tracks. None of it is amusing. Yes, I agree that their New Year's show, should only be 10-13 minutes. Just cut the junk out and count it down to 12 AM.
The preceding show needs no explanation (LA-centric, Ryan Seacrest has no personality, and is terrible). Again...old tapes of local TV and radio stations do it for me (pop one in and enjoy). We don't need them anymore.
Actually, Ryan Seacrest wasn't in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. He was in New York.
It seems hard to believe that Seacrest took over as host of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" in 2005. That was well before Clark passed away at age 82 following a heart attack in 2012.
I think the bigger story is that ABC 7 was the only Chicago option on New Year's Eve after NBC 5 sat this one out. No other Chicago station stepped up to the plate for a live, local New Year's Eve broadcast.
I don't know if budget cuts in recent years dating back to the 2020 pandemic figured into the equation or if viewing habits simply changed.
on December 31, 2024, 12:37 pm