ABC4/CW30 shakeups

Several weeks ago viewers of Good Things Utah (ABC4) and The Daily Dish (CW30) said goodbye to Reagan Ledbetter. She felt that she was missing out on quite a few things with her boys and wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.  It was an agonizing decision for her to give up her career but in the end, she decided that family is first.  She could be with her sons in the morning before school, spend the summers with them and be available for her husband's roping competitions that normally are Friday - Sunday without having to take time off of work.

Reagan had been one of the original hosts of GTU (9 years) and TDD (1 year).  Her departure began a talent shakeup at both stations.  On her last day, it was announced that the producer of TDD was also leaving. A couple of weeks later, Marti Skold announced she was leaving for a job at News14 in Raleigh, NC so that she could be closer to her children and her husband's family.  Last week, Angie Larsen announced she was leaving for a position at Usana as the new Senior Manager of Corporate Relations.  This was stunning as she denied any plans for leaving only a few weeks prior when Marti Skold left.  Her stated reason is also spending time with her sons as she will now have a normal schedule. The exit of Marti and Angie left holes in the local morning newscast where Angie was an achor and Marti was the meteorologist.  This leaves Nicea Degering as the only original host remaining.

There were several weeks of tryouts for the shows with many promising candidates.  The first person chosen is Brianne Johnson.  She was the one person that I was really hoping would not be hired.  She does not have a journalism background so this is a huge learning curve for her.  Her nerves really got the best of her when she was trying out because her already squeaky voice was on "squeak overload" and her on-air persona was really fake.  This has calmed down somewhat now that she has been hired on full-time but the fakiness is really annoying. (I give her the benefit of the doubt that she may be a terrific person off camera.) It also does not help matters that Reagan was the warm and calming influence for Nicea and Brianne is somewhat of a sycophant.  I am not sure how the process will work for filling Angie's chair but my hope is for a journalist who is on GTU and sits in the morning anchor chair along with Don Hudson.

On the morning news broadcast, the new weather anchor is really lame.  Not sure if this is his normal personality or if the producers are trying to be "edgy".  Either way, Marti is sorely missed.  With Angie leaving, I decided to check out KSL's local morning newscast.  Considerably more professional and I enjoyed it enough that I will probably switch stations in the morning.  I will miss Don Hudson as he seems like a genuinely nice person.

On TDD, there was always a great back and forth between Nicea and Reagan because their close friendship off-air was very apparent on-air. Yes, they had scripts but they mainly just riffed it which was refreshing.  The show has become really boring and lifeless without Reagan.  I also dislike Nicea reading the FB comments as she has a really bad tendency to summarize rather than read the actual post, sometimes losing the meaning of the original post. Reagan just simply read the post on-air and would sometimes comment if she agreed or disagreed, always in a very polite way.  Nicea can sometimes come off as being a bit nasty. At this point, I see no reason to continue watching TDD and took it off of the DVR schedule.  I will, however, miss Don Hudson and Brian Carlson in the "Dishing with the Dudes" segments.

The rumors on FB suggest that Angie, Marti and the TDD producer were actually pushed out. Management did not do themselves any favors by suggesting that all of the changes were "merely a coincidence".  It is so unfortunate that two really great shows have gone downhill so quickly from "must see TV" to "if I am really, really bored TV".  As a viewer, I do not blame Reagan in any way because her choice was merely a catalyst for the changes that followed.