WGN America to Rebrand as NewsNation

Cable TV News WGN America  NewsNation 

 

      Nexstar Media Group's WGN America will be rebranding as News Nation, on the 6th month anniversary launch of "News Nation" also on that date , they are adding two new live hours of programming.  

  

    On  March 1st, cable network WGN America, will be full rebranding into NewsNation.  Weekdays live programming which currently runs from 8-11pmet/ 7-10pm CT will be expanding to start at 6pmet.  

  

    NewsNation Early Edition  will launch  at 6pmet , Nichole Berlie, who currently co-anchors the weekend  version of NewsNation  will be the anchor of this new hour.  

       

        The Donlon Report    current co-anchor  of the weeknight version of NewsNation , Joe Donlon will host his own hour long program weeknights 7pmet.  This program will have a  mixture of news and interviews. 

         The current News Nation program will be branded as NewsNation Prime;  Marni Hughes and Rob Nelson, who have been part of the anchoring team since launch will continue to anchor that. The program will be cut to 2 hours as , the previously announced,  Banfield program launches that evening at 10pmet. 

  

           NewsNation launched on September 1st 2020 on WGN America, Nexstar purachased WGN America along with it's parent company, Tribune, in 2019.  News Nation is viewing themselves as a news service to against the opinion filled cable news channels on American TV.   

 Currently, WGN America airs reruns of dramas and sitcoms through the day with News in the evening, it does come to wonder what happens to those on March 1st as the rebrand happens, or is Nexstar doing a piece meal approach and will wait a while to expand further? 

Press release after the jump 

The Lookback: Degrassi Jr. High

The Lookback Joshuaonline Canada 

        Previously on Joshuaonline, we looked at Degrassi's very first piece of media called "Ida Makes a Movie" which was part of  the first Degrassi series called "Kids of Degrassi Street" which I would love to do more of, I hopefully one day will.  This time, we are skipping ahead to what became a follow up series called "Degrasi Jr. High". 

       

        Degrassi Jr. High followed up "Kids of Degrassi Street" meaning it premiered and a year after the other series. Following along with the concpept of what "Degrassi" was about, it was a series that really depict childhood in a close to accurate way or at least, be accurate to relate to a child. In this series' case was to relate to middle schoolers.   

     

        This series is not a direct sequel to "Kids" even though some of the actors did move on to this series in different roles. This series was a sequel in the sense that they took place at a Degrassi school on Degrassi street.  This series premiered on CBC on January 18, 1987 and ran 3 seasons until 1989. The series made it to United States where it ran on PBS (yes, PBS)  which was a bump from being on  premium cable the predecessor series was placed.   It also ran on other channels in other countries. 

      

     The first season was 13 episodes, this series amassed a total of 43 episodes.  I'm going to talk about the very first episode, in this post, and maybe come back to this series in more depth even more in the future.  This is really to give a feel for what the series was, (and coming back means I can  talk about a very specific episode important in Degrassi history) 

      The first episode is called "Kiss me, Steph".

            The episode starts with a boy named Arthur trying to get the attention of a girl named Stephanie, who pretends she doesn't know him because they are brother and sister because reasons. They also don't live together because their parents are divorced.  (very expositional intro)  She's a grade 8 and he's a grade 7 student.  The theme song is very 80's  like too 80's for the 80's. (I'm scared) 

Hey wait! / Copyright Wild Brain 

          It's a brand new school year (wonderful!) The show's atmosphere fits more like camera is just following kids around kind of like how "Kids of Degrassi Street" felt.    While Steph goes in all confident and exuding her know how of how things are done, her brother is new at the school is going through it like a lost puppy in a mall. (what?)   Steph hears the school is doing a school election, because we are getting that plot on the very episode, and decides she should run for president. 

Markers are most used during elections than any other thing / Copyright Wild Brain

        There's a boy named Joey who fake helps Arthur find his class, instead directing him to a janitor's closet. (Arthur was naive enough to let this  happen and Joey is dumb enough to let this work) A boy finds Arthur locked in the closet and they are both trying to find the right class room.  They find her. (That was easy)  

Yes, you are here/ Copyright Wild Brain 

            The episode flies by in time apparently, because Steph has already started campaigning and making posters and other election-y election stuff.  The background music during this show is interesting, not bad, maybe that depends on taste, just slightly interesting.  There's another person running, his name is Snake. (Oooh, those who know will know, I'll say nothing otherwise)  

Rock n' Roll President / Copyright Wild Brain 

      Joey is back he's weird and maybe creepy.  So then a dumb campaign offer comes up, read the title of the episode. Steph offers free kisses for votes. (what the heck? )   Voula, her best friend, doesn't like this plan at all, because it's dumb plan. She kind of just goes along with after being convinced slightly.  She's also losing the girl vote and gathering the horny boy vote. (There's no other way to put that)  Steph thanks Joey, forgetting her own friend. (I hope Voula does something to screw this election up for Steph. ) 

I will not forget this/ Copyright Wild Brain

       Now it's election results time. (Shorter than our election)  Steph wins the election ( I thought this was going go some other direction, oh well)  Before the strange kissing stuff, Steph was really being helped by Voula in her speech making for example, and guess who's mad at her?  (George?)  She does help her brother not get stuffed in a locker by Joey.  Voula tells Steph off for how she treated her, throws the friendship bracelet back at her. 

       After school, Arthur thanks her for helping earlier and offers to help her with her speech to the PTA since Voula won't.  So, she takes the offer.  The episode just kind of ends there.. like just stops and ends there.  The show has continuity , so the next episode, Voula is still mad at her in the next episode and it seems if they are going to make up, it's going to take some time. 

        

         The idea of the show is to have some contained plots but also continuity meaning, nothing goes straight back to normal/ status quo in the next episode. This is the start of what Degrassi did as a series.  The plot of this first episode is relatable to viewers in many ways and the idea of doing anything for popularity is shown well here. I think showing the arc with Steph and her  brother, showing that she does care about him and maybe at least patched something with him, was a nice touch to show she isn't too far gone.   One day, we'll return to Degrassi and even more return turn to Degrassi Jr. High. 

      

                 

FOX News Channel revamps daytime and 7pmet Line Up

Fox News channel   TV News 

    Fox News Channel on Monday has announced big changes to their daytime  and early evening fringe line up, starting January 18th. Notably, the 7pm ET switches to an opinion-based show, and a reversal of a change made in January of 2020.  

       First off, Bill Hemmer, who replaced Shepard Smith in January 2020 in the 3pmet slot, will be moving back to the program he co-anchored from 2007-2020, "America's Newsroom" which will also return to being 2 hour long program.  Co-anchoring with  Hemmer will be Dana Perino, who currently hosts  2pmet, and is part of the early-evening show, "The Five".   This program aiirs from 9-11AMET

      Second, Harris Faulkner, who currently co-hosts the noon et program, "Outnumbered" and hosts the 1pmet program "Outnumbered: Overtime" will be moving to 11amet, with "The  Faulkner Focus", she will also still be on "Outnumbered".

       

     Third,  Current, co-anchor of "America's Newsroom" , Sandra Smith, is moving to co-anchor a new 1-3pmet program  called "America Reports" she will be joined by current Chief White House correspondent, John Roberts.   

    Martha MacCallum's program, "The Story", moves from 7pmet  to 3pmet.   

  The 4-7pmet hours stay the same.

 At 7pmet, a new opinion show "FOX News Primetime" will premiere, it will start with a rotating set of hosts until a permeant  host is announced. 

press release after the jump 

Girls Last Tour : Another Look: This time Episode 9: What is Life?

Anime  

     I think it's time to talk about "Girls Last Tour" again. I've talked about episode 5 and Episode 1, int that order, So it's episode 9 time. That makes sense.   

       One of the magical things about this show is the atmosphere and sound space as I mentioned in episode 1, this episode starts with the girls on their kattenrad and through this building. You can hear the machine riding on the metal, and the pipes are making their sounds, it's great sound building that this series does so well.  In the background of the series even without fully mentioning it, is death. This series has the background of the concept of death in it. The world is pretty much decimated, you don't see much living creatures of any sort, there's no trees, the buildings are old some are falling apart. It's called Girls' Last Tour for a reason. The line where Yuu asks "Hey, what does "alive" mean?" is main of idea of this episode.

   

          There's a giant robot thing that they don't know what it is.  Yuu questions is it a life form, and Chito answers by saying  that machines aren't alive. They end up seeing a fish, showing that his place was a fishery.  There was one fish, still alive, then a  robot talks to them. The robot says that they can't eat the fish because he's the manager of the place.  (Yuu really wants to eat the fish)

           The place was once  a fish farm, but now there's only fish left. (the one we saw earlier) The robot says that can swim in any of the non used tanks. The robot mentions that its job is to maintain everything even without people aren't around.  Chito almost drowns (woah, this is Girls' last tour not Girl's last tour, don't die)   Yuuri does save her before this show gets dark, well more dark. 

         Instead of trying to eat it, Yuu maybe wants to friends  with the fish.  The robot says that it was programmed with empathy, meaning it can connect with humans, which is why its been so accommodating to them. During their sleep, they are awoken by the giant robot who is now dismantling the spot.   The smaller robot "talks" with the bigger one for the girls and  it says it won't stop. In a turn from earlier, Yuu worries about the fish and fears for its life. 

         Yuu goes to explode the robot while, Chito wonders if it's wrong to "kill" it because it's "alive".  The idea of what life is comes through her mind as she tries to understand.  The robot is destroyed and the smaller robot says that the fish and he will live a little longer. Though, all things will die one day.   Maybe life means that something has to end.

            The episode's question is what is life? Are the robots alive, or are they just working machine's like the kattenrad.  The difference is the robots (at least the smaller one) can talk and move on their own.  After all that wondering what is alive, they decided to pick a fish over the large robot, mostly because Yuu grew more attached to it. The episode attaches the idea of mortality to it more than the others, have  done because it also ties in the girls two lives. Chito almost drowns, again death, her life was that close to ending. The one great equalizer for the robots, the girls, the fish is death.  Does  make a person think without saying what would be the right then to do. 
 
        The smaller robot mentions that death will come to all at some point.  I think this episodes shows more how this wonderful series can make a person enjoy what's going on and think about what the situation. The music and the sound effects were great through  and really added to the composition of the show.  This another stand out episode in a stand out anime.


   That's it for now: tune in next time when don't eat that fish.