Promo: Spring Is Almost Here!

Please enjoy another cool Channel 3 promo featuring Hollie and Betsy reminding us spring is right around the corner.

Funny, shortly after we started airing these spots, it warmed up.

Are these ladies good forecasters or what!

3D Television Has Arrived in Northeast Ohio

Special to the Director's Cut Blog
By Michael O'Mara

FAIRLAWN -- Ready or not, 3D television has arrived. The hhgregg store is now selling the 55-inch Samsung 3D HD plasma television.

Shopping for a new high definition television just got much more complicated. That's because the world of 3D has just arrived in the home electronics department.

In Fairlawn, the sales staff at the hhgregg store is ready to explain the many features on the new 55 inch Samsung 3D plasma television.

The new set will go from 2D to 3d at the push of a button on the remote control. Special 3D glasses from Samsung will be required to view the video.

Electronics specialist Laura Miller said, "If you're into movies, action sports, things that you really want to see to their fullest content that will leap off the screen, then you will love 3D television."

Electronics manufacturers have noticed the huge box office success of 3D movies like Avatar, Up, and Alice in Wonderland.

Samsung has led the way at hhgregg stores.

Panasonic is joining the battle at Best Buy stores later this month. And this summer, electronics giant Sony will be ready to ship 3D televisions to stores around the world.

Sony believes the new technology will account for 10 percent of their television business. Industry experts believe that Sony is also planning to modify their PS3 video game consoles to work with their new 3D tv sets.

Major league sports may be ready to move toward 3D coverage of live action. The NFL tried a 3D experiment in 2008 and many team owners said they were excited about the technology.

At hhgregg, Miller said, "Just think about sporting events that are in real time. That guy passes the ball and it will be caught in 3D. It may seem like it's coming right to your couch."

Kevin Kaufman was looking for a new television in the hhgregg store and said, "That would be wild. If NASCAR goes 3D, now your talking!"

Most consumers don't seem willing to pay the higher price for 3D until the content catches up to the technology.

Gail Potts and her husband, Ronny, were looking at high definition televisions and shrugged their shoulders at the big 3D set on the shelf.
Ronny said, "Well, right now I just want regular. There aren't any programs in 3D."

Gail nodded her head in agreement and said, "You're paying almost an extra $2,000 for 3D. So no, I'll take the regular. Thanks."

Best Buy is expected to sell the Panasonic three-dimensional tv home entertainment system as a bundle to consumers.

For a price tag of $2,899.99 customers will get a 50-inch plasma 3D Viera set for $2,499.95, a $399.95 disc player based on the Blu-Ray standard and $149.95 viewing glasses.

Behind the Scenes: The Tamale Truck Arrives Just In Time

A special treat for WKYC Wednesday evening following the 7 p.m. broadcast - the Tamale truck pull up!

Good food for all if you ever see the Tamale truck in your neck of the woods. Thanks guys! Betsy Kling gives us a quick look.

WKYC and Gannett Offer Promotional Support To Help Military Members and Veterans

WKYC and parent company Gannett are offering promotional support to ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers, the No. 1 dental implant provider in the U.S., to help current members of the military and military veterans who have developed dental problems related to their service.

With ClearChoice's Star Spangled Smile program, 18 military members and veterans across the country in need of dental restoration will receive at no cost to them a complete set of dental implants and new teeth.

These full mouth restorations collectively are valued at more than $1 million. Individuals can nominate deserving veterans for the program by submitting essays to the Star Spangled website (http://www.starspangled.com/).

Seven Gannett TV stations -- WXIA-TV at Atlanta, WKYC-TV at Cleveland, KUSA-TV at Denver, KPNX-TV at Phoenix, KSDK-TV at St. Louis, KXTV at Sacramento, and WUSA-TV at Washington, DC -- are participating, as are two Gannett newspapers, USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic.

"We are proud to offer this promotional support to ClearChoice as it gives back to our service men and women in this very unique and important way," said Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. "Through these broadcast and print properties, we hope to reach as many people as possible so they can nominate our veterans for this program."

In April, the participating Gannett TV stations and newspapers will encourage people to nominate veterans for the program through a series of ads. During May and June, the veterans will undergo the dental procedures and in July those same Gannett TV stations and newspapers will promote the winners with "reveal ads" and promotions showing how the procedures have changed the participants' looks.

"ClearChoice is happy to help these fine men and women regain their smiles," Larry Deutsch, vice president of marketing at ClearChoice and ClearChoice partner, said. "They have put their lives on the line for our freedom. To give back the little we can do at every one of our centers makes all of us at ClearChoice very proud. ClearChoice wants to thank Gannett, USA TODAY and Gannett Broadcasting for their effort on this project."

ClearChoice (http://www.clearchoice.com/) is America's largest provider of Dental Implant treatment. ClearChoice is like a hospital for dental implants, staffed by oral surgeons, prosthodontists and master dental implant lab technicians. In each multi-million dollar center, patients will find 3-D CAT scan technology and on-site labs where the teeth are custom made.

Notes From The Newsroom: 3/5/10

By Frank Macek

It's time for another edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as we blog from the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center about what's going on behind the scenes at Channel 3.

February sweeps finished up on Wednesday, March 3rd, with some very exciting results for WKYC. In the key demographic of Adults 25-54 (most used by advertisers), WKYC ranked #1 at 5 a.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m weekdays and weekend mornings from 9 am until 10:30 a.m.

As you can guess, our Olympics coverage dominated Prime Time ratings for the entire two weeks between February 12th and February 28th. And, our "Olympic Zone" show hosted by WKYC's Jim Donovan was also well received at 7:30 p.m.

The new "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is off to a very strong start on NBC at 11:35 p.m. For the first four nights this week, Jay has averaged a 3.7 rating in Adults 25-54 with a 13.4 share locally, according to Nielsen. Jay has beat Letterman every night.

An old friend stopped by to say hello Thursday evening at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center. Former anchor & reporter Kristen Anderson is back in town for a visit. Kristin is looking fabulous and misses all her longtime friends, co-workers and Channel 3 fans. Kristin is now teaching and working on her advanced education at Philadelphia University. She was in town working on some interviews for school. Her husband, Jon Anderson - the former Channel 3 News Today morning anchor - is morning news anchor for Good Day Philadelphia at that market's Fox affiliate.

Have you seen our newest set? We first told you about this before the Olympics... It's called the "Channel 3 Cafe" where Hollie and Mark can interview guests, cook up Hollie's "Dish of the Week" and just hang out as part of our morning show in Studio A, across from the main anchor desk. If you haven't seen it, we've included a couple photos below.

Don't forget if you haven't joined us on Facebook yet, please become of friend of Channel 3 News and Channel 3 Weather. We have special on-line ncontent just for our Facebook friends including your chance to be our Facebook Friend of the Day, daily behind the scenes promos, sneak peeks at NBC shows, a daily programming guide of what's on Channel 3 and much more.

• Click to become a Facebook Friend of Channel 3 News
• Click to become a Facebook Friend of Channel 3 News
• Click to become a Twitter Follower of Channel 3 News
• Click to become a Twitter Follower of Channel 3 Weather

Blast from the Past: The Action 3 News Basketball Team

This Action 3 News classic photo has recently shown up and was taken around 1975 when Doug Adair was the main news anchor at our station.

All of the folks in the picture have moved on in their broadcasting careers - except one.

See if you can guess who is still at Channel 3 today. Send your guesses to fmacek@wkyc.com

Click on either photo for a larger view.

Promo: Channel 3 News - "We Keep You Connected" Campaign

Here are some of the newest promos running on Channel 3 as part of our latest campaign that started during the Olympics.

Retailers Salivate As 3D TV Possibilities Come To Life

Special to the Director's Cut Blog
By Mike Snider, USA TODAY

The race is on to get new 3D TVs into stores - and homes.

Panasonic plans to have its first 3D HDTVs in stores next week. (Model and pricing information have not yet been released.) Samsung's first 3D models - 46-inch and 55-inch flat panels starting at $2,340 - are available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Sears.com for shipment as early as this week.

Mitsubishi today brings to market $129 XpanD 3D glasses that will turn many of its existing televisions into 3D sets. The TVs include models sold during the past two years that were marked "3D-ready."

3D TVs from Sony and other competitors are close behind.

"Our belief is that the American consumer has experienced 3D and thinks it is pretty cool," says Bob Perry, Panasonic senior vice president. "There is a great opportunity to create a different (3D) experience in homes and in theaters."

3D Blu-ray movie discs and broadcasts are still a few months away, so TV makers are turning to video games, such as Ubisoft's Avatar, to show off 3D content.

"This is really an easy plug-and-play system the consumer can use to enjoy 3D now and then be ready when these 3D movie releases come out," says Mitsubishi's Frank DeMartin.

Game publishers have "more 3D games in the pipeline," he says, "and movies is the second wave."

Some current Blu-ray disc players can be upgraded to play 3D discs, but new models are hitting stores now from Panasonic, Sony and others.

Sony has 3D TVs due this summer, too. Customers who have seen demonstrations in Sony Style stores "either say they flat-out really like it or that they didn't expect to like it so much," says Sony's Chris Fawcett.

3D television programming is also on the way. In June, satellite provider DirecTV plans to launch three 3D channels. ESPN has its own channel announced for June 11. Also in the works later this year: a joint 3D channel from Discovery, IMAX and Sony.

"There won't be an overwhelming amount of 3D content available early in the cycle, but there will be more than there was (high-definition content) in the early days of HDTV," says Ross Rubin of The NPD Group.

An NPD survey released last month found that while one-third of consumers were somewhat interested in 3D TV, more than 60% were worried about the cost.

"One of the industrywide concerns is whether consumers will be so quick to upgrade (high-definition) TVs that they may have only recently purchased," Rubin says. "While retailers are cautious about 3D, they're excited about its potential to drive people to the stores to experience it."

A projection from research firm DisplaySearch that consumers worldwide could buy more than 1 million 3D TVs in 2010 is "fairly conservative," Panasonic's Perry says. "We believe a significant proportion of consumers are going to buy a 3D TV and future-proof themselves."

Los Angeles-area retailer Tom Campbell of Linder's Furniture/Home Theater agrees. The chain plans to sell the first Mitsubishi 3D-ready HDTV bundle today in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., with XpanD 3D glasses, video game system and the Avatar game (starting at $1,899 for a 60-inch set).

"People want it," he says. "It is beyond their expectations, and we tell them about how they are going to be able to watch sports and movies soon."

Behind the Scenes: Happy Birthday To Our Evening Weather Goddess

A birthday surprise...and boy was she surprised...check out this funny clip as it unfolded this afternoon in the WKYC studios. Happy Birthday Betsy!

WKYC Earns 8th Place in Viewers Among All NBC Stations During the Olympics

WKYC-TV in Cleveland placed eighth, giving Gannett NBC-affiliated stations four of the Top 10 stations with adults 25-54.

KUSA-TV, our sister station in Denver, was the No. 1-rated local NBC station with the key advertising demographic of adults 25-54 for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. KUSA also out-performed the national average rating by 75% with adults 25-54.

Two other Gannett NBC television stations joined KUSA in placing among the Top 5 highest rated local television stations: KSDK-TV in St. Louis ranked third and KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul was fourth.

"NBC provided two weeks of extraordinary Olympic broadcasts," said Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. "Overall, it was a huge success for our viewers, our advertisers and our stations."

Behind The Scenes: Law & Order, Back At 10 p.m. on NBC

Special to the Director's Cut Blog
by Chris Tye

NEW YORK, NY -- Law & Order is one season away from being the longest running drama in TV history.

But before they take down "Bonanza" as the title holder, they're returning home to 10 p.m.

"I'm thrilled. I think it's always been a 10 p.m. show," says actress Alana De La Garza. "We deal with heavy issues, and being on at 8 p.m. (in some time zones) is not appropriate in some cases."

Law & Order returned to its original 10 p.m. time slot Monday.

The shuffle occurs as Jay Leno returns to "The Tonight Show," vacating the 10 p.m. slot he occupied since the spring with the failed "The Jay Leno Show."

When Channel 3 visited the set of the New York-based "Law & Order" last month, you quickly realize all isn't what it seems.

The actor who plays District Attorney Michael Cutter has to lose his British accent every time he opens his mouth.

"One word that has been particularly tough is 'circulatory,'" said actor Linus Roache. "As a Brit, I have to learn to slow down the pronunciation."

Behind the Scenes: Who's the Real Cardboard Cut-Out?

Jay Leno returns tonight to NBC and WKYC as the host of the "Tonight Show" at 11:35 p.m.

To promote his show, Jay stopped by the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center today, or did he?

I'm not really sure by these pictures.. Can you tell who the cardboard cut-out is? AJ, Producer Carrie Young or Jay himself?

NBC Announces Big Name Guests for the Return of the "Tonight Show With Jay Leno"

The Director's Cut Blog has learned the guest list for the first two weeks of the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" which returns to 11:35 p.m. beginning on Monday, March 1st.

We've also got our first look at the new "Tonight Show" logo.

Monday, March 1 - Jamie Foxx, Olympic Gold Medal Skier Lindsey Vonn and a musical performance by Brad Paisley

Tuesday, March 2 - Sarah Palin, Olympic Gold Medal Snowboarder Shaun White

Wednesday, March 3 - "Jaywalk All-Stars" with the Cast of "Jersey Shore," Chelsea Handler, the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and a musical performance by Avril Lavigne

Thursday, March 4 - Matthew McConaughey and Jason Reitman

Friday, March 5 - Morgan Freeman and Meredith Vieira

Monday, March 8 - Simon Cowell

Tuesday, March 9 - Christoph Waltz, Animal Expert Dave Salmoni and a musical performance by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts

Wednesday, March 10 - Guests include Kristen Stewart and Guy Fieri

Thursday, March 11 - Guests include Dana Carvey and Kim Kardashian, with a musical performance by Colbie Caillat

Friday, March 12 - Guests include Dakota Fanning and Judd Apatow

Former Channel 3 Anchor To Run for 17th District House Seat

Special to the Director's Cut
By Tom Beres, Channel 3 Senior Political Reporter

CLEVELAND -- Former Channel 3 anchorman Tim White has filed to run for the 17th House District seat.

That's the seat now held by Josh Mandel who is running as the Republican candidate for State Treasurer.

White left Channel 3 in December, 2008. He has homes in Pepper Pike and Wyoming.

He is running as a Democrat. Some people found that surprising.

White said, "Think blue dog."

If he stays in the race, he will face Democrat Kellie Perk in the May 3 primary.

Republican Marlene Anielski and Libertarian David Macko are also running for the seat.

It's A Restrained Relaunch For Leno

Special to the Director's Cut
By Gary Levin, USA Today

NBC considered depicting the failed Jay Leno Show as a mere dream: Promo spots would feature Leno and Victoria Principal in the shower, an homage to the classic Dallas scene in which Principal dreamed the death of her onscreen husband.

Instead, the network is opting for a low-key echo of the commercials that launched Leno: Last fall, he was shown driving a race car emblazoned with a 10, a reminder of his new slot.

In spots that began airing during the Olympics Wednesday night, he's driving the same car, only the 10 is replaced by 11:35 (or 10:35, depending on your time zone), as the Beatles song urges him to "Get back to where you once belonged."

The approach is in marked contrast to the hype - painted buildings, grocery-aisle ads - that greeted his move to prime time last fall. Back then he was heralded on the cover of Time as the "future of television"; on March 1, NBC tries to relaunch Leno in his late-night perch and repopulates its 10 ET/PT schedule with dramas and reality shows.

The consensus from experts is that, promos aside, the new/old Tonight Show will do better than Conan O'Brien's short-lived version but not as well as it did before Leno left. "The damage to the Leno brand is real," says Sam Armando of ad firm SMGx. Leno sought to repair the brand in a lengthy interview with Oprah Winfrey and a Super Bowl ad for rival David Letterman that was designed to mock Leno.

"Whether true or not, Jay was perceived as doing something that was kind of hurtful to Conan O'Brien," says Brent Poer of Mediavest, though "memory and sympathy can wane very quickly."

Says John Rash of Campbell Mithun: "He was the reigning king of late night. But the negative news on his show, his performance, his guests and his hold on pop culture were questioned loudly and repeatedly for months, which makes it more of a challenge."

Leno will reclaim the desk he abandoned during his five-month prime-time stint, along with most elements of the old Tonight. But longtime band-leader Kevin Eubanks is expected to leave eventually to "pursue touring and recording opportunities," NBC says.

Meanwhile, Letterman's Late Show, which has been the No. 1 late-night talk show since summer, is preparing to defend its newfound success.

Late Show had planned to take off in early March but will go dark next week instead, an unusual move during a ratings sweeps. It has booked A-list guests including Jerry Seinfeld (Leno's first prime-time guest), Tom Hanks and Matt Damon for its first two weeks against Tonight.

Four Gannett TV Stations Place Among Top 10 Most Watched Stations in the Country for Winter Olympics

McLEAN, VA -- Four local Gannett NBC affiliate stations were among the Top 10 most watched TV stations for the first four days of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. KUSA-TV in Denver ranked second; KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul was fifth; KSDK-TV in St. Louis placed seventh; and WKYC-TV in Cleveland was ninth. Gannett stations also took 3 of the top 5 spots in the 25 largest television markets -- KUSA was ranked first, KARE third and KSDK fourth.

"We congratulate all our local NBC affiliates for successfully launching these Olympics. The high viewing is a clear result of unique content from NBC matched to strong local brands," says Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. "The Winter Olympics are off to a tremendous start from the most watched opening ceremony ever for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics (up 35% over the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy), to great weekend ratings (Saturday night was more highly viewed than any single night of Torino coverage) to higher ratings for our NBC stations compared to 2006."

In addition, the resources of USA TODAY, USATODAY.com, USA WEEKEND and more than 80 local daily newspapers are being shared across Gannett to provide unprecedented content for local consumers.

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is an international news and information company operating on multiple platforms including the Internet, mobile, newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Gannett is an Internet leader with hundreds of newspaper and TV Web sites; CareerBuilder.com, the nation's top employment site; USATODAY.com; and more than 80 local MomsLikeMe.com sites. Gannett publishes 84 daily U.S. newspapers, including USA TODAY, the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper, and more than 650 magazines and other non-dailies including USA WEEKEND. Gannett also operates 23 television stations in 19 U.S. markets. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom's second largest regional newspaper company with 17 daily paid-for titles, more than 200 weekly newspapers, magazines and trade publications, and a network of Web sites.

Olympics Bring Ratings Gold to NBC and WKYC

By Frank Macek

CLEVELAND -- Despite weather that's far from a wintry feel in Canada, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, have racked up big ratings for NBC and WKYC.

In the half-century of televised Olympics, NBC's coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday was the MOST WATCHED EVER for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics with 67.5 million viewers.

Those numbers were 17 million higher than the Torino, Italy, games four years ago and six 6 million more than the previous record holder, Lillehammer Games in 1994. Those tabloid fueled games held the record for 16 years.

According to NBC Universal, the top five most watched include:

• Vancouver (2010) - 67.5  million
• Lillehammer (1994) - 62.0 million
• Nagano (1998) - 52.4 million
• Torino (2006) - 50.2 million
• Albertville (1992) - 46.7 million

Locally, WKYC was the 6th highest rated station in the nation for the Opening Ceremonies with a 23.1 rating and 38 share.

So far for the first 4 days of the Games, 129 million people have watched on the networks on NBCU - about 4 million more than watched the first 4 days of the 2006 Games.

WKYC has the 8th largest audience for the first 4 days with a 19.5 rating and 31 share.

The Vancouver Games are the first Winter Olympic Games to be presented entirely in high definition.

The Games continue through February 28th.

Behind the Scenes: WKYC On Location At The Great Big Home & Garden Expo

Spring is just around the corner.

WKYC and Moms Like Me.Com are big sponsors of this year's Great Big Home and Garden Expo at the IX Center.

Our Director's Cut spies were on location and had their digital camera handy to bring you a few photos of the fun going on.

We even spotted star Ty Pennington who stopped by this year's show.

To see our photogallery, click on the picture.

Betsy, Monica and Eric Go For The Gold In "Anchor Olympics"

CLEVELAND -- They're not Olympians, but they'll still give it their all!

Betsy Kling, Monica Robins, and Eric Mansfield will compete in 10 events in the first Anchor Olympics, starting Monday night February 15th on Channel 3 News at 7. The trio will do battle in winter olympic sports ech night during the broadcast.

Hockey, skiing, luging, tubing, and curling are just some of the activities.

So, who do you think will win?

Tune in Monday as the Anchor Olympics gets underway!