This post, is dedicated to New York news legend, Ernie Anastos: who passed away on the 12th of March, at the age of 82.
America: your survey is ready.
History beckons for a series that has made kept a track record of Australian television news history for half a decade. Because it’s history, we are bound to record.
Content Survey Live, has had it’s share of midnight rides, and a record that would put Paul Revere himself to the test. The signals that kicked off the ride by Paul Revere at the start of the Revolutionary War 251 years ago were simple. One if by land, two if by sea, lanterns at top of Boston’s Old North Church, to start the fateful ride.
Today, it’s 0s and 1’s down a underwater fibre cable or up in a satellite, and they show up on the other side of the world at the same time, perhaps faster than a single movement of Revere’s horse so long ago.
But the most important thing such a series like ours, has done and will do for as long as we do so, is to honour the right of a free press: something that Thomas Jefferson implored for, most famously in a letter to John Jay in January, 1786.
“It is really to be lamented that after a public servant has passed a life in important and faithful services, after having given the most plenary satisfaction in every station, it should yet be in the power of every individual to disturb his quiet, by arraigning him in a gazette and by obliging him to act as if he needed a defence, an obligation imposed on him by unthinking minds which never give themselves the trouble of seeking a reflection unless it be presented to them. However it is a part of the price we pay for our liberty, which cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.”
Excerpt from “Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 25 January 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-09-02-0190. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 9, 1 November 1785 – 22 June 1786, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954, p. 215.]
America, this year marked 240 years since that letter was written… with little more than a glance: the focus being on July 4: and a nation’s 250th birthday.
For the next month or so, we will be capturing the spirit of America, through a content survey journey wending in and out of sixteen different cities, as we lead into that milestone on July the 4th, and perhaps capture the mood at these CBS stations about to lose their most important thing they have: their late news leadout.
America: your survey is ready. And we are about to kick it off real big. Monday Night in the Big Apple. Because, if we are going to make it there… we’ll make it anywhere.
It’s up to you, New York, New York.
The two year wait has been worth it.
Welcome to Content Survey Live: U.S.A.
The first time ever, we’ll be running content survey competition with markets outside of Australia… to determine the opponent of Brisbane in September. And, don't think we have forgotten about Australia. A special event will be announced at the end of this series, concerning the four cities that Brisbane smashed through in 2025 to get to the position it is now.
As we reach out to the world in 2026 and beyond (a teaser for the future perhaps), we are emphasizing your safety on the internet in the age of AI. And, that is why we believe the best choice for a VPN (where you can lock in US pricing for your trip to 30 Rock for a tour of NBC's studio, or a Broadway show, or just checking out pricing at Walmart/Target without leaving your house in Australia) is Surfshark VPN. A VPN can make your life a whole lot easier when organizing your next trip to the Big Apple (or Australia, if reading from the US: we'll leave the shrimp out to defrost while you come across the Pacific). Follow our link, and it helps deliver better content for you, and drives the challenge home.
And, now: onto the ground rules.
THE GROUND RULES
Our focus, in Content Survey Live will be monitoring multiple news services over a significant timespan (a benefit of technological change, now allowing us to watch American news bulletins here in Australia), using a slight modification of the same criteria we used in the “Great Local News Study” from Kuttsy's Pitch XI in August, 2019 and in Content Survey Live between 2020 and 2024.
-Locally sourced stories: that is stories reported by local journos. Really big local market stories with national impacts, also fit here. Voiced over local stories are counted separately.
-Live crosses: stuff that is used to embellish a story.
-Weather and traffic reports are not counted.
-Sport stories are counted for one point if it’s a voiced over piece: but… if you have a reporter on the scene reporting on the event, it counts for two points. This sports reporting scoring system is a modified version of the “Ray Robinson Number” from the 2024 special event, and the 2025 edition of Content Survey Live, which was utilized to examine overnight news, and will be counted up at the end of the regular season as a special secondary achievement going to the market who has the highest sports score.
This number, will be named… the David Hill Number: in commemoration of the role Hill played in revolutionizing sports coverage in Australia (as VP for sport for Nine in the mid eighties), the United Kingdom (launching UK cable powerhouse Sky Sports) and in the US (the founding father of Fox Sports, whose innovations reshaped NFL and other sport coverage for the better).
In addition, all scores in 2026 will be reported in a new format: a ranking out of 10: David Hill Number (e.g. 5.8/10 and a David Hill Number of 3) rather than separating these figures out.
THE TALE OF THE TAPE... NEW YORK.
New York, New York: is rightly known throughout the US as the leading media market in the country. You've made it big in the TV news business, when you arrive in New York: as your story genesis could be anywhere in the five boroughs, or in the commuter belt of New Jersey and Connecticut.
The market that's home, to Wall Street, Madison Square Garden, the UN General Assembly and Yankee Stadium is often seen as a news story in itself to Australians: a distant destination, with global implications.
Tonight, you'll see the New York we often miss, when thinking of the city and it's news.
It's 11pm, WCBS's late night news is about to hit the airwaves: leading into the Late Show, at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Broadway... something that won't be said for very much longer.
And, now: onto tonight's survey.
We lead, with a cross to the immersive studio (a term you'll have to learn to live with this content survey season: that being a similar setup to what 10 Melbourne launched in September last year) to see a action figure-esque weather presenter Lonnie Quinn (fresh off a trip to Aruba, and wasn't being bashful about said trip) doing the weather (something he'd be back for at 20 past 11) before the big lead story: a vigil in St Albans, Queens for 15yr old Jaden Pierre (who was shot and killed last week), followed by a story on West Orange NJ school board budget cuts, and the delays concerning the Amtrak Silver Meteor in Florida due to a wild fire (with footage supplied by a local CBS affiliate in the Orlando area).
The voiced over content tonight was spectacular, with a mention of a significant retrial kicking off tomorrow morning NY time, a review of NYPD's narcotics division after a significant wrongful arrest, while a NYPD sergeant was released from prison, the swearing in of Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.) into Congress after a recent election, World Cup-related outdoor dining changes for NYC, a Lamborghini stolen in New Jersey, a crackdown on illegal car shows (what we call hooning in Australia), and a puff piece about Madonna missing some clothes after Coachella.
However: the biggest star on this night is none other than sports presenter, Otis Livingston who got the hardest job possible: having to present sport live at MSG after a NBA playoffs buzzer beater.
A tight night for the Knicks, who blew a lead to only end up losing by a point in the second game of their first round series of the NBA playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks, and got rich coverage (post-game presser, and a full wrap of the game no less) alongside pieces concerning both the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and the NFL's NY Giants both looking forward to their respective drafts (with the NFL draft happening in 2026... in Pittsburgh... later this week). The extensive Knicks playoffs coverage earned four points on it's own for the David Hill Number tonight.
Overall, WCBS's 11pm news is one fit for the city it serves, and is a crowning achievement concerning keeping people informed and updated: take note 10 in Australia.
The scores:
Three full local stories (the Silver Meteor story had assistance from the CBS affiliate in Orlando).
Eight voiced over stories tonight (a rapidfire effort, indeed).
Five sports stories (wrapped in two live crosses), that makes Australians jealous.
The overall ranking for tonight: 7.75/10 with a David Hill Number of 7.
A fiery start by America's most important media market... in a event where a winner won't be truly known until week's end.
AMERICA: YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.
1. STILL THE ONE (ABC, 1977, 1979)
Here we are, almost fifty years on from the most important promotional masterstroke in US television but, you have to look back another six years to arrive to this point in time. The rise of a brash executive, in Fred Silverman in 1970 to CBS’s lead programmer, led to one significant gamble that would have killed a career of a weaker man. The infamous rural purge of CBS’s primetime schedule, that literally killed anything with a tree (and inexplictly made Hee Haw into a syndication staple until the 1990’s after it’s CBS cancellation), was a shock for a time… but the gamble paid off, with some of the biggest shows of the seventies kicking off under Silverman’s lead at CBS… that is, until ABC America made a gamble of it’s own… and acquired Silverman’s services in 1975. Faced with saving Happy Days, he didn’t just save Fonzie, but turned it into a spinoff machine (akin to one of Silverman’s CBS commissions, All in The Family (which begat Maude and The Jeffersons), while commissioning staples for ABC that lasted well into the eighties, in the process bringing them from the basement… to the top of the US ratings tree: and the network wasn’t scared to boast it.
The 1977 ratings year brought with it a gamble: that paid off significantly: Roots, one of the earliest mini-series, and a brand new sense of pride: and messaging to boot. 1976/77 ratings season was about making them the One… the 1977/78 ratings season was designed to try and keep them there.
And, it took a case of a relatively recent song by Orleans, to sell viewers on this vision.
The campaign worked… but Silverman was poached: this time to lead NBC (more on that later this week) and yet the boasting continued, as the successes Silverman laid before his departure continued to raise fruit…
Owning the “One” had become so successful, it was only fitting that the campaign for ABC officially ended in 1979.
But, across the Pacific: another brash executive, who rose from selling advertising for Graham Kennedy in the sixties, took the ideas Silverman developed for ABC (along with numerous programs) and made it Nine’s own. Sam Chisholm, became the right hand man to Kerry Packer for Nine in the late seventies and well into the eighties: and ultimately ensured “Still the One” had life long after Silverman in the US: especially with the fashion Nine relaunched the slogan after a decade of slogans that were hits/misses from the ABC US partnership, in 1988 that finally divorced itself of it’s American roots.
And, by the time of the campaign’s 20 year anniversary in Australia (long after the move to England for Sam Chisholm, to turnaround BskyB)… in 1997, Orleans was called in to do a updated track.
By the time 2006 ran around, the slogan had worn itself thin.
But, much like it was in 1988: you cannot keep a old slogan down. In 2021, just as Australia was preparing to reopen to the world post-COVID, and just weeks after the death of Bert Newton no less: Nine revived the line: this time to sell itself into 2022.
The closing line of that promo is apt, especially when you take into account it’s American origins (with Fred Silverman passing away in January 2020) and the Australian element that ultimately made the slogan our own: (Sam Chisholm passing away in 2018 after a short illness).
“From the very beginning we have, we are, and forever will be… Still The One”.
One down... fifteen to go. Tomorrow night, we enter KD Country: the land of three rivers, that was the birthplace of US radio a over a century ago. Night 2, is Pittsburgh: and it's going in steely faced for it's challenge. See you tomorrow night.
A reminder of our socials:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuttsywoods.couch
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/veritasonkw.bsky.social
Substack: https://veritasonkw.substack.com/
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