Content Survey Live: hits a landmark 100th post tonight. What are we going to do tonight... the same thing we've done 99 times before...
(For those looking for the gratuitous salute to Content Survey Live's 100th post: please stick around to the end.)
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 visit Galveston Island, or figuring out what really exists deep in the heart of Texas (preferably visiting a HEB trying to find their "I Cannot Believe It's Not Butter" dupe), 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 Houston and Texas in general, (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... HOUSTON.
Space City USA, welcomes us with open arms and closed rooves (after all, Houston is the birthplace of the airconditioned stadium for outdoor sports). KHOU, being the single representative of the body of CBS affiliates (easily the largest non-CBS owned CBS station in the US) is here to push it's worth on behalf of a massive affiliate body, running from small towns to some decently sized cities. The business news concerning KHOU has been good in recent months, with the approval of the merger of it's owner TEGNA (once part of the Gannett empire) with Nexstar (once a giant affiliate company, and now also operates the CW television network) just a matter of months ago.
It's 10pm, and the lights in Houston are moving toward a news service that may see a bright future ahead of itself not just in this game... but wider out as well.
The first thing we have to let you know of: is that if you want to watch KHOU's news in Australia, you will need a VPN.
Now onto the survey.
The big lead story tonight, is all to do with the weather.
A hailstorm in Houston's surrounds, a missing woman in a bayou (with a live cross to boot), and digital first stories on the weather (along with the first mention of traffic reports by any station this season (why did it take until city eight for such a thing to happen?) make up the opening minutes of the 10pm news.
We get a voiced over piece on the inevitable big story tomorrow morning anywhere in the US with a huge Spirit Airlines presence (South Florida, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, Dallas and Houston): low cost carrier, Spirit Airlines doing it's best Ansett impersonation: that is going broke and closing down operations during a significant major event, which is due to be made official with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, rumored to be as early tomorrow morning US time, although this Reddit page will be doing a brisk trade.
Houston's mayor meanwhile, is proposing a $5 monthly "administrative" fee for trash collection, a idea seen as absolutely garbage (mind the pun) by some in the city.
A Texas state ban on smokable hemp has again been delayed, while a special election (just use by-election like everyone else in the world does, America) is happening tomorrow for the Texas state Senate...
Meanwhile, the FIFA World Cup trophy is visiting Houston... complete with a AARP-sponsored countdown to the World Cup, whose design would literally make the AARP angry.
We also hear about a abortion drug by-mail ban in the US, and a mall curfew at Willowbrook,
Followed by pieces from a road rage incident in Georgia, and a impeccable chase of two foil surfers in California by a shark (which sees the anchors, wishing it was with the Jaws theme)
We then kick into sport, with coverage on the first game of a series between the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros at Fenway Park, resulting in a loss, the Houston Dash get a draw with Seattle in the soccer, the UFL gets coverage with a Gamblers loss and the brief mention of a multi-million dollar contract extension at the Texans.
Overall, tonight KHOU tried to get there: played to it's strengths and yet may have ended up like the Astros at Fenway Park...
THE SCORES.
Two local stories (inc. that fantastic digital-first feature)
One live cross,
Nine voiced over stories,
A four sport story special...
Tonight's score, 7.4/10, with a David Hill Number of 4.
Overall, this puts Houston at the bottom of the table for this pool on 7.4/10, not that far behind LA/Minneapolis at 7.5/10 each and Boston: winning this pool and headed to the post-season with a 7.65/10.
This means with our Lucky Loser system for the post-season (where the lowest combined rank goes first), the picture now looks like this.
-San Francisco: (Combined rank of 13)
-Boston: (Combined rank of 13.65)
The real picture for the "Lucky Loser"... will only become clear once the second half of the season is complete.
AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.
8. Get Ready, CBS (1989 version)
The first year of CBS’s use of “Get Ready” deserves a entry of it’s own, although it wasn’t the first broadcaster that year to use that same line: Britain’s ITV used “Get Ready” to be the campaign that unveiled it’s new unified logo for the network as a whole in September 1989…
But, the CBS momentum on these two words was more vital. It had entered a late night dogfight, utilizing Wheel of Fortune’s Pat Sajak, against Johnny Carson: only to see a new and vibrant tonight show product hit syndication: Arsenio Hall (with some CBS affiliates choosing Arsenio over their own network’s new late night product) and finally got a hit post-M*A*S*H to be proud of: in Murphy Brown. The position here was to set up much like ABC did in 1979 to set up for the 1980’s: that is to get ready for the 1990’s: a decade that would begin to change the way Americans saw television (for example, TGIF kicked off in 1989 for ABC, the pilot for what became Seinfeld aired on NBC in mid-summer 1989, all while Fox was brooding in the horizon to kick off affiliation mayhem come late 1993: acquiring NFL rights: at the expense of CBS)… and ultimately the world followed suit.
The 1990 incarnation of this campaign will be looked at later on in this series: explicitly due to it’s overseas adaptations.
THE GRATUTIOUS SALUTE...
Well, it's been a significant moment we are marking. 100 times Content Survey Live has been around the ground. It's been a hoot producing it since 2020 (alongside it's main spinoff: Lexicon News, which called it quits in March). It also means, the main season for Content Survey Live U.S.A. has hit it's halfway point. We'll be back here on May 12 (perhaps earlier, in light of the Spirit news) Australian time, for the second part of the main season, kicking off with Pool 3: where Chicago, Denver, Atlanta (you won't know until the night of the post what happens) and Sacramento take the stage: a literal time zone soup of the week.
And, as it also stands: our postseason is now halfway filled with San Francisco and Boston already securing their chance to become the champions of this challenge.
America, we are halfway through... but not yet halfway done...
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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