Content Survey Live: U.S.A. Post-Season: Night 3: Third's Third, Right?

 Three, is a magic number...

Welcome to the third night of the post-season, of Content Survey Live USA.

For the next four nights, you will see the four cities who've run the pools during the regular season... go at it one more time: this time against each other. The seeding goes as follows.

-Last place coming into the post season, played two nights ago: Chicago pushed through, with a 8/10, a David Hill Number of 4, for a combined score of 12.
-Second coming into the post-season, played last night, Miami matched Chicago and slightly bettered them: with a 8.15/10, a David Hill Number of 4 for a combined score of 12.15.
-Third coming into the post-season, plays tonight.
And finally: the cream of the crop going into post-season, gets to send this season off tomorrow.

And, because it's post-season, our "ad" will feature a destination not covered by our survey, tonight's being Toad Suck, Arkansas.

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 find out the price of accommodation for next year's Toad Suck Daze in Conway, or figuring out the costs for the various services at the Toad Suck One Stop, 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 Arkansas 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, a reminder from the past... concerning the humor that will happen, once your friends and family hear about Toad Suck, Arkansas.

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.

A side note first: since it's survey, back on May 9: Sacramento has moved into it's own AR/VR set, similar to most of CBS's O&Os, although we noticed that there are still some teething problems, when the Sacramento 10pm news was relayed on CBS News Bay Area (increasingly using Norcal for it's online branding)

We now begin the KPIX 11pm news, with a extensive voiced over piece concerning the fire risk in the surrounds of the Bay area (a heatwave's coming, soccer fans don't forget the deodorant), including one unique way of clearing brush by bored Oakland firefighters, who have no more MLB games to go to locally: as the A's are off to Vegas.

We then get a story on a Oakley house fire, a campaign doorstop for a CA gubernational candidate in San Jose, a kickoff for SF Pride, and a special KPIX is airing at month's end, a CBS-sourced story concerning Iran, while inflation is continuing to bite in the US, as well as previews for the FIFA World Cup at a unbranded Levi's Stadium, set to kick off in Mexico City at 5am AEST on SBS, and a promotion by Coooooooooooooors Light (this is not a spelling error, I was the one who had to count the number of O's on the can just to add this) concerning their Tallerboy gimmick can for the World Cup.

Which now brings us to sport: dominated by two comeback stories, the first being very relevant to San Francisco: where the Giants stormed home against the Washington Nationals, thanks to a ultimate grand slam by Bryce Eldridge, and of course the greatest NBA Finals comeback in history, at Madison Square Garden, which saw the New York Knicks go from deep behind to a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals: now hoping to take it home on the road on Sunday afternoon AEST.

We then close, with a events calendar, and a story about someone finding rock legend Alice Cooper's credit card: which must have been a American Express card, as you wouldn't leave home without it, with a nice 3-shot to close.

Overall, San Francisco did well tonight... just as the FIFA World Cup arrives in the US: where the Scots are already drinking planes dry.

THE SCORES.

Two local stories.
No live crosses.
Six voiced over pieces
A strong sports presentation tonight, with two big stories.

All the way back in Pool 1: SF scored... a 8/10, a David Hill Number of 5 with a combined number of 13.
Tonight SF scored: 7.75, with a David Hill Number of 4, with a combined number of 11.75.
This sees San Francisco at the back of a very tight pack: and also now sees that regardless of Boston's result tomorrow, the winner of Content Survey Live U.S.A. will come from the eastern timezone.

What Boston needs to win tomorrow is simple. Score a combined number above 12.15, and victory is theirs. Score below 12.15, Miami is off to face Brisbane in September.

AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.

19. It’s On… (Fox 1990, 10 1992 as “This is It”, 1993 as “It’s On Ten”)

The 1990 Fox campaign launch was simply seen as the moment Fox became a force to be reckoned with. Second season Simpsons, In Living Color catching fire, COPS and America’s Most Wanted becoming iconic. And, it coined the most important TV trademark of the 1990’s (one that even carried over to Fox8’s early days in Australia)… “It’s On Fox”

The big finish of Fox’s 1990 promo, ended up becoming the big beginning for 10’s 1991 relaunch.

However, the push was made in 1992 to adapt the promo they borrowed from in 1991, as a complete new look promo.

By 1993, it gave up aping Fox… it just simply tried to follow their trend.

The next time 10 would invest heavily in a significant launch like that of the 1990’s would come after Canwest sold the network, after the network fell into a second receivership in 2017: only to be rescued… by of all people: CBS.

It took them a year, and in October 2018: the mark of the past that symbolised the end of malaise of the late eighties, was replaced… with a numeral for the future.

Tomorrow night: the only mid-90’s US promo to make this event… fittingly on the final night.

Three nights down, one left: Boston, the overall winner from the regular season lines up to the plate tomorrow night to hope it's success in May... pays off in June.

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/