Content Survey Live is checking into it's second pool... this time, kicking off on the west coast...
Last week, pool 1 occurred, and delivered it's winner, in San Francisco, with a outstanding 8/10. This week, we literally criss cross almost every American timezone, beginning tonight in Los Angeles, with stops in Minneapolis and Boston and culminating on Saturday night, Australian time with a milestone for this format... deep in the heart of Houston, Texas.
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 secure tickets for Knotts Berry Farm (and a chicken dinner to boot), or figuring out how much a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain will cost, 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 Los Angeles 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... LOS ANGELES.
A long time coming for content survey, for the entertainment capital of the world. Los Angeles as a metropolitan centre, is almost comparable to the entire population of Australia. And yet, this city has a news heritage that runs deep. It was this news heritage that brought Pat Harvey to Los Angeles in 1989, after a successful run in Chicago (and a little stopover for a week in Brisbane, Australia (reading 10's Brisbane news alongside Geoff Mullins) in mid-1989 in between the WGN and KCAL gigs) and was initially partnered up with a Southland news legend in Jerry Dunphy to spearhead a new vision for KCAL's news after the acquisition of the station by Disney, which famously began with a call-letter change: from KHJ to KCAL in December 1989). The Disney focus for KCAL, also led to significant changes come the 1990's: developing a news-focused independent station that relied significantly less on syndicated programming (most famously done in the early 1990's with the move to three solid hours of local news in primetime, along with aggressive marketing), Pat's popularity on her own, ultimately led to a longevity that eclipsed her former partner at KCAL (Jerry passing away in May 2002, famously announced by Pat: whilst shedding tears), before becoming part of the KCBS furniture (while still doing stuff for KCAL on occasion, although the news resources for both KCAL and KCBS became a solitary unit, a strong unit at that.) when CBS bought KCAL (from a different owner: that Disney sold to, once acquiring KABC in the mid nineties) in 2002.
It's 11pm. And tonight the combined resources of KCBS and KCAL (to borrow a phrase from Jerry Dunphy) reach out from the desert, to the sea, to all of Southern California to bring a news service counted on by millions to the table.
A very notable event tomorrow night: a CBS-run California gubernational debate produced by KCAL/KCBS, that will air across the three CBS O&O's in California (not just LA, but San Francisco and Sacramento as well).
And, we start the survey, with the big lead story from over the weekend: the WHCD security incident (which has a very local angle here: due to suspect coming from southern California (Torrance to be precise, which got live crosses and voxpops galore) as well as predictions for the case itself, a burglary in Panorama City.
And, you cannot have a Los Angeles edition of a Content Survey Live survey: without the one thing that ends up on the other side of the the Pacific as a shallow voiced over piece... the traditional police chase down the streets of LA (shot from a helicopter), with extra dog rescue and LAPD accident on the side to boot.
We also get a piece on the CA election debate (likely repeated ad-nauseum on both KCAL and KCBS this evening) alongside local polling for Iran war conducted on the side, a controversial garden in Chino striking significant neighbour questions, a drowning in Lincoln Heights, a potential billionaire tax could be headed to the California ballot in November and a long held-off reunion with a dog and his owner after the Eaton fire finally happens in Pasadena.
Sport, is dominated by a Dodgers home game, and a strong victory on "Japanese Heritage Night" (if you want to know how much Dodgers stuff is going with the Japanese, just look for the Dodgers store... at Ala Moana Shopping Center in Hawaii.), as well as a giant wrap of the NBA playoffs (a barnburner for the Denver Nuggets (although still behind Minnesota in their series... the next game for the Nuggets, much like us: is in Minneapolis), Oklahoma City clean sweep their series (setting a date with the Lakers), and the Detroit Pistons V Orlando Magic game (where the Magic has a chance on the 30th, to win their series... on the road).
Overall, tonight's news was surprisingly good... and for those wanting to take advantage of the CA debate tomorrow (note: if reading it, after 28/4/2026 ignore the advice.) here's some timezone details (5:30 Pacific start)
THE SCORES:
Five local stories (most built off the local angle concerning WHCD security incident).
A solitary live cross.
Six voiced over pieces.
Four sports pieces (although the lack of people at the Dodgers game, hands LA the first single-point only David Hill Number for the season)
Tonight, LA scored: 7.5/10 with a David Hill Number of 4.
And, fittingly: LA closes with a shot of the real place calling the shots at CBS these days... the Paramount water tower.
AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.
5. Just Watch Us Now: NBC, 1982-83.
Brandon Tartikoff’s job was hard for NBC: trying to get people invested in a product that had been degenerating under Fred Silverman’s watch. Although, the fightback had begun: Hill Street Blues, becoming a quiet success, the first real results of what NBC could be if given the right momentum: arrived in the time period between the start of the 1982 fall season and February sweeps in 1983. That fall season, gave NBC three stayers: Knight Rider, Family Ties and Cheers. The fourth stayer (a mid-season starter no less): led out of NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl XVII at the Rose Bowl, and established in the process, the value of the post-Super Bowl lead-out in American television circles. That program was none other… than the A-Team.
NBC, sold itself with four words: “Just Watch Us Now”. A slogan that not just got people thinking of “This is not the same NBC we’ve seen since 1979”, but also toward it’s ratings growth, in 1982-83 which began with some backstreet blues, but ended with emphatic attention on it’s product that would ultimately send NBC to the stratosphere.
The “Just Watch Us Now” campaign, was also the first campaign from NBC, Fairfax bought for Australia: the most notable user being Seven in Sydney: who got some mileage in 1983 from the campaign… especially in light of Nine’s internal stumbles with “Come On Along”.
Just Watch Us Now, was relatively shortlived for a campaign (in a era where multi-year usage had been common). The signal was sounded in the lead-up to the 1983 MLB All Star Game for the slogan that would carry NBC over the threshold and into ratings glory.
And, it would only require… just two words.
Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow night, we go deep into the central timezone, and give you the best of the Midwest in the news from Minneapolis.
But before we go, we'll leave it up to Randy Newman himself...
See you tomorrow.
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