Tonight, it's all about second chances.
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.
-Second coming into the post-season, plays tonight.
-Third coming into the post-season, plays tomorrow, June 11.
And finally: the cream of the crop going into post-season, gets to send this season off the night after tomorrow, June 12.
And, because it's post-season, our "ad" will feature a destination not covered by our survey, tonight's being Walcott, Iowa.
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 a a meal at the world's largest truckstop: Iowa 80, or figuring out the costs for the various services at Iowa 80, 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 Iowa 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.
We kick off tonight's 11pm news in Miami with a hallmark: breaking news, not just on Iran... but also on Cuba, with US defense secretary, set to visit Guantanamo Bay tomorrow, all this after a earthquake off Cuba's west coast all alongside WFOR's code for Cuba stories... a live cross in Little Havana.
We then go into a story on a significant local trial... that got it's own intro graphic, a shooting in Miami Gardens, a AI scam concerning a local immigration lawyer, school bus cameras coming to Broward County (with a USD $225 (equal to AUD $321) fine if caught violating the school bus's space, with USD $85 (equal to AUD $121) of said fine going into reinvestment into county school bus services), alongside a shark attack in Panama City, a 9-1-1 (remember, it's 0-0-0 in Australia, thanks Mr. Shatner) upgrade for Broward County that will see video enabled for the first time, the reveal of the Artemis III crew (and their Miami connections), weightloss drugs and pregnancy... a terrible mix, and that viral video about the robot that roundhouse kicked a kid in China, you've probably seen a dozen times already this week.
Our highlight prior to sport, is of course the wrap concerning the candidates for Florida's 24th Congressional district, on the eve of nominations closing for the November election.
Sport itself, is on par with Chicago last night: although, with a lot more action, not just from a Marlins team on the boil, but from the likelihood that the Stanley Cup is just as much a step away from a potential game 7 decider, as it is from a Game 6 victory.
Overall, Miami tonight pushed itself hard... But will it make a play for the peak?
THE SCORES:
Two local stories.
One live cross.
Eleven voiced over stories.
A powerful sports segment that equaled Chicago's effort last night.
Miami's score, when it won it's pool, was a 8.1/10 with a David Hill Number of 5, for a combined rank of 13.10.
Tonight's score, is a 8.15/10, with a David Hill Number of 4 for a combined rank of 12.15.
Miami, is now in the lead, by a narrow margin halfway through the post season, and it has two heavy hitters to fight off to claim the title.
AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.
18. Get Ready… 1990 style (CBS, 1990/91: redone as That’s Entertainment 10, 1991 (shot late 1990)
The sequel to the 1989 reflective piece, was very un-CBS in tone. Bold colour, dancing celebrities, and even the Temptations were used to sell a second year message.
However, this style of promo ended up getting looked over at places further away. Case in point Network 10: struggling to deal with receivership, needed something it could use to launch it’s new image after the 10 TV Australia calamity of mid-1989 (devised by American Bob Shanks, who didn’t realise that TV seasons in Australia historically began in January/Feburary… not launch something in July, aiming for eyes in September/October).
Thus, it turned to adapting a CBS promo nationwide for the first time.
The moment 10 TV Australia’s madness was abandoned… January 13 1991.
For 10: it was a boost. The Gulf War a week or so later was more of a boost: CNN coverage with the new logo, and adverts for their biggest acquisition at the time: the first two seasons of The Simpsons, cemented the push.
But, the most interesting discovery in recent years didn’t come from 10 itself.
It was a rushed package put together for QTV in Queensland: when it lost the Nine affiliation with just one week to go until aggregation in late 1990, to try and convince advertisers that they would benefit from the sudden move from taking Nine content, a likely half-hour news (with Brisbane news on relay), to a comprehensive 1 hour news product akin to that offered by NBN feeding into 10’s output.
This package, takes elements from what 10 likely used to sell advertisers on their new look in late 1990, and shows it off.
This package, is safely in the hands of Townsville City Council’s Library service, as part of a wider project to digitize what remains of the NQTV/QTV video library after a longterm effort by one person to save tapes and films from the station in the years after aggregation and the inevitable closure of Townsville master control in 2003.
But one thing from the 1991 launch remains a mystery.
Ten gave southern NSW affiliate Capital it's own cut of the 1991 relaunch (and resultant ID package).
Is it feasible, that sitting somewhere in the WIN vaults at Mt St Thomas in Wollongong (alongside Crawfords archives and the like): is similar finished material... for Star Television (the alliance of DDQ Toowoomba (owned in conjunction with NRTV in Northern NSW) and RTQ Rockhampton (owned by WIN), that famously laid out plans for southern QLD news to be presented in Coffs Harbour... only to abandon them when Star became WIN Queensland (after the purchase of DDQ by WIN, quickly followed by a last minute bolt to Nine at Christmas time 1990), that ultimately never got used for day 1 of aggregation?
There have been Star 1991 lineup presenters (that ultimately were turfed) out there on the internet in the last twenty years... but it'd be a interesting piece of Australian television history to somehow hear... "Star, That's Entertainment..." for a affiliate... that ultimately got a rushed redubbed Brisbane launch promo from it's new affiliate partner... one that was most likely until Christmas 1990... going to celebrate QTV (both terrestrially between the Sunshine Coast and Cairns (today, a 10 O&O), and throughout outback Queensland via satellite (today a Seven O&O) becoming a Nine affiliate for real.
Well, that's it for night 2, and that means we are halfway through the post-season. In just two days, you'll find out who's facing Brisbane in September.
See you, tomorrow night.
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