FIRST ON THE BLOG (other than New England One): WCVB is about to make history in Boston and in New England (other than Cable) with the first-ever early-evening newscast in the area and the region.
Starting Sunday November 8th, 2015, WCVB 5 will debut an hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast on weekends called NewsCenter 5 at 5:00, but will more likely break it up as two half-hour newscasts at 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. It will air on Sundays first because of ESPN College Football on ABC during Saturdays. But once the season finishes, it will also air on Saturdays as well. If the season didn’t happen, then the newscast would’ve debuted on Saturday November 7th, 2015.
On Saturdays, Pam Cross and Bob Halloran will anchor, with StormTeam 5 Weather from Meteorologist Mike Wanukm. On Sundays, Mike will join Ed Harding and Heather Unruh with SportsCenter 5 from sports director Mike Lynch.
WCVB 5’s President and General Manager, Bill Fine:
“We are very excited about the addition of this new weekend newscast. The expansion will make WCVB the only television station in the Boston market to offer a newscast at 5:00PM on weekends, giving viewers more options to stay informed.”
WCVB 5’s News Director, Andrew Vrees:
“NewsCenter 5 remains dedicated to serving our community by providing the best news and information across times and platforms that are convenient. This additional hour on weekends at 5:00PM gives viewers a new choice, and we’re pleased to make it available.”
With this addition, WCVB 5 makes history. It will become the first TV station in Boston and in New England (second if you count NECN which airs a half-hour 5:00 p.m. weekend newscast) to add a 5:00 p.m. newscast on weekends, something that’s VERY RARE in the TV news industry, but not surprising for some ABC affiliates who have jumped to starting airing local newscasts at 5:00 p.m. on weekends, like WABC 7 in New York and WPLG 10 in Miami (my home market), just to name a few.
With this historic new addition in New England TV, its no wonder why people turn to WCVB 5 and have made it become, Boston’s News Leader.
changingnewscasts.wordpress.com 
Do you see in the future more TV station in the Eastern Time Zone having early 5:00pm newscasts on weekends? I know TV stations in the Eastern Time Zone don’t have 5:00pm newscasts on weekends because of network sports programming is on at the time. I think there are only a few TV stations in the Eastern time zone that have 5:00pm newscasts on weekends like WSVN in your city of Miami.
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And as of this year, WPLG 10 as well in my home market.
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Does NECN New England Cable news share the same news stories with WHDH in Boston since NECN is owned by Comcast NBC and since WHDH the NBC affiliate in Boston. Since NBC now owns NECN I wonder if NECN and WHDH TV will merge is news operations in the future?
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No. NECN is owned by Comcast. WHDH is owned by Sunbeam Television.
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[…] It’s been a slow week at the blog headquarters, but I finally found a story to post on and it involves WCVB, AGAIN. Actually, for the second time in less than a month. […]
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