CBS 2 hires a Sarge
The anchor merry-go-around continues at the local chapter of The Church Of Tisch
In the latest anchor change at CBS-owned WBBM-TV, co-anchor Kate Sullivan was fired Tuesday and replaced by Irika Sargant from sister CBS-owned station WFOR-TV in Miami, as first reported by Robert Feder on Tuesday. She gets the privilege of anchoring next to (or putting up with) Rob Johnson at 5, 6, and 10 every weeknight starting next month.
Sargent has been with WFOR since May 2014. The Kansas City native had anchor stops at KPRC in Houston and WALA-TV in Mobile, among others and also practiced law in New York. Unlike WBBM, WFOR is actually competitive in the English-language local news races, only behind ABC affiliate WPLG and Fox affiliate WSVN in the ratings.
As for Sullivan, her sexy librarian on-air look wasn’t enough to boost ultra-low ratings – in a recent ratings report, WBBM’s 10 p.m. newscast averaged only a 0.7 rating in the key 25-54 demo. The move to replace Sullivan comes as CBS just launched The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and is looking to have a better lead-in for The Church Of Tisch’s new multi-million dollar late night star, who ratings are starting to sag a bit, a week after launch.
So how absurd is CBS 2 news these days? On the night of Colbert’s launch, Johnson and Sullivan – along with meteorologist Steve Baskerville and sports guy Ryan Baker each held up Stephen Colbert masks to their faces. This is the stupidest thing yours truly has ever seen on a local newscast.
This is the twelfth anchor change at WBBM since 2000, when Carol Marin anchored solo in an experimental format that was well-received by critics, but not so much with viewers.
CBS 2 news director Jeff Kierman – whose dumbass should have been canned years ago –blabbed in a statement: “Irika is a talented broadcaster who possesses great experience as a journalist and additional insights that were developed during her time as an attorney. We look forward to welcoming her back to the Midwest and having her share her many talents with her colleagues and our viewers.”
The question is, what viewers? At this rate, CBS 2’s newscasts are going to get outrated by Match Game reruns. Kierman would’ve been better off hiring Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly to anchor the news and Kierman himself should’ve been replaced by Gene Rayburn. How dumb is Dumb Dora? At least she’s smarter than Kierman, who should be exiled to Nerdo Crombezia.