At long last: CBS’ first Atlanta newsroom wraps debut broadcast
The very first CBS News Atlanta newscast at 6 p.m. went off without any obvious glitches Monday featuring all the basics of a newscast: hard news about Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers coming back to the office after a shooting, a feature about roller skating, sports and weather in a tight 30-minute package.
But visually, anchor Jobina Fortson-Evans, meteorologist Zoe Mintz and former 11Alive sports anchor Samuel Crenshaw stood in a virtual/augmented reality studio where the visuals surrounded them. There are no desks. The on-air broadcasters stand while the camera moves to provide dynamism.
CBS, which owns local stations in 17 markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, took over its own national programming on WUPA-TV after WANF relinquished its CBS affiliation last month and went independent. Atlanta’s new CBS station already airs programs like “The Price is Right,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “60 Minutes.” To build a newsroom from scratch, the station has hired 50 people in just five weeks.
WUPA, which CBS has owned since 1994, was a UPN affiliate for 14 years, then became the Atlanta affiliate of the merged UPN/WB combo CW for about 15 years. In 2023, it went independent.
CBS launching a news operation in 2025 is a bold choice as the broadcast industry faces falling viewership and declining ad dollars in the face of YouTube and streaming services. And CBS News Atlanta faces four existing local English language competitors: ABC affiliate and market leader Channel 2 Action News (WSB-TV), Fox 5 (WAGA-TV), NBC affiliate 11Alive (WXIA-TV) and the independent Atlanta News First (WANF-FM), which now runs more than 90 hours of local news a week.
CBS has resources behind it to help it overcome those challenges, said Tom Canedo, president and general manager of CBS Atlanta, who previously ran the station when it was a CW affiliate.
“To succeed in the streaming world is something CBS News and stations have done a terrific job of,” Canedo said. “If there is a linear decline, we are ready to take it on.”
CBS will have to build trust in a city where many viewers are already fiercely loyal to existing news operations. It starts with the foundation of who they’ve hired, Canedo said. which includes Georgia natives and reporters who have spent parts of their career in Atlanta.
Two new reporters Daniel Wilkerson and Madeline Montgomery, for instance, previously worked at Atlanta News First. Crenshaw, the sports anchor, has been in Atlanta media for 27 years, including 11Alive.
Anchor Fortson-Evans grew up in Tucker and was a host for a features show on ANF called “ATL Live.” Before introducing a feature on roller skating, she said “Here in the A, you all know, OK, hear me now, skating is life.”
After Crenshaw reported on the Atlanta Dream angling for a sweep in the first round of the WNBA playoffs Tuesday, Fortson-Evans walked over to him and said, “The drought is over for the Dream. I need to shake out that Dream pullover in my closet and bring it to the 11 p.m. tomorrow.”
CBS News Atlanta is the first fully augmented and virtual reality newsroom in the market. The immersive newsroom enables anchors and reporters to tell stories in a more compelling way through simulations and interactive storytelling, the station has said.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, said Fortson-Evans in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before her first newscast. Over the past couple of weeks, she and her colleagues have been doing mock newscasts to better familiarize themselves with the AR/VR technology.
At first, working with the technology was disorienting, Fortson-Evans said, because she was standing in a room with a gigantic green screen and could only see what’s around her by looking separate TV screens.
But once she got used to it, she said she realized she could potentially do much more than she could in a traditional studio with a constructed studio set.
“This technology is able to bring stories to life in a way that people in this region have never seen before,” said Fortson-Evans, who chose a mustard yellow pantsuit for her introductory broadcast.
For now, CBS News Atlanta is only doing two newscasts per day at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. It will hire more reporters and anchors as it adds more newscasts.
Canedo didn’t provide any specific metrics targets or goals the station to hit by the end of the year.
“The goal is to put on the best product possible, and the numbers from there will take care of themselves,” Canedo said.
About the Authors
Savannah Sicurella is an entertainment business reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
