KTVI - News Operation

News Operation

KTVI presently broadcasts about 59 hours of local newscasts each week (with 10 hours on weekdays and 4½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-highest local newscast output among the broadcast television stations in the state of Missouri, falling short of Kansas City sister station WDAF-TV's weekly news total by only a half-hour. As is common with Fox stations that carry early evening newscasts on weekends, KTVI's Sunday 5 p.m. newscast is subject to preemption due to NFL football or NASCAR coverage and the Saturday 6 p.m. newscast is subject to delay due to Major League Baseball or college football coverage. Since 1998, the station's weekday morning newscast (currently titled Fox 2 News in the Morning) has been the highest-rated morning newscast in the St. Louis market.

As an ABC affiliate, KTVI's newscasts usually placed third in the ratings, behind KSDK and KMOV. However for most of the 1980s and early 1990s, the station fought a spirited battle with KMOV for the runner-up spot, behind longtime leader KSDK. After joining Fox, KTVI devoted more resources to its news department, as did many of the stations that switched to Fox during this time, and increased the number of hours devoted to local news programming with the addition of two hours to its weekday morning newscast, a half-hour tacked onto its 5 p.m. newscast to compensate for Fox's lack of a national evening newscast and an hour-long 9 p.m. newscast. KTVI is able to emphasize a broad array of stories from major national and local reports, to small town local stories and investigations because of the larger number of newscast hours. The station also devotes a larger portion of its sports coverage to local high school sports (once joining with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to produce the now-canceled Prep Sports Show on Saturdays) and is the home of Steve Spagnuolo's weekly St. Louis Rams review show on Mondays.

For much of the time since it affiliated with Fox, KTVI topped KPLR-TV for the highest-rated 9 p.m. newscast in the market. Regular segments featured on KTVI's newscasts include The Jaco Report (in which reporter Charles Jaco gives either an editorial or introduces an investigative piece) and You Paid For It (in which Elliot Davis uncovers city government tax abuse, closing the segment by giving the phone number of the office of that municipality's mayor and the well-known signoff line "Call and speak your mind: after all, you paid for it").

Before Dick Ford retired from the station in December 2005, all four of KTVI's main male anchors (Ford, Tom O'Neal, Dan Gray and John Pertzborn) formerly served as anchors at KSDK. On March 31, 2006, KTVI used the news set that was originally constructed in 1998 for the last time. KTVI's newscasts were produced from a temporary set as a new set and weather center were being construction in the old studio, which debuted on April 10, 2006, along with adopting a new graphic and logo design, and news theme (OSI Music's Fox Affiliate News Theme) that was used by Fox's other owned-and-operated stations and select affiliates, during that evening's 9 p.m. newscast. The old news desk was donated to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, with the old weather center donated to the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

In December 2008, KPLR temporarily produced its newscasts from KTVI's now-former Clayton-Tamm/Dogtown studios as KPLR's facility underwent remodeling to accommodate both KPLR and KTVI's newscasts; KTVI broadcast its news programs from a temporary set in January 2009, in order for crews dismantle and move the station's existing news set to KPLR's Maryland Heights facility (the KPLR studios was chosen over the KTVI studios due to KPLR's larger studio facility and the fact that KTVI had broadcast from the Berthold studios for almost 50 years, whereas KPLR moved into its studios in 2003).

On February 15, 2009, KTVI began broadcasting local newscasts in high definition from its new studios in Maryland Heights, accompanied with new HD news graphics. The news set was updated with the addition of several elements to better fit the new graphics package and the change to HD, and removed the city skyline backdrop in favor of a blue background. In January 2010, KTVI expanded its weekday morning newscast to six hours from 4-10 a.m., following the cancellation of the Fox-distributed syndicated talk show The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet (despite the expansion, the station kept its midday newscast at 11 a.m.).