KCOP-TV - News Operation

News Operation

For many years, KCOP aired traditional newscast at 10 p.m., as well as a weekday afternoon newscast at 2 p.m. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During the 1980s, the station carried the syndicated Independent Network News (produced by WPIX in New York City), and coupled it with its local 10:00 program. The INN newscast later moved to KTLA, when Tribune Broadcasting (the parent company of WPIX and INN) purchased the station in 1985. The station's newscast has generally been the lowest rated evening newscast of the seven VHF television stations in the Los Angeles market. The newscast length has varied from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the station budget. For a brief period of time during the late 1990s, KCOP tried airing a half-hour newscast at 3:30 p.m. weekdays, later airing it at 7:30 p.m. weeknights. However, when the station was purchased by Fox and its operations were merged with KTTV, channel 13's newscast was moved to 11 p.m. to avoid direct competition with channel 11 (which runs an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast), and trimmed it from an hour in length down to 30 minutes. The station's news production and resources are now also handled by KTTV.

Since Fox purchased the station, KCOP's late-evening news took a more unconventional approach than its network-owned competition, KCBS-TV, KNBC, and KABC-TV. To appeal to a younger audience, it mainly featured its female news anchors in slightly more revealing, trendy clothing. Its news stories also tend to be much shorter in detail, in a faster-paced format. In addition, it has become the first station to emphasize entertainment and trend-setting news as a major part of its format, one idea which has attracted a large young demographic. Nevertheless, channel 13's newscast continually places fourth in the ratings, as it did when the station was competing at 10 p.m. against KTTV, KTLA, and KCAL-TV. However, KCOP's news drew substantially higher ratings among young people, especially young Latinos.

On April 10, 2006, KCOP's newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour, which made it the only Los Angeles station with a full-hour newscast at 11 p.m. On August 14, 2006, the newscast was rebranded as My13 News to reflect the station's pending MyNetworkTV affiliation. With the purchase by Fox, many of KCOP's former staff have since either left the station or been released, reporter Hal Eisner is one of the remaining staffers who has been with KCOP since the Chris-Craft era, beginning there in the early 1990s. Before that, however, he had worked at KTTV for a time during 1987 and 1988. Today, Eisner also files reports for KTTV.

On December 1, 2008, KCOP replaced its 60-minute 11 p.m. newscast with a 30-minute newscast titled Fox News at 11, anchored by KTTV anchors Christine Devine and Carlos Amezcua, marking the end of a KCOP-named and produced newscast. On September 10, 2012, KCOP will launch a new 30-minute 7 p.m. newscast titled Fox News at 7. The newscast will be anchored also by Amezcua and Devine.