KRIV - News Operation

News Operation

KRIV broadcasts a total of 52½ hours of local news a week (8½ hours on weekdays and 5 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), more than any other station in the Houston market; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KRIV's Saturday and Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage.

In 1987, the station formed an investigative unit, and a program called "City Under Siege" which aired after the evening news. Originally hosted by anchors Jim Marsh and Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the Fox network's later standouts: COPS.

The station launched a weekday hour-long 5 p.m. newscast on August 18, 2008. KRIV was the only Fox owned-and-operated station without an early evening newscast on weekends. That was changed starting on July 7, 2012, when the station debuted an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast on Saturday and Sunday evenings, becoming the 11th Fox-owned to carry an early evening newscast seven nights a week. Also on that date, KRIV debuted a three-hour morning newscast that airs on Saturday and Sundays from 5-8 a.m.

On January 31, 2009, KRIV became the fourth station in Houston behind KHOU, KTRK-TV and KPRC-TV to launch local news in high definition. With the change to HD came new Fox O&O HD graphics currently used on sister stations WNYW, KTTV, KDFW and WTTG. On September 7, 2009, the station launched Fox 26 Morning News Extra, which is a less formal, hour-long newscast which airs at 9 a.m. and effectively extended the entire morning news program to five hours. On March 29, 2010 a sixth hour of news was added with the introduction of Fox 26 News at 4 AM, allowing the station to compete with the 4:30 a.m. newscasts offered by KPRC, KTRK and KHOU.

Since February 2008, KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast has been simulcast on Fox affiliate KUQI (channel 38) in Corpus Christi, since that station does not have a news department of its own. On September 14, 2009, KUIL-LD in Beaumont, Texas also began simulcasting KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast (ironically, KUIL-LD lost its Fox affiliation nine months earlier to KBTV-TV (channel 4), rendering KUIL an independent). KRIV is the third station to have been owned by Fox to simulcast its newscasts on a station in a nearby market, as WJBK in Detroit simulcasted two hours of its weekday morning newscast on WFQX in Cadillac, Michigan, and then began simulcasting the second half of its weeknight 10 p.m. newscast from 2007 to 2008. Former Fox-owned station WDAF-TV in Kansas City also simulcast its morning and 9 p.m. newscasts on Fox affiliate KTMJ-CD in Topeka, Kansas during that same timeframe. On March 29, 2010, KRIV became the first station in Houston and the first FOX owned station to start morning newscasts at 4AM.