WVUE-DT - News Operation

News Operation

WVUE broadcasts a total of 39.5 hours of local news a week (7.5 hours on weekdays, and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays), more than CBS affiliate WWL-TV (channel 4) and NBC affiliate WDSU-TV (channel 6, which both carry 27.5 hours a week) for the most hours of local news in the New Orleans market. WVUE is the only station that airs a local newscast at 5:30 p.m. but it does not broadcast local newscasts at 6 p.m. Unlike most other Fox stations that produce their newscasts in-house, WVUE's 9 p.m. newscast does not air for an hour seven nights a week as the weekend edition airs for a half-hour; WVUE is among the largest Fox affiliates (in terms of market size) to air its prime-time newscast in such a fashion.

On May 31, 1982, WVUE launched a 5 p.m. newscast, with Live At Five. After the Fox affiliation switch, WVUE initially kept its 6 p.m. newscast, along with the 5 p.m. newscast. The 10 p.m. newscast it had as an ABC affiliate was dropped in favor of an hour-long 9 p.m. newscast then was split ten months later into separate half-hour newscasts at 9 and 10 p.m. with syndicated sitcoms airing at 9:30 p.m.; it continued in this format until 2001, when the weeknight 9 p.m. newscast was reverted back to an hour and the 10 p.m. newscast was cancelled once more due to the lack of a strong program lead-in.

Even after becoming a Fox affiliate, WVUE still did not have a weekday morning newscast throughout the 1990s; in 2002, WVUE debuted what was originally a two-hour weekday morning newscast, airing from 6-8 a.m. In 2005, the station dropped the weeknight 6 p.m. newscast and created an hour-long block of news that competes against the local and national evening newscasts on WWL-TV, WDSU and WGNO, with the addition of a weeknight 5:30 p.m. newscast that joined the existing 5 p.m. newscast.

On April 29, 2007, WVUE became the first TV station in New Orleans to broadcast a newscast in high definition. In January 2010, WVUE underwent a major production upgrade by going nearly all HD for their entire operation, plus introducing the first HD-based weather system in New Orleans. Currently as of October 2010, WVUE remains the first station in the New Orleans market to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition; this is in contrast to WWL-TV, WDSU, and WGNO who broadcast their newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition.

On February 1, 2010, WVUE expanded their morning newscasts from three to four hours by adding a new weather-heavy based newscast from 5-6 a.m. called Fox 8 Morning Call with morning meteorologists Chris Franklin and Dawn Brown, who had worked at WWL-TV, but was not renewed on her contract. Both Franklin and Brown now rotate on the FOX 8 Morning News every weekday morning from 6-9 a.m. A weeknight-only 10 p.m. newscast (the third newscast in that time-slot in the station's history) was also given a slot on the station's schedule on that date; initially only a test run, the 10 p.m. newscast became permanent again on May 5, 2010 when former WWL-TV anchor Lee Zurik joined the on-air staff.

In July 2010, the station expanded the 10 p.m. newscast to weekend evenings, making WVUE one of the few Fox stations nationwide with a newscast in the traditional late news time-slot that airs seven nights a week (some Fox stations that carry a local newscast in the traditional late news time-slot air them on weeknights only). On May 23, 2011, WVUE-TV debuted an hour-long midday newscast at noon, that is anchored by WVUE reporter and former WGNO anchor Liz Reyes and meteorologist Dawn Brown. On September 12, 2011 WVUE debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast; this will increase the station's weekdaily news output to 8½ hours.