Sinclair Pulls Plug On Newscast

In the run up to the mid-term elections, stations were adding newscasts in an effort to have more news time to run political ads and pocket millions of dollars.

Now, that the election is over, it’s time to start canceling those newscasts.

Sinclair is doing just that in Buffalo.

After 18 months of low ratings, Sinclair Broadcasting has announced that it will be dropping its hourlong 10 p.m. newscast on WUTV in a few weeks. The news came to light when one of the station's two Buffalo-based reporters, Emily Girsch, posted on LinkedIn that the news department at her station “is closing in two weeks and I am therefore in need of finding new work immediately.”

In an email, WUTV station manager Tamara Walter confirmed the end of the newscast and revealed that Sinclair is replacing it with its national program, "The National Desk." Walter wrote, "While we are very proud of the work produced by our FOX29 local news team in covering some of the most significant stories impacting Buffalo over the past year, the move to program 'The National Desk' will bring something uniquely different to our community."

Such bullshit, the National Desk is just plug and play and cost the station nothing as opposed to a real local news product.

The decision to end the 10 p.m. newscast comes after Sinclair ended its relationship with NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV (Channel 2), which had produced a half-hour newscast at 10 p.m. on the station. In July 2021, Sinclair started its own 10 o’clock newscast on WUTV, but it failed to gain traction with viewers.

This is a difficult time for everyone involved, and we wish the affected staff members the best of luck in finding new employment opportunities.