Matt Buckler: Channel 30's Chen had extra element in teacher story
Nov. 4—It was a major story that led most of the late newscasts — the arrest of a former teacher at CREC Academy in East Hartford for an inappropriate relationship with a student.
WTNH-TV8 and WFSB-TV3 had all the details, but WVIT-TV30 reporter Jeremy Chen had something in his report nobody else had — reaction from parents. Granted, the reaction was predictable — they were stunned — but it did give Channel 30 a dimension of the story at 11 p.m. that was different.
The relationship started at a sleepover in the school. Sleepovers are something new on me. I used to have sleepovers when I was in high school, but they took place while classes were going on.
One of the late stories featured on WTIC-TV61 was a report by Gabby Molina on what voters thought the key issues in the upcoming election were.
Most responded by answering rising prices and inflation, which was what the polls have been saying all along. There was nothing in the report that we didn't already know. But at least we know the voters in Connecticut feel the same way as voters in the rest of the country do.
Series surge
More than 11.8 million viewers tuned in to see nothing Wednesday — a combined no-hitter by the Houston Astros. It was only the second no-hitter in World Series history and the viewers responded, giving Fox Broadcasting, which is televising the Series, it's biggest Game 4 audience in five years.
This year's series is up 4 percent in the Nielsen ratings over last year.
The numbers will be interesting for Thursday's Game 5 — it went head-to-head with the Philadelphia Eagles-Houston Texans game on Amazon Prime Video.
Because the World Series game was a down-to-the-wire cliffhanger, won by the Astros 3-2, the Series probably did quite well.
Besides, it's a lot easier to get baseball on a broadcast network than football on a streaming service.
Country collaboration
No country music singers sounded the way Tammy Wynette and George Jones did. Their voices were unique and country fans had no problems picking out their voices. They performed traditional country music which has stood the test of time.
They were also husband and wife and had some of their biggest hits during their marriage. There were some stormy times, but also some good times.
Doesn't it sound like the foundation for a miniseries?
Showtime announced Thursday that it will be the home of "George & Tammy," a six-part miniseries that will debut on Dec. 4.
The Paramount Network also will air the opening episode, but the five remaining episodes will be the exclusive property of Showtime, a premium network.
Part of the reason there is a lot of buzz surrounding this series is because of the cast.
Oscar winner Jessica Chastain will play Wynette and Michael Shannon will play Jones.
Superstars playing superstars — it's usually a very good combination.
The two singers accounted for 30 No. 1 songs and also teamed up for several duet hits.
Wynette's biggest hit was 'Stand By Your Man," which came out during the '60s. We'll start to find out on Dec. 4 how much Wynette stood by Jones.
'Med' ahead
The most-watched show of NBC's Wednesday night "Chicago" trilogy usually is "Chicago Fire." There was a change in the top spot this week, however, but not by much. "Chicago Med" finished No. 1 with 6.58 million viewers while "Fire" was next at 6.556 million. No other network, however, has a one-two punch like that.
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Matt Buckler is television and radio editor of the Journal Inquirer.
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