Matt Buckler: News 8 anchor Darren Kramer will make a schedule change
May 26—The pieces are the same for the WTNH-TV8 news anchor team, but they'll be placed in different positions on the board, starting Tuesday.
A week-night anchor shuffle was created when Darren Kramer — who is the co-anchor of the station's 5, 5:30, 10 and 11 p.m. — said he is giving up his 10 and 11 p.m. duties to spend more time with his family.
Those late-night duties will be taken over by Dennis House, who will join Ann Nyberg at 10 on WCTX-TV59 and at 11 on Channel 8 in addition to his 6 p.m. anchor duties.
Same anchors — different time slots.
Kramer, who started at WTNH as anchor on the morning news before being promoted to the late-night newscasts, said in a press release he's happy to have daytime hours for one of the few times in his career.
"One of the challenges just about everyone in this business faces is the schedule," said Kramer, a 35-year veteran of TV news. "Most of us either get up in the middle of the night or come home in the middle of the night. I have done both for years. Now, I'm thrilled to have landed a local TV news rarity. Starting next week, I will be working a dayshift. Thanks to the WTNH management team for making that a reality."
Kramer also had a message for the WCTX and WTNH late-night audience.
"Late news viewers, no worries," Kramer said. "You are in great hands, with Connecticut news veteran Dennis House taking over my late-night duties. Thanks so much to all of you who let us into your homes every day. I look forward to continuing to work hard to earn your trust."
House made the move from WFSB-TV3 to Channel 8 two years ago and has been hosting the 6 p.m. evening news and a Sunday magazine show, "This Week with Dennis House."
Connecticut viewers are quite familiar with his work. He also has plenty of late-night experience. He was the 11 p.m. anchor at WFSB-TV3 after taking over from Al Terzi.
"I have always seen Darren as an incredible journalist, and I am proud to call him a colleague," House said about the anchor he will be replacing. "I hope to uphold his legacy alongside the legendary Ann Nyberg."
Nyberg is the one constant for Channel 8, having been with the station since the mid-'80s. She's been the winner of many awards, including the prestigious Silver Circle Award, presented to people who have been in the TV industry for at least 25 years.
She still will be working with Kramer — just not as often.
"I am happy that Darren will still be delivering the news to the people of Connecticut and be a leader in our newsroom," Chuck Carter, news director for WTNH and WCTX said.
Kramer has been an asset for Channel 8 for a long time, delivering the news in a no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point manner.
He'll continue to do that — except it will be earlier in the day.
Fine farewell
NBC's "This Is Us" had quite a finishing kick Tuesday. It's final episode drew 6.4 million viewers, which made it the No. 1 show on TV Tuesday. The audience exceeded last week's by about 1 million, which made it the most watched installment of "This Is Us" in two years.
People also tweeted while they were watching. There were more than 1.3 million social media reactions during the course of the show.
TV viewers have been talking about "This Is Us" since it made its first appearance on NBC in 2016. Just about every episode was "must-see" TV — an accomplishment that is extremely rare these days.
"This Is Us" now becomes "This Was Us." But not before it turned out to be one of NBC's greatest series.
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