''Eye Opener'' (sometimes ''EyeOpener'' or ''Eye Opener TV'') is an American syndicated morning news program produced by

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...

that premiered on May 9, 2011 and ended on June 21, 2017. The program utilized a local/national hybrid format billed as a "provocative and unpredictable" combination of general and political news, health, entertainment, technology and opinion segments, mixed with humor and variety elements; stations carrying the program are given the option to provide news, weather and traffic inserts focusing on their local market each half-hour. At the show's conclusion, it was hosted by Laila Muhammad, Oliver Tull, Neeha Curtis, Hilary Kennedy, Allyn Hoang, Courtenay DeHoff and Kevin Roth, who was also the show's

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

History

The idea for the program was conceived by

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

chief innovation officer Lee Abrams (who resigned in October 2010). In the spring of 2011, Tribune Broadcasting developed a concept for a morning news program intended for stations owned by the company that did not maintain existing news departments. The program, which was given the title ''Eye Opener'', would incorporate a local/national format (with the intent to syndicate the program to other markets) similar to that of morning news programs on the major broadcast

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

s, with three-minute-long national segments conducted in a more free-form style. Steve Charlier, senior vice president of news at Tribune Broadcasting, described the program as a platform in which "comedy meets national news," designed to distinguish itself and stations carrying the program by offering a morning show that stands out from its traditionally formatted competitors. The program debuted as a test run on May 9, 2011 on Tribune-owned CW affiliate

KIAH KIAH (channel 39) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. Owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios adjacent to the Westpark Tollway ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

– which maintained a news department, but only carried twice-daily evening newscasts – replacing syndicated programs and

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s in the two-hour timeslot (from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.); the program's national segments – originally hosted by Kirby O'Connell, Sean Dowling and Adam Lee Campbell – were initially produced in studio facilities at the

Tribune Tower The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 Magnificent Mile, North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The early 1920s international design competition for the tower bec ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, which also serves as the corporate headquarters for the Tribune Company. The program was originally hosted by Kirby O’Connell, Sean Dowling (who served as news anchor) and Adam Lee Campbell (who handled consumer, technology and

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

-related reports), with the hosts appearing in more casual attire. In addition to news, health and parenting advice segments, the program initially also featured more irreverent and humorous features including a how-to segment conducted by a "hunky handyman" character named "Wrench," a commentary segment by Roger Lodge and a

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

segment by "Monsignor Jebediah O'Flaherty," a character used as part of a segment lampooning celebrity tweets. On October 31, 2011, production of the program's national segments was relocated to the studios of Tribune's Dallas CW affiliate,

KDAF KDAF (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving as the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex's outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group (based in nearby Irv ...

; the program largely overhauled its hosting staff with the relocation, with co-hosts Ellen Fox and Douglas Caballero, and sole holdover Dowling. The program concurrently began airing on KDAF and was also syndicated to fellow Tribune station,

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

affiliate

WPHL-TV WPHL-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. The station also maintains a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, later expanding to two of their sister stations – CW affiliates

KRCW-TV KRCW-TV (channel 32) is a television station licensed to Salem, Oregon, United States, serving as the Portland-area outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate KOIN (channe ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

and

WSFL-TV WSFL-TV (channel 39) is an independent television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXM-TV (channel 35). WSFL-TV's studios are located on Sout ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

(all three of which, unlike KDAF and KIAH, did not produce their own news programming) on January 2, 2012. These stations were chosen by Tribune for the initial national rollout of ''Eye Opener'' as they, as Charlier noted, "need to be growth markets" that also have a population skewing toward the program's 18-49 target audience, with plans to eventually syndicate the program to stations not owned by Tribune Broadcasting. By July 2012, in the Dallas, Philadelphia and Houston markets, ''Eye Opener'' saw an increase in viewers in the 25-54 demographic year-to-year in the program's scheduled time periods, whereas viewership in that demographic declined in Miami and Portland. In September 2012, ''Eye Opener'' began airing on MyNetworkTV affiliates KXNW in

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the List of municipalities in Arkansas, third-most populous city in Arkansas, United States, and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County, Arkansas, Sebastian County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the pop ...

(which Tribune earlier acquired in November 2011) and

WWMB WWMB (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Florence, South Carolina, United States, serving the Pee Dee and Grand Strand regions of South Carolina as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Dabl. It is owned by Howard Stirk ...

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the East Coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as the "Grand Strand” in the northeastern part of the state. Its ...

. ''Eye Opener'' expanded to weekends on September 20, 2014, with the premiere of an hour-long edition of Saturday and Sunday mornings on KDAF and KIAH.

Replacement by ''Morning Dose''

On June 15, 2017, Tribune Broadcasting announced the launch of ''Morning Dose'', a two-hour social media-focused morning show produced in partnership with

-based digital content branding agency Dose, which will replace ''Eye Opener'' on the five Tribune stations carrying the latter program (KDAF, KIAH,

WDCW WDCW (channel 50), branded DCW 50, is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Hagerstown, Maryland–licensed independent ...

, KRCW and WPHL), along with the group's

CW affiliate,

, on June 29. Hosted by

Melissa Rycroft Melissa Katherine Rycroft-Strickland (born March 11, 1983) is an American television personality, host, and dancer. She is a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. She has participated as a bachelorette on the The Bachelor ...

and Gary Striewski, with news segments anchored by Laila Muhammad (along with Hillary Kennedy, the only announced holdovers from ''Eye Opener''), the program featured a mix of news stories selected by Dose through its social storytelling and scientific trend methodology to " howcasethe content and advancing the stories that will drive the day’s social conversation.” On September 6, 2018, Tribune announced that ''Morning Dose'' would be cancelled effective October 19.

Affiliates

In August 2016, the ''Eye Opener'' website listed five stations, all of which are owned by

, that aired the program each weekday: *

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

(6:00-8:00 a.m. ET) *

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

(6:00-8:00 a.m. ET) *

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

(5:00-8:00 a.m. CT) *

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

(5:00-8:00 a.m. CT) *

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

(6:00-8:00 a.m. PT)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eye Opener (American TV series) Nexstar Media Group 2011 American television series debuts 2017 American television series endings 2010s American television news shows First-run syndicated television programs in the United States American English-language television shows Television morning shows in the United States

History

Replacement by ''Morning Dose''

Affiliates

See also

References

External links