For the past six years, Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV has produced its morning, afternoon and late evening newscasts from a sparse, makeshift desk in the middle of its newsroom.
Starting this week, all of that changes.
On Monday, KXTV (Channel 10) returned to the studio with an updated news set for the first time since 2016 and debuted a refreshed morning news program that abandons the coffee puns for something a little more straightforward.
“ABC10 Morning Blend” is now simply called “ABC10 Morning News,” and the station’s early lunch news program “ABC10 Morning Blend: Extra Shot” has been re-titled “ABC10 Morning News at 11 a.m.”
“We listened and started crafting a rebrand of morning news based on what [viewers] said is important,” Jill Manuel, the station’s director of content, said in a social media post. “The ABC10 team has worked for months on this new product, and it look like and feel completely different from Morning Blend.”
The updated morning news show will offer traffic updates every 10 minutes along with breaking news, weather forecasts and sports recaps. The morning news program will continue to be hosted by local broadcast veteran Walt Gray and co-anchor Brea Love, whom the station said is currently on maternity leave.
Rob Carlmark will continue to serve as the station’s morning news meteorologists. Traffic updates will be provided by Jordan Tolbert, who was hired by the station last month from KNDU (Channel 25), an NBC affiliate near Spokane, Washington.
General assignment reporters Mark S. Allen, Monica Coleman and Devin Trubey will cover local news, with Allen also providing entertainment reports for the station in a similar role to one he served at KMAX-TV’s “Good Day Sacramento” until 2015.
In addition to the new set and refreshed morning news program, KXTV is releasing an updated version of its streaming app for Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, part of a broader initiative within its parent company TEGNA. The updated app, called ABC10 Plus, offers live and replay broadcasts of its news programs for free.
