Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 13, 2009 at 20:42:03:
WMAQ-TV's Anna Davlantes presses 'Rewind' for WTTW non-press conference
WMAQ-Ch. 5 anchor Anna Davlantes' "Rewind," a sort of "Check, Please" approach to the news of the week, has been picked up as a weekly program by Chicago public broadcaster WTTW-Ch. 11.
The panel discussion of local current events featuring everyday Chicagoans, which got a trial run last year, makes its series debut Friday night at 8:30 p.m.
"Check, Please," Channel 11's popular restaurant-review show featuring supposedly ordinary diners, will be the lead-in to "Rewind." Apt to give Davlantes' new side gig a considerable boost this week is a previously unaired edition that was taped before the food show's 2001 launch; among the ordinary diners is President-elect Barack Obama.
Of greater long-term interest is just how much appetite WTTW viewers have for local current-affairs panel programs.
Ninety-minutes before "Rewind," Channel 11 airs "Chicago Tonight: The Week in Review," a 31-year-old franchise in which a rotating panel of varied media people talk about their respective areas of expertise as well as whatever else is thrown at them by host Joel Weisman.
"Our panels won't be comprised of mostly analysts, journalists and experts," Davlantes said by e-mail. "Instead, it's a cross section of bright interesting people from Chicago."
Would-be "Rewind" panelists will apply through WTTW's Web site and selected in any given week with an eye for opinionated but informed people with contrasting backgrounds, according to Davlantes, whose first media job was at WTTW as a college intern crunching ratings information while a student at Northwestern.
"We might have a cop, a socialite and an economics professor on a panel," she said. "Or a business leader, a bartender and a ballerina."
Davlantes said "Rewind" will be targeting a "younger audiences who may be shutting out certain content." The program will deal with issues, she said, "but not all of those issues would be considered 'news' in the traditional sense."
A "very notable difference" with "Chicago Week in Review," Davlantes said, is that each edition of "Rewind" will conclude with that week's panelists invited "to talk about an issue, they feel, was under-reported, misreported or missed altogether by the media. Again, it's a chance for people to have a voice. That's the focus."
WTTW plans to repeat "Rewind" on Saturday nights at 9:30 and Sunday nights at 10:30.
The station's Web site says the program "is proud to feature accessible modern furnishings and clever accessories generously provided by CB2." The Web site did not define what a clever accessory is.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)