Northwest Afternoon
Encyclopedia
Northwest Afternoon was a local television talk show in the United States
. It aired weekdays at 3PM in the Puget Sound
area of Washington. It was produced locally by Seattle
TV station KOMO-TV
Channel 4, and debuted in September 1984. The series ended its run on September 5, 2008 after a nearly successful 24 year run.
serials aired that day, with the last 45 minutes being a talk/variety-type show. In the latter portion of the show, subjects could vary from show to show. In one show, a famous TV, movie, or newsmaking celebrity may make an appearance as a special guest (usually discussing their latest work, etc.), while the very next day could focus on a guest who has survived against all odds.
The show originated from Studio C of KOMO-TV's old building until it was demolished to make way for Fisher Plaza in 2000.
On June 10, 2008 KOMO-TV announced that Northwest Afternoon was cancelled because of increased competition against first-run syndicated fare from Dr. Phil
on KING-TV
, Rachael Ray
on KIRO-TV
, and Maury
on KCPQ
. These shows had made inroads into Northwest Afternoon's once-comfortable ratings, making it difficult for station management to continue producing the show. The stunning announcement came after the series won a local Emmy. A 24-year retrospective send-off was aired on September 4, 2008, with the last show airing on September 5. The show was replaced by "The Doctors
," a syndicated show that premiered on September 8, 2008.
The cancellation of Northwest Afternoon came as a surprise considering many stations across the country are adding more local programs to their daytime schedules including KGO-TV
in San Francisco with The View from the Bay, KSTP-TV
in Minneapolis with Twin Cities Live, KUSA-TV
in Denver with Colorado & Company, WXIA in Atlanta with Atlanta & Company, KXTV
in Sacramento with Sacramento & Company, and KSDK
in St. Louis with Show Me St. Louis, just to name a few.
The main portion of the program was most recently hosted by Kent Phillips, with rebroadcasts of segments co-hosted by Natasha Curry (who joined Northwest Afternoon in 2007), and KOMO News reporter Rachelle Murcia.
. Because of her expertise, she has been dubbed "The Soap Queen."
Reinhart also attracted a lot fans beyond the Northwest. Since the show was also seen across Canada
on satellite, it was not uncommon for viewers to call as far away as Nova Scotia
and Quebec
just to ask Cindi questions about what will happen on the soaps, a rarity for a locally produced---and American based---afternoon talk show.
Other notable guests include much of KOMO's own on-air staff. KOMO news anchors Dan Lewis, Kathi Goertzen, and several KOMO TV reporters have made appearances on Northwest Afternoon over the years.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It aired weekdays at 3PM in the Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
area of Washington. It was produced locally by Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
TV station KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV, virtual channel 4, is a television station in Seattle, Washington. It is an affiliate of ABC and broadcasts on digital channel 38. KOMO-TV is the flagship station of Fisher Communications, and its studios and offices are co-located with sister radio stations KOMO , KVI , and KPLZ-FM ...
Channel 4, and debuted in September 1984. The series ended its run on September 5, 2008 after a nearly successful 24 year run.
Format
The show's format, unchanged since its debut, began with a 15-minute daily recap of soap operaSoap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
serials aired that day, with the last 45 minutes being a talk/variety-type show. In the latter portion of the show, subjects could vary from show to show. In one show, a famous TV, movie, or newsmaking celebrity may make an appearance as a special guest (usually discussing their latest work, etc.), while the very next day could focus on a guest who has survived against all odds.
The show originated from Studio C of KOMO-TV's old building until it was demolished to make way for Fisher Plaza in 2000.
On June 10, 2008 KOMO-TV announced that Northwest Afternoon was cancelled because of increased competition against first-run syndicated fare from Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
on KING-TV
KING-TV
KING-TV, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Seattle, Washington, affiliated with the NBC network. Owned by Belo Corporation, it broadcasts on UHF digital channel 48. Its offices and broadcasting center are located just east of Seattle Center...
, Rachael Ray
Rachael Ray (TV series)
Rachael Ray, also known as The Rachael Ray Show, is a talk show starring Rachael Ray that debuted in syndication in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2006....
on KIRO-TV
KIRO-TV
KIRO-TV, virtual channel 7, is the CBS affiliate television station in Seattle, Washington. It broadcasts on digital channel 39. The station's offices and broadcasting center are located near Seattle Center in Belltown, and its transmitter is located on Queen Anne Hill...
, and Maury
Maury (TV series)
Maury is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Maury Povich.When the series first aired in 1991, the show was called The Maury Povich Show and was produced by MoPo Productions in association with Paramount Domestic Television...
on KCPQ
KCPQ
KCPQ, channel 13, is the Fox television affiliate licensed to Tacoma, Washington serving the Seattle/Tacoma television market, owned by the Tribune Company...
. These shows had made inroads into Northwest Afternoon's once-comfortable ratings, making it difficult for station management to continue producing the show. The stunning announcement came after the series won a local Emmy. A 24-year retrospective send-off was aired on September 4, 2008, with the last show airing on September 5. The show was replaced by "The Doctors
The Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...
," a syndicated show that premiered on September 8, 2008.
The cancellation of Northwest Afternoon came as a surprise considering many stations across the country are adding more local programs to their daytime schedules including KGO-TV
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
in San Francisco with The View from the Bay, KSTP-TV
KSTP-TV
KSTP-TV, channel 5, is the ABC affiliate for the Twin Cities. Its transmitter is located at the Shoreview Telefarm. It is the flagship station of Hubbard Broadcasting, which also owns several other broadcasting properties across the United States....
in Minneapolis with Twin Cities Live, KUSA-TV
KUSA-TV
KUSA, channel 9, is an NBC-affiliated television station in Denver, Colorado. KUSA is owned by the Gannett Company, and is a sister station to MyNetworkTV affiliate KTVD...
in Denver with Colorado & Company, WXIA in Atlanta with Atlanta & Company, KXTV
KXTV
KXTV, channel 10, is an ABC affiliate television station in Sacramento, California. It is owned and operated by the Gannett Company. Its transmitter tower is located in Walnut Grove, California, and studios are located on Broadway, just south of Business Loop 80 at the south edge of downtown...
in Sacramento with Sacramento & Company, and KSDK
KSDK
KSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
in St. Louis with Show Me St. Louis, just to name a few.
Hosts
The original hosts of the show were Dick Foley and Dana Middleton, with the soap-opera recap portion of the show hosted by Cindi Rinehart. Dana Middleton left in 1992 to pursue other interests. Her departure was an emotional moment, and her last show was filled with recaps of previous shows. Middleton's replacement was Elisa Jaffe, a reporter and morning news anchor for KOMO News who had also launched the "Morning Express," the station's first hour-long morning newscast in 1987. Dick Foley followed suit in 1996, and was replaced by KPLZ radio host Kent Phillips (who had been filling in on occasion for Cindi Rinehart for a few years prior). Out of the current hosts of the show, Cindi Rinehart was the only remaining host since the show's debut in 1984.The main portion of the program was most recently hosted by Kent Phillips, with rebroadcasts of segments co-hosted by Natasha Curry (who joined Northwest Afternoon in 2007), and KOMO News reporter Rachelle Murcia.
Scope on the Soaps
Scope on the Soaps was the opening segment, usually 15–20 minutes in length, in which Cindi Rinehart gave viewers a daily recap of the happenings in the soap opera world. Her awkward style became legendary, and she earned a "backstage-pass" into the behind-the-scenes production of all the major dramas on daytime TV. Her Scope on the Soaps segment was frequented - either in person or over live telephone calls - by major soap stars and producers, and Cindi herself has even starred in soaps such as General HospitalGeneral Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
. Because of her expertise, she has been dubbed "The Soap Queen."
Reinhart also attracted a lot fans beyond the Northwest. Since the show was also seen across Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on satellite, it was not uncommon for viewers to call as far away as Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
just to ask Cindi questions about what will happen on the soaps, a rarity for a locally produced---and American based---afternoon talk show.
Notable guests
- Alex TrebekAlex TrebekGeorge Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
- Ray CombsRay CombsRaymond Neil "Ray" Combs, Jr. was an American comedian, actor, and host of the game show Family Feud on CBS and in syndication from 1988 to 1994.-Early life and career:...
- Bill ClintonBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
- George H.W. Bush
- Sylvester StalloneSylvester StalloneMichael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
- Peter JenningsPeter JenningsPeter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
- Sam DonaldsonSam DonaldsonSamuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr. is a reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to the present, best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday Program "This Week."-Early life and career:Donaldson was born in El...
- Colin PowellColin PowellColin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
- Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
- Donny OsmondDonny OsmondDonald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
- Marie OsmondMarie OsmondOlive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s...
- Fred RosenFred RosenFred S. Rosen was a paediatrician and immunologist at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Center for Blood Research, and Children's Hospital of Boston. He was also an expert in antique furniture....
- Madeleine AlbrightMadeleine AlbrightMadeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...
- Robert DuvallRobert DuvallRobert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
- Tim AllenTim AllenTim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement...
- Tom CruiseTom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
- Michael J. FoxMichael J. FoxMichael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...
- Steven SpielbergSteven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
- Alex RodriguezAlex RodriguezAlexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...
- Tanya HardingTanya HardingTanya Victoria Harding is an Australian softball player, who has competed for Australia at four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996. Three times she claimed a bronze medal , and once a silver medal .In 1995, Harding enrolled at UCLA for one trimester...
- Kathie Lee GiffordKathie Lee GiffordKathie Lee Gifford is an American television host, singer, songwriter and actress, best known for her 15-year run on the talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin...
- Carol ChanningCarol ChanningCarol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
- Pat SajakPat SajakPat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
- Vanna WhiteVanna WhiteVanna White is an American television personality and film actress best known as the hostess of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.-Early life:...
- Merv GriffinMerv GriffinMervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
- Sylvia Brown
- Jane PauleyJane PauleyMargaret Jane Pauley is an American television journalist, and has been involved in news reporting since 1975...
- Angus YoungAngus YoungAngus McKinnon Young is a Scottish-born Australian musician, and the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the rock and roll band AC/DC. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with other members of AC/DC in 2003 and is known for his energetic performances,...
- GG AllinGG AllinKevin Michael "GG" Allin was an American punk rock singer-songwriter, who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. GG Allin is perhaps best remembered for his notorious live performances, which often featured transgressive acts, including coprophagia, self-mutilation, and...
- Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
- Kristine WKristine WKristine W, born Kristine Weitz, is an American singer-songwriter. She has released seven albums, three of them through major labels, plus an early recording she sells to fans through her website...
Other notable guests include much of KOMO's own on-air staff. KOMO news anchors Dan Lewis, Kathi Goertzen, and several KOMO TV reporters have made appearances on Northwest Afternoon over the years.