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Success of morning show has company cloning format; wpix could be next
Three years ago, KTLA-TV Los Angeles entertainment reporter Sam Rubin conducted a live report outside a Hollywood sandwich shop.
At the same time, KTLA'S morning news team had been protesting the quality of the food that the Tribuneowned station was providing its earlyrising and top-rated morning news team. So anchors Barbara Beck and Carlos Amezcua, and weatherman Mark Kriski decided to take things into their own hands. They walked off the set in the middle of the telecast, piled into Amezcua's van and drove to the sandwich shop.
Left behind to handle the news was in-studio guest, TV producer Arnold Shapiro (Scared Straight). After getting their food and an earful from producers, the reporters rushed back to the studio-"running three red lights" in the process.
"The police saw and followed us all the way back to the lot with their sirens on," says Amezcua. "They were really mad .... Luckily, they watched the show and knew what we were about."
No tickets were handed out-and it's the kind of off-the-wall stunt that has driven KTLA'S morning news show to the top of the ratings in Los Angeles. The KTLA Morning News, which also does its share...