ABC News has found a new correspondent. KSL is looking for a new weekend anchorwoman.
Jane Clayson is leaving Ch. 5 to work for the network."I'll leave Salt Lake and KSL with fond memories of my time here and with some treasured friendships," Clayson said. "It was really time well spent, but the network knocks once, and I really felt like this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
Indeed. The network is the Major Leagues (although Salt Lake is at least Triple A). More than that, ABC News is the defending World Series champ, with television's top-rated evening newscast and strong presences at other hours.
Initially, Clayson will be assigned to ABC's Los Angeles bureau - a position created for her so that she can spend some time with her husband, attorney Stan Mortensen.
"I'll get to be with my husband for a few months. We haven't lived together since we got married last August, we've just been commuting back and forth," Clayson said.
But the L.A. assignment is only temporary. After spending four or five months there, ABC will send Clayson to New York City, where she'll be a correspondent for "ABC World News Tonight" as well as for the network's news service that feeds its many affiliates.
In addition, she'll be doing some anchoring on ABC's forthcoming 24-hour cable news service.
(She won't be going to New York alone, however. Her husband plans to either transfer there with the company that currently employs him or seek another position.)
Clayson insists that she wasn't out searching for another job - a job was more or less dropped in her lap. An agent called her about a month and a half ago, expressing interest and asking her to send him tapes of herself on air.
"I was not interested in doing that, really," she said. "I like KSL. I have turned down other offers in larger markets because I like it here. I didn't quite know how to take his offer."
But she did end up sending him a tape. "And a week later he had me flying to New York to meet with the network," Clayson said. A couple of weeks later, she had an offer from ABC.
Clayson joined KSL in 1990 and was named weekend anchor in 1991. Her departure date has not yet been set, but she'll probably be leaving Ch. 5 and Utah about mid-May. Clayson said that management at KSL has been "generous" in allowing her out of her contract at the station.
"Certainly, we're not happy that's she's leaving us, but we're absolutely thrilled for her," said KSL news director Ray Carter.
"We're saddened by the loss but it's great for her," said station manager Steve Lindsley. "She's very talented, and I think that speaks to the caliber of the people we have working here."
No decision has been made yet on who will replace Clayson behind the anchor desk at KSL on the weekends.
NO JUDGE OF TALENT: When Clayson joined KSL in 1990, I had two immediate thoughts.
First, she's very young. And, second, she needs some seasoning. Some experience.
Didn't expect great things from her.
But over the past six years, she's grown into one of the more capable, professionals anchors in town. As a matter of fact, another local station was more than a bit interested in hiring her away from KSL just a few months ago.
Which proves two things. First, that it is possible to grow into a job. That a bit of experience can make a lot of difference.
And, second, that I'm no great judge of anchor talent.
EARLIER RISERS: KSL is about to join those early birds at KUTV-Ch. 2 and KTVX-Ch. 4 by starting its early morning newscast at 5:30 a.m. instead of 6 a.m.
The extra half hour will be added on Monday.
Although Ch. 5's early morning news finished third behind Ch. 2 and Ch. 4 in the February sweeps, Lindsley pointed out that KSL's was the only one of the three that had higher ratings in its second half hour than it had in the first.
"We're hoping to build off that," he said. "We don't necessarily think there's a lot of people watching at 5:30, but we do believe there's an audience that's there at a quarter or 10 'til "
(And, after beating this horse to death when Ch. 2 and Ch. 4 made the same move, that smart-mouth TV editor is fresh out of jokes on this one.)
ACTORS ARE BETTER THAN THE MOVIE: "The Deliverance of Elaine" is one of those movies that can be summed up rather quickly.
Great performances from Mare Winningham and Lloyd Bridges. Not-so-great movie.
Too bad.
"Deliverance" (8 p.m., Ch. 2) is a murky, morbid tale of mystery and murder. Winningham stars as the title character, a small-town schoolteacher who has devoted her life to caring for her crippled father (Bridges).
And how he came to be crippled is the mystery. Elaine has recurring nightmares about the night - when she was only 6 - when someone came into her family's home, shot her mother to death and crippled her father. And then the assailant committed suicide.
But dear old dad - who's a nasty, unpleasant bigot and alcoholic - won't talk about it, even though the poor woman is haunted by that which she doesn't understand.
As the movie begins, Elaine has struck up a pen-pal relationship with a convict, Charlie (Chris Cooper). While she thinks it's rather anonymous, Charlie knows more about her life than she does.
And when he's paroled, Charlie comes to town to let her in on the secret.
Along the way, there's also a rather undeveloped storyline about Elaine's lingering romance with a married cop (Ron Lea), which results in further complications in her life.
And just as one mystery is cleared up, another develops.
Winningham - a truly fine actress - is wonderful. And Bridges doesn't sugarcoat the unpleasant character he plays.
Unfortunately, the script doesn't live up to the performances - resulting in performances that are worth watching but a movie that really isn't.
WILL IT LAST TWO WEEKS? "My Guys" star Michael Rispoli is just about guaranteed that his current network television series will be more successful than his last one.
Last year, he starred in Fox's "The Great Defender" - which was canceled after just one episode.
"Well, they said that the show was too good and they didn't want Mike Wallace to feel bad, so they took us off," joked Rispoli of his show, which aired opposite "60 Minutes" once before getting the hook - tying a television record for quick cancellations.
Actually, it was sort of an embarrassing situation for the actor.
"When the show went on, my family and friends all gathered and had a big party, which was a great thing, and saw the show," Rispoli said. "And then two days later, I had to call everybody up from the party and tell them that, you know, the show was taken off."
Well, "My Guys" should last longer than "The Great Defender." CBS doesn't have many shows in reserve to replace it with.
VIDBITS: The latest animated afternoon entry from Disney will be a cartoon series based on the 1961 movie "101 Dalmations." The studio will produce 52 half-hour episodes, which will air as part of the "Disney Afternoon" lineup.
- David Letterman's old set is gone - but not far. The host of CBS's "Late Show" has donated the old cityscape set to the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, so fans will be able to stop by and sit behind Dave's old desk when the set goes on display later this year.
- NBC Sports, which has long vowed that it would not be influenced by Fox's flashy coverage of the NFL, has announced that its NFL pregame show will expand from 30 minutes to an hour in the fall. Fox, of course, has had an hourlong pregame show since it began airing football.
- Reportedly both Ted Danson and Michael J. Fox have been promised prime-time slots when their sitcoms premiere in the fall.
Danson, who's doing a half-hour comedy with his wife, Mary Steen-burgen, has apparently been told by CBS that he'll have the slot right after "Murphy Brown" on Mondays. And ABC has apparently told Fox his show will run after "Home Improvement" on Tuesdays.
Neither network has had an official comment on these reports.
- Jay Leno is going to hit the road again. He'll do a week's worth of "Tonight" from Chicago's Rosemont Theatre beginning April 29. (NBC had announced a spring trip to New York City, but that's been put off until November.)
- WPLJ-FM, a New York City radio station, recently asked listeners to vote for the "Most Irritating People on TV." Tori Spelling finished first, followed by Bob Saget, Sally Jessy Raphael, Gilbert Gott-fried and Sally Struthers.
Not a bad list.
- Lifetime Television has acquired the rights to reruns of the hit medical drama "Chicago Hope." Episodes from the series first two seasons will begin running on the cable channel in the fall.
- Former "Knots Landing" star Michele Lee is going to be a busy woman - she's the writer, executive producer, director and star of an upcomng movie on Lifetime titled "The Genius." And, no, it's not an autobiography - it's about a "free-spirited, child-like woman with limited intelligence" who, through medical experiments, becomes a genius.