Joel Cheatwood

Joel Cheatwood is an American television executive best known for creating modern news formats which combine flashy presentation to make news more attractive for younger audiences.

Cheatwood first came to prominence in 1989 while serving as news director at WSVN in Miami. The longtime NBC affiliate had recently switched to Fox as part of a major shakeup in South Florida television. Station owner Edmund Ansin responded by pouring most of the station's resources into its news department. With Ansin's backing, Cheatwood adopted an "if it bleeds, it leads" format heavy on flashy graphics and crime stories. Cheatwood was often criticized for an emphasis on sensationalistic reporting, as it was often overlooked that crime was a major concern for the people of Miami at the time. However, the "7 News" format revived a station that had low ratings while it was an NBC affiliate. It also heavily influenced what other Fox stations' newscasts would look like for many years to come.

In 1993, Ansin bought WHDH-TV in Boston. Like WSVN, WHDH-TV had long been last in the local news ratings. Ansin brought Cheatwood to Boston in with the hope of turning the station around. By this time, Cheatwood's reputation in television news was such that many of the station's veteran reporters resigned. Cheatwood relaunched the station with a considerably watered-down version of the WSVN format, which was still shocking by Boston standards. Nonetheless, it led to a ratings boost, especially after the longtime CBS affiliate switched to NBC in 1995. It soon rose to second place in the Boston ratings, and for the last decade has regularly traded first place with long-dominant WCVB-TV.

In 1997, Cheatwood moved to WMAQ-TV in Chicago, an NBC O&O, as vice president of news and promotion. Although the decision was made by WMAQ-TV before Cheatwood was brought onto the scene, Cheatwood is often mistakenly criticized for bringing Jerry Springer on as a commentator. The station's longtime anchor team, Carol Marin and Ron Magers, resigned in protest. Springer only made two commentaries before being let go, and station management later admitted that his hiring was a mistake. Cheatwood took the fall for the management's decision and was later moved to serve as a consultant for NBC.

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