WABC/7 launching 10 a.m. newscast; team includes Sam Champion, Shirleen Allicot

WABC/7 will launch a 10 a.m. weekday newscast on Tuesday, a first in the station's 75-year history.

The new program — "Eyewitness News Mornings @ 10" — fills the real estate formerly held by "Tamron Hall," which has moved to 2 p.m., where "Rachael Ray" had been airing. Ray's show was canceled in March at the end of its 17th season.

"It's the right time, right everything" for the launch, said Marilu Galvez, the station's president and general manager, in an interview last week.

Over the years local news has expanded at each of the network-owned and affiliated stations in New York, particularly in the early morning — Ch. 7 airs nearly 50 hours of local news a week — but midmorning expansions are rare. One reason has been syndicated talk shows, which have been lucrative and have proliferated over the decades. But the writers and actors strikes have put pressure on them, while local news operations are looking to boost visibility for their streaming newscasts.

Enter "Eyewitness News Mornings @ 10," which will be co-anchored by Shirleen Allicot of "Eyewitness News This Morning" and "Noon," and weekend anchor Mike Marza. Meteorologists Sam Champion and Dani Beckstrom will assume prominent roles too.

In an interview, Galvez — a newsroom veteran who was named station chief in March 2022 — said the show will be a hybrid program: Part news, and part news-you-can-use, to bridge "Live with Kelly and Mark" (also a Ch. 7 production) and "The View" at 11. "Clearly we designed the show to fit organizationally in the day part and to deliver local news content in a more relaxed, conversational style," she said. "If we have a breaking news situation, we'll have more of a breaking news format, but this offers flexibility."

First guest on Tuesday will be New York City Mayor Eric Adams.