Your afternoon entertainment options will be dwindling by an hour if you're a fan of channel 8, WMTW, as the station announced that they will be launching a 4 p.m. newscast starting in September. WMTW will become the first station in Maine to offer consumers 2.5 hours straight of local news coverage, from 4 p.m. until national news kicks in at 6:30 p.m.

According to the Portland Press Herald, the trend of having 4 p.m. newscasts has become popular nationwide and WMTW decided to seize the opportunity to become the Maine's first station to launch earlier coverage. WMTW was also the first station to launch a 5 p.m. newscast back in 1993.

Currently, WMTW has the most popular afternoon talk show, Ellen, running in the 4 p.m. hour. The station plans to move Ellen to the 3 p.m. hour to compensate. Additionally, the Steve Harvey show will now air at 10 a.m., replacing the Meredith Vieira show, which has been canceled.

WMTW will continue the half hour news cycle during their 4 o'clock hour broadcasts. The station will update the top stories every half hour and promises expanded coverage of press conferences and other breaking news events. WMTW also stated they do not plan to add to the air staff despite the additional hour of live TV.

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