of Fortune and Jeopardy! as part of a group deal with Emmis' Fox affiliates, a rarity for a Fox station (prior to airing on channel 8, the two shows aired for about two decades on WWL-TV). News operation WVUE-DT presently broadcasts 57 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 10 hours each weekday and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output of any television station in the New Orleans market and within the state of Louisiana. WVUE is the only station in the market that airs a local newscast at 5:30 p.m., although it does not run a newscast at 6 p.m. on weeknights. In addition, the station produces the sports discussion program The Final Play, which airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. The station had been an also-ran among the New Orleans market's television news outlets for many years; however, the station hired many well-known talent during the 1960s through the 1980s (some of whom had previously worked at WDSU and WWL-TV) including anchor Alec Gifford, weatherman Nash Roberts and sports anchor Buddy Diliberto. In 1968, Gifford—then the station's news director—hired Furnell Chatman as a general assignment reporter at WVUE, becoming the first African American reporter in the market; Chatman eventually made history as the first African American to anchor a newscast in Louisiana when he was appointed anchor of the station's noon newscast a few years later. In 1976, WVUE hired Lynn Gansar, who within a few years, was elevated from a reporter role to become the station's first female news anchor. On May 31, 1982, WVUE launched a half-hour 5 p.m. newscast called Live At Five; this program was revamped as Neighbors at Five during the late 1980s, in which anchors Margaret Dubuisson and Joe Giardina presented the newscast from various locations in New Orleans. After WVUE became a Fox affiliate in January 1996, the station increased its news programming output from about 15 hours a week to nearly 25 hours, retaining all of its existing newscasts. The station initially retained its noon and 6 p.m. newscasts, but opted air syndicated programming in the 5:30 p.m. half-hour rather than expand its 5 p.m. newscast to a full hour, a move that was atypical of the Big Three stations that switched to Fox during the affiliation switches that occurred between