Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV has dropped the 6:30 p.m. newscast on sister station WRDQ, the Orlando Sentinel‘s Hal Boedeker reports.

“In the fall, an hour of ‘The Middle’ starts at 6 p.m. on WRDQ,” WFTV-WRDQ general manager Shawn Bartelt told Boedeker. “With the launch of the 4 p.m. news on WFTV, we felt it was the right time to put sitcoms in that hour, to prepare for the fall and to use some of the 6:30 resources for the 4 p.m.”

WFTV launched its 4 p.m. newscast last week.

Jorge Estevez is leaving Miami and going back to Orlando.

Estevez, who has worked as a reporter for Miami’s WFOR since 2006, is departing the CBS station to return to WFTV, the Orlando station where he worked prior to moving to South Florida.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring Jorge back to Central Florida,” WFTV-WRDQ vice president and general manager Shawn Bartelt said, announcing the move.  “I am sure that our viewers who remember Jorge will share our excitement when he is back on our air this summer.” Read more

Orlando’s WFTV has found a replacement for Oprah: Casey Anthony.

In the wake of Oprah’s departure, WFTV has decided to run coverage of the Casey Anthony trial in the TV icon’s longtime time slot instead of repeats of her final season.

“We’re here to serve an audience. The market has more interest in Casey on trial than in repeats of a show that has been canceled,” WFTV news director Bob Jordan told the Orlando Sentinel recently, referring to “Oprah.”

WFTV’s competitors have been drawing significant audiences with daytime coverage of the Anthony trial so the station decided to put its hat in the ring. WFTV’s sister station WRDQ is now airing live coverage of the trial from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays with WFTV taking over at 4.

“We have to be in the game,” Jordan said. “We’re not going to sit here and let them take this.”