ABC affiliate WATE and CW affiliate WBXX announced a new partnership to produce a 10 p.m. nightly newscast in Knoxville market. The new show will be 35 minutes long and will begin in early August.

This is not WATE’s first time in the 10 p.m. timeslot. The station formerly produced the evening news for WTNZ, the Knoxville Fox affiliate. That arrangement was terminated in March, when WTNZ announced a new partnership with WBIR, the NBC affiliate.

“We’re glad to be back in the 10 p.m. time slot,” WATE news director Jamie Foster said in a press release. “A lot of viewers have asked if we’re going to do a 10 p.m. news again. We know they’ll be excited as we are.”

WATE will switch to high definition for the broadcasts in the fall. The new broadcast will air seven days a week, with Kristen Farley anchoring on weeknights.

The first stage of the recently announced partnership between Knoxville NBC-affiliate WBIR and Fox-affiliate WTNZ begins this week.

Earlier this month, Raycom Media-owned WTNZ announced that WBIR, which is owned by Gannett, would begin producing its newscasts as part of the station’s strategy to cost-effectively expand its local news programming and eventually begin broadcasting in HD.

WTNZ is debuting its new, WBIR-produced 10 p.m. newscast today anchored by Robin Wilhoit and John Becker (right), who will continue helming WBIR’s 11 p.m. newscast as well.

WTNZ’s 10 p.m. newscast will expand to an hour in “late May or early June,” WBIR news director Bill Shory told the Knoxville News Sentinel. At that point, Beth Haynes, who currently hosts WBIR’s 4 p.m. news and lifestyle show, will rotate in with Wilhoit and Becker at 10 p.m.

The other elements of the partnership–HD broadcasting and a new, two-hour morning newscast–are set to launch by the end of June.

In a new partnership, Knoxville NBC-affiliate WBIR will begin producing newscasts for Fox-affiliate WTNZ.

Under the agreement, WBIR will expand its 10 p.m. weekday newscast to a full hour while also debuting a new morning newscast from 7-9:00 a.m. The new morning show will be the only local newscast airing in Knoxville during that time period.

“The new agreement with WBIR gives us more options,” said John Hayes, WTNZ’s vice president and general manager. “Partnering with the largest news producer in the market creates a win-win for everyone.”

WBIR expects to begin producing WTNZ’s 10 p.m. newscast this month with the full-hour expansion and the new morning show launching later in the spring. Corresponding with the agreement, WBIR announced that it will begin producing all of its newscasts, as well as WTNZ’s, in HD.