i have a Joomla site, 2 sites in one with the same content. only want to update content once and show on both templates . it goes to the item from the second template but shows it with default template. any ideas to show content with the corespondent template.

Hello,

I am not sure I understand your setup.
Are these two sites separate installations, admins etc. ?

You can select which Joomla! template is used from the menu item. If that item's category does not belong to a menu item, then you need to map it.

it is one installation with two templates i link it to the menu with the templates for example template B has the same menus as template A (default). when i click on menu in template B eg. national it show the different stories on template B and when i click on a specific story that goes to that item it show on template A and not B.

the site i am working on is a news paper and tv site they have two difrent brands. the news site feature videos that the tv site also feature and the tv site feature stories that the news site feature. I have to templates and when i am on the tv site and i click on the stories it goes to the item showing the newspaper template.

Got it.

Since the menus do not belong directly to a menu item I think the most bulletproof option is to assign the template programmatically.

Depending on the category, the menu item or any other method you have to differentiate your content's structure you can assign the template inside the item.php file.

eg: