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152-611: ABC World News Tonight (titled ABC World News Tonight with David Muir for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News , the news division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network in the United States. It is currently the most watched network newscast in the United States, with an average of 2 million more than its nearest rival, NBC Nightly News . Since 2014,
304-554: A pillarbox format for viewers with standard-definition television sets watching either through cable or satellite television . The program also introduced a new set and upconverted its existing graphics package to HD. In September 2009, before the start of its 31st season, John Stossel announced he would leave the program after 28 years to pursue a new weekly show on Fox Business . Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer also contributed reports. On December 10, 2009, ABC News announced that Good Morning America news anchor Chris Cuomo
456-520: A technical director , floor director audio technician , and a television crew of operators running character graphics (CG), teleprompters , and professional video cameras . Most news shows are broadcast live. Radio news is transmitted through the medium of radio , meaning it is audio-only. It was a dominant form of information dissemination to households from the 1910s–1940s before home televisions became cheap and common. Radio news has persisted, often with short updates at certain intervals on
608-515: A television license fee , replacing them with promotions for different BBC News special programs. The program was replaced by Asia Business Report and Sport Today on June 14, 2011, but later returned to the channel on August 20, 2012. It was also available on the BBC's on-demand service BBC iPlayer for 28 days after its domestic broadcast. The program was replaced again by Asia Business Report and Sport Today on March 30, 2015. In Australia, WNT
760-613: A 10-minute newscast at 10:55 pm, following The National , these were expanded to a half-hour and moved to 11:00 p.m. during the fall of 2012). Some stations carry morning newscasts (usually starting at 5:30 or 6:00 am, and ending at 9:00 am). Unlike in the United States, primetime newscasts in the 10:00 p.m. timeslot are relatively uncommon (three Global owned-and-operated stations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan – CKND-DT , CFSK-DT , and CFRE-DT – and Victoria, British Columbia independent station CHEK-DT are
912-485: A Break" segments – was named as Walters' new co-anchor. As one of the first veteran anchors, Barbara Walters chose to go into semi-retirement as a broadcast journalist in 2004. However, she remained with 20/20 as a frequent contributor to the program. ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas was promoted to the co-anchor position. On August 25, 2008, 20/20 (alongside ABC World News and Nightline ) began broadcasting in high definition , with broadcasts presented in
1064-545: A U.S. military hospital in Germany, before later being transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland for further treatment and released for outpatient treatment. Within a few months after Woodruff's accident, ABC News announced that Vargas was pregnant and due to give birth to her second child in late summer. For about a month, Good Morning America co-hosts Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer had alternated co-anchoring
1216-658: A broadcast on HBO for a few years despite starting as a YouTube channel, for example, eventually transferring the show to their own network called Viceland and later Vice On TV. Outside the realm of traditional news organizations with paid journalists are citizen journalists , independents who report on their own and use sites such as YouTube to display their content. Independents also heavily cover commentary on news: while most independents cannot originally report on anything other than local issues due to budgetary concerns, opinions are cheaper. As such, Internet journalism has many video broadcasts & podcasts of opinion closer to
1368-502: A campaign for Jennings, "Trust Is Earned", in the wake of the Killian documents controversy at CBS and Brian Williams 's assumption of the NBC anchor chair. On July 19, 2006, ABC News announced that World News Tonight would have its name officially changed to World News with Charles Gibson . The network chose to make the, albeit minor, change to remove "Tonight" from the title to reflect
1520-485: A channel number or call letters , the newscast title is often enough for the appropriate station to receive Nielsen ratings credit. The Big Three broadcast television networks produce morning and evening national newscasts. These newscasts are focused on world news, national news, and sometimes local news items that have some national significance. ( Good Morning America First Look , Good Morning America , and ABC World News are broadcast by ABC , CBS broadcasts
1672-446: A competitor, tended not to use live broadcast as a style, except when streaming existing television programs. Another change in news broadcasts in the 2000s, at least in the United States, was a rediscovered interest in health news and consumer news – areas of special interest to women that had traditionally been written off as too minor for the evening newscasts, but proved to be steady sources of viewer curiosity and ratings. Unlike in
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#17327909018991824-532: A correspondent on February 28, 2007. Some media analysts found the reasons for the appointment of Gibson as anchor to be merely a cover for ABC News's real intentions to bring stability to its flagship news program, which had seen its ratings slip, and to attract some older viewers away from the CBS Evening News with interim anchor Bob Schieffer . Indeed, the advertising campaign focused on Gibson's experience, calling him "Your Trusted Source", similar to
1976-440: A daily flagship evening newscast Noticias Telemundo , along with weekday morning program Hoy Día (which replaced Un Nuevo Día in 2021) and weekday afternoon newsmagazine Al Rojo Vivo ; Estrella TV , which produces the weekday-only flagship news program Noticiero Estrella TV and the primetime newscast Cierre de Edición ; and Azteca América , which produces morning, early and late evening newscasts on weekdays under
2128-631: A day on the 24-hour news network OSN News in MENA Region. Various cable companies in the Caribbean simulcast ABC World News Tonight from Miami-based WPLG . Similarly, cable companies in Canada simulcast the program with most airing from either Seattle-based KOMO , Boston-based WCVB , or Detroit-based WXYZ which operate as timeshift channels . In the United Kingdom, the program
2280-498: A day, often filling late afternoon, primetime, and late night hours with news-based talk programs, documentaries, and other specialty programming. More often, AM radio stations will air a 6½-minute newscast at the top of the hour, which can be either a local report, a national report from a radio network such as CBS Radio , CNN Radio , NPR , Fox News Radio , or ABC News Radio , or a mix of both local and national content, including weather and traffic reports. Some stations also air
2432-485: A feature appearing as the penultimate segment of each night's broadcast focusing on news stories that are trending on social media, pop culture and entertainment-related stories and viral videos . Another feature introduced during Sawyer's tenure was "Made in America", a feature segment reported by David Muir, chronicling enterprising American companies. On June 25, 2014, ABC News announced that Sawyer would step down as
2584-491: A financial news channel, while Sun News Network briefly operated from 2011 to 2015 as a conservative -leaning competitor to the other national news channels. There are also a handful of regional news channels, such as CP24 (which covers the Greater Toronto Area ), and Global News: BC 1 , which covers Vancouver. CityNews Channel formerly operated as a competitor to CP24, although that channel shut down after
2736-412: A focus on hard international news. World News at the time had a 60% female viewership, the highest of the three major network evening newscasts. On October 1, 2012, World News debuted a new logo, opening theme (which was composed by Hans Zimmer , replacing the longtime Bob Israel-composed theme), an updated set and new graphics package. The program also introduced a segment called the "Instant Index",
2888-511: A half-hour topical analysis of important stories (especially breaking developments in the Watergate scandal ) in the vein of CBS's 60 Minutes , which Reasoner himself co-moderated at two different times. Affiliates usually carried the program on Saturday evenings in the time slots where the main newscast aired on weeknights. The program, which had affiliate clearance problems and was thus unsuccessful in terms of ratings, ended in 1975, replaced by
3040-555: A larger network affiliate or whose operations are jointly managed through a shared service or local marketing agreement . In cases where a station with an existing news department enters into a news share agreement, it will result either the two departments merging or the outright conversion of newscast production from in-house to outsourced production. Minor network affiliates involved in news share agreements will often carry far fewer hours of local newscasts than would be conceivable with an in-house news department to avoid competition with
3192-670: A late night newscast, although the network currently airs rebroadcasts of the fourth hour of Today , and sister network CNBC 's Mad Money on weeknights). Spanish-language news programs are provided by Univision , which produces early and late evening editions of its flagship evening news program Noticiero Univision seven nights a week (and was the only nightly newscast on the major Spanish networks until Telemundo resumed its weekend newscasts in October 2014), along with weekday afternoon newsmagazine Primer Impacto and weekday morning program Despierta America ; Telemundo , which has
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#17327909018993344-515: A local cable operator and are distributed solely through cable television and IPTV system operators. Some broadcast television stations also operate cable channels (some of which are repeated through digital multicasting ) that air the station's local newscasts in the form of live simulcasts from the television station, with rebroadcasts of the newscasts airing in time periods between the live broadcasts. A term which has entered common parlance to differentiate cable news from traditional news broadcasts
3496-551: A local news operation, such as is the case with Fox News Channel and the Fox network's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates (most of which use the Fox (channel #) News brand for their newscasts), due to the network's controversially perceived conservative-leaning political content that differs from the Fox broadcast stations' independent and generally nonpartisan reporting. Most U.S. cable news networks do not air news programming 24 hours
3648-666: A more fragmented market and government reluctance to interfere as closely. Increased choice in channels led to viewers declining to watch overly serious newscasts; successful network news shows tended to be ones that either focused on entertainment or at least mixed it in, such as morning talk shows or news magazines such as Today and 60 Minutes . Audiences that prefer more serious news have migrated to news-focused stations such as CNN , Fox News , and MSNBC for American examples. These changes have been criticized as having effects on larger society. An example from television in Italy
3800-608: A new title card, reintroduced the long-time Bob Israel-composed opening theme (replacing the Hans Zimmer theme), and revealed an updated set and new graphics package. On October 26, 2023, World News Tonight began posting full broadcasts to ABC News' YouTube channel. ABC first attempted an early evening weekend newscast in July 1975, when it debuted a Saturday bulletin that was anchored by Ted Koppel and taken over by Tom Jarriel and Sylvia Chase in 1977. The broadcast, however,
3952-618: A nightly newscast in the summer of 1948, when H. R. Baukhage and Jim Gibbons hosted News and Views . This was succeeded by After the Deadlines in 1951 and All Star News in 1952. In the fall of 1953, John Daly began anchoring the then-15-minute John Daly and the News . Daly, who served as host of the CBS game show What's My Line? contemporaneously, anchored the newscast until 1960, with multiple hosts and formats succeeding him. Anchors of
4104-490: A regular on the newsmagazine 20/20 . Even in areas with three full-time network affiliates, ABC stations often opted to broadcast the news program in the 6:00 p.m./5:00 p.m. timeslot to entice viewers by presenting the day's national and international news first, thus making it more likely that they would stay tuned to the station's local newscast immediately following the program (or one half-hour afterward), instead of turning to CBS or NBC. Starting in 1973, before
4256-548: A relevant location and edited in an editing suite in a newsroom or a remote contribution edit suite in a location some distance from the newsroom. They may also be edited in mobile editing vans, or satellite vans or trucks (such as electronic news gathering vehicles), and transmitted back to the newsroom. Live coverage will be broadcast from a relevant location and sent back to the newsroom via fixed cable links, microwave radio, production truck , satellite truck , or via online streaming. Roles associated with television news include
4408-422: A result of a local press pool arrangement. Many local and national news organizations such as Dallas station WFAA-TV and CBS News provided continuous coverage of the events and aftermath for five days. The November 24, 1963, assassination of Kennedy's accused killer Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby was fed to NBC by a remote unit on loan to its Dallas affiliate WBAP-TV (now KXAS-TV ) from competitor KTVT , and
4560-525: A singular brand under the 20/20 name and format to compete with Dateline NBC (which itself ran for four nights a week at the time), and having former Primetime Live anchors Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer host 20/20 on Wednesday in the former show's old timeslot. Additional nights were also added during this time with various anchors for each broadcast. At its peak, 20/20 ran on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, in addition to its longtime Friday timeslot; these additional nights of 20/20 were joined by
4712-430: A substantially lower weekly newscast output compared to its English-language counterparts (usually limited to half-hour broadcasts in the evening, and often airing only on weeknights). Unlike international broadcast stations which tend to brand under uniform newscast titles based solely on network affiliation, U.S. television stations tend to use varying umbrella titles for their newscasts; some title their newscasts using
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4864-463: A then semi-retired Hugh Downs was recruited to take on the role of sole host on the following week's program. Also featured in the premiere telecast of 20/20 , the opening sequence consisted of a pair of eyeglasses, whose lenses showed colored bars, which are often seen in the SMPTE color bars (used when television stations were off the air between sign-off and sign-on). The eyeglasses were keyed over
5016-415: A two-anchor format, when in early December 2005, ABC News announced that Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff would be the new permanent co-anchors of World News Tonight , replacing Jennings. People in the news industry looked at the choice of Vargas and Woodruff by ABC News as the start of a new era in network television news. The broadcast was produced live three times per day – the regular live broadcast for
5168-455: A two-hour broadcast formatted as separate hour-long episodes centered on two different topics or at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time as an hour-long broadcast, depending on the programs that precede it that given week. Barbara Walters originally served as host of the program until her retirement from regular television broadcasting in May 2014, after which the hosting duties were turned over the anchors of
5320-411: A two-minute report at the bottom of the hour. FM stations, unless they feature a talk radio format, usually only air an abbreviated weather forecast. Some also air minute-long news capsules featuring a quick review of events, and usually only in drive time periods or in critical emergencies, since FM stations usually focus more on playing music. Traffic reports also air on FM stations, depending on
5472-539: A year and a half of operation in May 2013 The U.S. CNN, Fox News, HLN, and MSNBC, as well as a number of other international news channels (such as, most commonly, Al Jazeera English and BBC World News ) are authorized for distribution by Canadian television providers by the CRTC . Local TV stations in the United States normally broadcast local news three to four times a day on average: commonly airing at 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, or 6:00 a.m.; noon; 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. in
5624-982: A year. In September 1984, the program was renamed World News Tonight with Peter Jennings to reflect its sole anchor and senior editor. Robinson left ABC News in 1984, after stints of anchoring news briefs and the weekend editions of World News Tonight ; he died from complications of AIDS in 1988. With Jennings as lead anchor, World News Tonight was the most-watched national newscast from February 27, 1989, to November 1, 1996, but from then on until February 2007, it placed second behind its main rival, NBC Nightly News . In April 2005, Jennings announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and, as before, other ABC News anchors – mostly consisting of 20/20 co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas and Good Morning America co-anchor Charles Gibson – filled in for him. Jennings died of lung cancer on August 7, 2005, at his apartment in New York City, at age 67. The August 8, 2005, edition of
5776-590: A yellow background, and rotated to its rear position to reveal the 20/20 studio. With Downs hosting, 20/20 changed into a more standard yet unique newsmagazine and received kinder reviews from critics. The program was originally launched as a summer replacement series; it was then presented on a once-a-month basis during the 1978–79 television season, before being given a regular weekly timeslot on Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time beginning May 31, 1979. Emmy Award-winning producer, Bernard I. Cohen began his career with ABC evening news in 1964. From 1979 to 1992, he
5928-414: Is network news , in reference to the traditional television networks on which such broadcasts air. A classic example is the cable news channel MSNBC, which overlaps with (and, in the case of very significant breaking news events, pre-empts) its network counterpart NBC News ; in some cases, viewers may have trouble differentiating between the cable channel and either a counterpart network news organization or
6080-401: Is a study of Mediaset 's rollout in Italy in the 1980s found that Mediaset's programming was slanted against news and educational content than its competitor RAI ( Radiotelevisione italiana ). A study in 2019 found that individuals in regions with an earlier rollout of Mediaset were more susceptible to populist appeals and less interested in "sophisticated" political arguments. The study said
6232-524: Is one famous example, although similar styles took place on the BBC in the United Kingdom, on shows in the Eastern Bloc, and so on, with high viewership concentrated in just a few prestige newscasts. This was something of an artifact of both technology and media culture: few channels were available, and those that did tended to take news casting seriously, even if lighter news could potentially have gotten more viewers. Government regulation also affected
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6384-654: Is relatively uncommon on Canadian television; for many years, the closest program having similarities to the format was CTV's news and interview series Question Period ; Global would eventually debut the political affairs show The West Block in November 2011. Canada is host to several 24-hour news channels on specialty television, including CBC News Network and CTV News Channel in English, and Ici RDI and Le Canal Nouvelles (LCN) in French. BNN Bloomberg operates as
6536-559: The CBS News Mornings , CBS Mornings , and the CBS Evening News , and NBC produces Early Today , Today , and NBC Nightly News ) as well as weekly newsmagazine series (NBC's Dateline ; ABC's 20/20 and Nightline ; and CBS's CBS News Sunday Morning , 48 Hours , and 60 Minutes ). Network morning newscasts usually air at 7:00 a.m. (English-language network morning shows air live in
6688-615: The Big Three ; CNN, Fox News , and MSNBC . Conversely, several cable news channels exist that carry news reports specifically geared toward a particular metropolitan area, region, or state such as New York City's NY1 (which focuses on the entire New York metropolitan area ) and News 12 Networks (which serves portions of the area outside Manhattan ), Orlando 's News 13 (which is also carried in areas surrounding Greater Orlando ), Tampa, Florida 's Bay News 9 , and Washington, D.C.'s NewsChannel 8 . These channels are usually owned by
6840-779: The Eastern Time Zone and tape delayed for the remaining time zones, while the Spanish-language morning shows air live in the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones and are tape delayed in the Pacific Time Zone); network evening newscasts usually are broadcast live twice, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time /5:30 p.m. Central time for the East Coast before another "Western Edition" live broadcast at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time /7:30 p.m. Mountain time . Today
6992-561: The Omni Television station group). Canadian television stations normally broadcast newscasts between two and four times a day: usually at noon, 5:00, 5:30, and 6:00, and 11:00 p.m. (there are some variations to this: stations affiliated with CTV usually air their late evening newscasts at 11:30 pm, due to the scheduling of the network's national evening news program CTV National News at 11:00 p.m. in all time zones; most CBC Television -owned stations formerly carried
7144-507: The hearing impaired – as well as late-news developments, weather forecasts, and sports scores inserted in place of commercials. It was originally titled The Captioned ABC Evening News , and later as The Captioned ABC News , and it was originally distributed by the Eastern Educational Network , before becoming a national program under PBS a year later. The practice continued until 1982, when real-time closed captioning
7296-588: The " Telecopter ", a helicopter equipped for newsgathering use that was the most advanced airborne television broadcast device of its time. The modern-day coverage of major breaking news events came to fruition following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963; the news of Kennedy's death was first announced by Eddie Barker , the news director at KRLD-TV (now KDFW ) in Dallas , who passed along word from an official at Parkland Hospital ; Barker's scoop appeared live simultaneously on CBS and ABC as
7448-620: The 20 largest U.S. media markets). Duopolies and outsourcing agreements have also affected Fox stations in a similar manner; although Fox is considered to be a major network on the same level as NBC, ABC, and CBS and has urged its affiliates since the early 1990s to broadcast local news, about half of its stations broadcast local news programming through news share agreements with many of the remainder operating their own news departments. Several stations affiliated with Spanish-language networks (such as Univision , Telemundo , and UniMás ) or also broadcast their own newscasts, these stations often produce
7600-479: The Eastern and Central Time Zones, plus separate broadcasts for the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. In addition, a live webcast , World News Now (which, incidentally, carried the same title as ABC's overnight news program ), with a newsbrief and a preview of that evening's broadcast, was launched. The webcast aired live at 3:00 pm. Eastern Time on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com, and could be viewed throughout
7752-652: The Friday editions. On December 22, 2017, Elizabeth Vargas announced that she would be leaving 20/20 and ABC News at the end of May. On April 23, 2018, Good Morning America news anchor Amy Robach was announced to take over as co-anchor alongside Muir in May; she subsequently departed from ABC News (and 20/20 by extension) on January 27, 2023, after the Daily Mail reported the previous November on an affair between her and T.J. Holmes , who co-anchored GMA3: What You Need to Know with her. Meanwhile, Deborah Roberts
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#17327909018997904-537: The Frog , athletes, the commander of the International Space Station , competitors Couric and Williams, and was capped off by U.S. President Barack Obama . Long-time ABC journalist and anchorwoman Diane Sawyer (who previously co-anchored Good Morning America with predecessor Gibson) began anchoring the broadcast, which amended its title to ABC World News , on December 21, 2009. On that date,
8056-591: The Global Top News) and later on World News , and in clip form during the English language educational program Kōryaku! ABC News Eigo (Strategies! ABC News English) until its end in March 2021. In Belize , Great Belize Television carries all editions of World News Tonight each weekday at 8:00 p.m. and weekends at 7:00 p.m. Fargo-based radio station WDAY-AM simulcasts the weekday version of
8208-477: The Internet tends to be a la carte, however – rather than a recap show of the issues of the day like a TV or radio show, Internet news sites will usually allow the browser to find the one story they are interested in and watch a video strictly on that, even if said video might have been a segment of a larger show. Internet native news shows do exist such as Vice News , but they tend to seep elsewhere: Vice News ran
8360-575: The Press , ABC's This Week , CBS' Face the Nation , Fox's sole news program Fox News Sunday , Univision's Al Punto , and Telemundo's Enfoque ); of these programs, Meet the Press holds the distinction of being the longest-running American television program as it has aired since November 6, 1947. The U.S. is one of the few countries in which broadcast networks provide overnight or early morning national news programs, in addition to those airing in
8512-493: The Saturday and Sunday editions. Prior to 1975, the only network newscasts that ABC stations broadcast on weekends were 15-minute late-night updates on Saturdays and Sundays, known as ABC Weekend News and later, ABC News Weekend Report . The programs were fed to affiliates at 11:00 pm Eastern/10:00 pm Central and were seen in tandem with the stations' own late newscasts, although some stations opted to tape-delay
8664-658: The Saturday broadcast and Tom Llamas named anchor of the Sunday edition in February 2015. After Vega was named senior White House correspondent, Llamas was named sole weekend anchor in January 2017, as the practice of using separate anchors for the Saturday and Sunday editions ended once again. Llamas subsequently left in January 2021, to join NBC News . In February 2021, Whit Johnson and Linsey Davis were announced as anchors of
8816-495: The Sunday broadcast in 2011, ending the practice of using separate anchors for the Saturday and Sunday editions of the program, with ABC renaming both broadcasts as ABC World News with David Muir as a result. David Muir anchored the weekend program until he took over the weekday broadcast in September 2014. The program returned to using separate anchors for the weekend broadcasts afterward, with Cecilia Vega being named anchor of
8968-553: The United States, most Canadian television stations have license requirements (enforced by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission ) to offer locally produced newscasts (or any local programming, for that matter) in some form. Educational television stations are exempt from these requirements as are multicultural television stations, however some stations licensed as multicultural outlets do produce local newscasts in varied languages (such as
9120-588: The advent of closed captioning , PBS began airing an open captioned version of the ABC Evening News that was distributed to various public television stations throughout the U.S., airing mostly in late-night timeslots five hours after the original ABC broadcast. This version was produced by WGBH , the Boston PBS station, which provided the captions and repackaged the broadcast with additional news stories – some of which were of special interest to
9272-487: The anchor chair at the CBS Evening News . However, New York Post columnist Cindy Adams reported that Gibson would become Woodruff's "temporary permanent replacement". Also starting in the spring of 2006, the West Coast editions of World News Tonight were scaled back because Vargas anchored the broadcast on her own at the time. In May 2006, Vargas announced her resignation from World News Tonight . Charles Gibson
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#17327909018999424-457: The broadcast until his planned return; however, Reynolds would die three months later on July 20, 1983, from bone cancer . A rotation of anchors hosted the program until August 9, 1983, when ABC announced that Jennings became the sole anchor and senior editor of World News Tonight , which took effect September 5, and on that day, the program began broadcasting from New York City on a regular basis. Bill Owen would replace Bill Rice as announcer for
9576-1102: The broadcaster feels is relevant to their audience. An individual news program is typically reported in a series of individual stories that are presented by one or more anchors . A frequent inclusion is live or recorded interviews by field reporters . Television news programs inform and discuss current events via the medium of television. A "news bulletin" or a " newscast " are television programs lasting from seconds to hours that provide updates on events. Programs can vary their focus; some newscasts discuss largely international or national matters, while others will focus on regional and local news events. Example providers of generalist broadcast news shows focusing on national and international matters include BBC News , NBC News , CNN , Fox News Channel , CNA , and Al Jazeera . In addition to general news outlets, there are many specialized news outlets. ESPNews , Fox Sports , and Eurosport News cover sports journalism topics; CNBC , Bloomberg Television , and Fox Business Network are examples that cover business news . Local programming covers
9728-602: The commentary-focused The O'Reilly Factor ). However, their gains did not offset the continuing steep decline in viewership of mainline network news. This era saw diversification and fragmentation proceed even further as new niche networks gained prominence such as the business-focused CNBC , Bloomberg Television , and Fox Business . Instead, people used the Internet for news rather than television broadcasts, both in mainline sites such as ones runs by newspapers as well as independent blogs and message boards with other Internet-users sharing opinions and news Internet news, while
9880-475: The cost of starting a news department from scratch or because of a lack of studio space. These commonly involve Fox, CW, and MyNetworkTV affiliates (and previously affiliate stations of the now-defunct predecessors of the latter two networks, The WB and UPN ) and in some cases, independent stations; however such agreements exist in certain markets between two co-owned/co-managed Big Three affiliates. News share agreements are most common with stations co-owned with
10032-546: The early 2000s). CBC Television, Global, and CTV each produce national evening newscasts ( The National , Global National and CTV National News , respectively), which unlike the American network newscasts do not compete with one another in a common timeslot; while Global National airs at the same early evening time slot as the American evening network newscasts, The National ' s 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time slot competes against primetime entertainment programming on
10184-408: The early evening; and 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. Some stations carry morning newscasts at 4:00, 7:00, 8:00, or 9:00 a.m., midday newscasts at 11:00 or 11:30 a.m., late afternoon newscasts at 4:00 or 4:30 p.m., or early evening newscasts at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. Many Fox affiliates, affiliates of minor networks (such as The CW and MyNetworkTV ), and independent stations air newscasts in
10336-470: The effect included populist parties in general that offered simple slogans and easy cure-alls, including non-Berlusconi populist parties such as the Five Star Movement . From 2000 to 2010, overall viewership of television broadcast news continued to decline. Some news-adjacent cable programs gained fame and success in this era (such as the comedy-focused The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and
10488-1169: The evening during "prime time", but there are also morning newscasts of two to three hours in length. Rolling news channels broadcast news content 24 hours a day. The advent of the internet has allowed the regular 24-hour-a-day presentation of many video and audio news reports, which are updated when additional information becomes available; many television broadcasters provide content originally provided on-air as well as exclusive or supplementary news content on their websites. Local news may be presented by standalone local television stations, stations affiliated with national networks or by local studios which "opt-out" of national network programming at specified points. Different news programming may be aimed at different audiences, depending on age, socio-economic group, or those from particular sections of society. "Magazine-style" television shows (or newsmagazines ) may mix news coverage with topical lifestyle issues, debates, or entertainment content. Public affairs programs provide analysis of and interviews about political, social, and economic issues. News programs feature one or two (sometimes, three) anchors (or presenters,
10640-404: The few remaining users of the concept), most of which eventually disposed of the hourly update format by the early 2000s. Since the early 1990s, independent stations and stations affiliated with a non- Big Three network have entered into "news share agreements", in which news production is outsourced to a major network station (usually an affiliate of ABC, NBC, or CBS), often to avoid shouldering
10792-558: The final hour of primetime (i.e., 10:00 p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific time zones or 9:00 p.m. in the Mountain and Central time zones in the U.S.). Stations that produce local newscasts typically broadcast as little as one to as much over twelve hours of local news on weekdays and as little as one hour to as much as seven hours on weekends; news programming on weekends are typically limited to morning and evening newscasts as
10944-453: The first African American network news anchor upon his appointment on the program – anchored national news from the news division's Chicago bureau. Peter Jennings, who also returned for a second stint, reported international headlines from the division's London bureau. Occasional contributions included special reports by Walters, who was credited as anchor of the special coverage desk from New York City and worldwide, and commentary by Smith, who
11096-499: The fourth and final network evening newscast to begin broadcasting in HD . On September 2, 2009, ABC News announced that Gibson would retire from ABC News altogether on December 18, 2009, and that Sawyer would assume the anchor desk on December 21, 2009. Gibson's final broadcast ended with a video tribute that included all of the living former U.S. Presidents, former ABC anchors, actors and actresses, singers, comedians, Mickey Mouse , Kermit
11248-442: The hour, although the medium of radio has generally shifted toward people doing something else such as driving, working or waking up, compared to television. Radio news broadcasts can range from as little as one minute to as much as the station's entire schedule, such as the case of all-news radio , or talk radio . Stations that use a "wheel" format tend to keep to a set schedule of certain programming at certain specific minutes on
11400-728: The hour, and one of these segments is frequently a news bulletin. These short bulletins will provide overviews of any breaking news of interest, and may include local concerns such as weather forecasts or traffic reports. The vast majority of professionally produced video or audio news on the Internet tends to be attached to existing news organizations. Radio stations will upload their news reports as streamable podcasts and television networks will sometimes make their broadcasts available over Internet video. Print newspapers will sometimes feature video on their websites for breaking news events and for long-form video journalism. The usual focus on
11552-454: The increased presence of duopolies and outsourcing agreements since the early 2000s, the number of minor network affiliates and independent stations that produce their own newscasts has markedly decreased compared to when duopolies were barred under Federal Communications Commission rules prior to 2000 (as of 2013, there are at least 15 minor network affiliates or independent stations that produce their own local newscasts, most are located within
11704-725: The larger amount of network programming that those networks carry). In 1990, WEWS-TV in Cleveland conceived a concept known as the "24-Hour News Source" (which has its origins in a news format used by short-lived Boston independent station WXPO-TV when it signed on in 1969), in which supplementary 30-second long news updates were produced at or near the top of each hour outside regular long-form newscasts during local commercial break inserts shown within network and syndicated programming. The format spread to other U.S. television stations (most notably, WISH-TV in Indianapolis , one of
11856-495: The late 1970s, the first local morning news programs debuted. Additional changes in local news content came during the 1980s and 1990s; in January 1989, WSVN in Miami became the first to adopt a news-intensive programming format; rather than fill its schedule with syndicated content as other Fox stations did at the time it joined that network, Ed Ansin (owner of WSVN parent Sunbeam Television ) chose instead to heavily invest in
12008-484: The late 2000s (similar to what has occurred with Dateline NBC since around the same timeframe, although continuing to include a wider range of topics), either in the form of various story packages that relate to the topic or a focus on a single story. The distinctive theme music to 20/20 was written by Robert Arnold Israel Sr. (who among other credits, also co-wrote theme music for now-cancelled fellow ABC series All My Children and One Life to Live ) and based upon
12160-513: The line "Around the world and into your home, the stories that touch your life" as the introduction during the program's opening titles for much of the 1990s). Barbara Walters joined the program in 1979 in a role something less than a co-anchor and soon became a regular special contributor in the fall of 1981. In 1984, she was named as co-anchor and thus Hugh Downs's equal, reuniting a duo which had already anchored together on NBC's Today from 1964 to 1971. The team would remain together on-air for
12312-588: The longest-running network newsmagazine in Canada). CTV's Your Morning is the sole national morning news program on broadcast television in Canada, and replaced Canada AM , which aired since 1975. Most CTV owned-and-operated stations west of the Ontario-Manitoba border dropped the program during the summer and fall of 2011 in favor of locally produced morning newscasts. The Sunday morning talk show
12464-442: The longtime Lillian Scheinert-written theme used for ABC World News Tonight . The original theme was revamped around 1993, and was subsequently replaced in 1999, along with the 20/20 logo and the anchor desk on the program's set. Finally the orchestral 20/20 theme was updated in 2001, along with a few modifications in 2003 and 2005. In 2009, the theme was once again revamped, and once more in 2010, along with new graphics to reflect
12616-415: The many examples of smaller stations with a regional focus. Newscasts, also known as bulletins or news program(me)s, differ in content, tone, and presentation style depending on the format of the channel/station on which they appear, and their timeslot. In most parts of the world, national television networks will have bulletins featuring national and international news. The top-rated shows will often air in
12768-418: The market. In some countries, radio news content may be syndicated by a website or company to many stations in a particular region or even the entire country. A notable example is Israel, where there are groups of radio stations that broadcast the same hourly news capsule by an Israeli news website and television station. There are currently two groups of local Israeli stations: one broadcasts news from YNET ,
12920-469: The morning and early evening. CBS and ABC are currently the only networks that produce overnight news programs on weeknights in the form of Up to the Minute and World News Now , respectively; NBC previously produced overnight newscasts at different times, both of which have since been cancelled: NBC News Overnight from 1982 to 1983, and NBC Nightside from 1991 to 1998 (NBC currently does not offer
13072-484: The most embarrassing part of that initial program was the Claymation segments featuring caricatures representing then-President Jimmy Carter (singing " Georgia on My Mind ") and Walter Cronkite (closing the program intoning, "That's the way it was"). As a result of the scathing reviews, serious and drastic changes were immediately made: Hayes and Hughes were fired (as was original executive producer Bob Shanks), and
13224-471: The network updates until immediately before their regular sign-off time (rival CBS also offered a 15-minute Sunday night bulletin during the 1970s until 1997). Because of declining affiliate interest (in part because of the proliferation of 24-hour cable news channels such as CNN ) and low viewership, ABC discontinued the late-night weekend reports in September 1991. In addition, starting in 1973, weeknight co-anchor Harry Reasoner hosted The Reasoner Report ,
13376-784: The network's inaugural Saturday newscast (see above). Some former anchors of the weekend news broadcasts include Sam Donaldson (Sunday edition, 1979–1989), Kathleen Sullivan (Saturday edition, 1985–1987), Barry Serafin (Saturday edition, 1987–1988), Forrest Sawyer (Sunday edition, 1989–1993), Carole Simpson (Saturday edition, 1988–1993; Sunday edition, 1993–2003), Elizabeth Vargas (Saturday edition, 1997–2003; Sunday edition, 2003–2004), Jim Avila (Saturday edition, 2006–2007), Terry Moran (Saturday edition, 2004–2005), Bob Woodruff (Sunday edition, 2004–2005), Dan Harris (Sunday edition, 2006–2011) and David Muir (Saturday edition, 2007–2011; Saturday and Sunday editions, 2011–2014). Muir, who had taken over World News Saturday in 2007, took over
13528-471: The network. Jennings was known for his ability to calmly portray events as they were happening and for his coverage of many major world events such as the September 11 attacks and the dawn of the new millennium. As a tribute to its late anchor, ABC continued to introduce the broadcast as World News Tonight with Peter Jennings in the week following his death. Gibson anchored the broadcast the first part of
13680-460: The newly independent unit was renamed ABC (American Broadcasting Company). A general shift over time happened in the style of the evening newscasts in most countries. In the 1950s, television was novel enough that it was considered entertainment. In the 1960s and 70s, television newscasts tended to be unusually "serious" by later standards, featuring more "hard news" and less light entertainment mixed in. The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
13832-598: The news division's Chief Anchor position that had traditionally been assigned to the anchor of World News . Following the departure of Diane Sawyer, the title of the program was also silently rebranded back to World News Tonight for the first time since 2006, albeit with "ABC" attached to the title. Primary substitutes are Stephanopoulos, Rebecca Jarvis , and Amy Robach . World News Tonight has broadcast from San Bernardino, Orlando, Paris, and Brussels after terrorist attacks, and from Dallas after five policemen were shot dead in July 2016 . In November 2016, World News Tonight
13984-563: The news landscape: in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission forced networks to abide by strict public-interest requirements that required broadcasting news, while television in the Soviet Union was strictly regulated by the government which looked on frivolous topics with disfavor. In the 1980s and 90s, this tended to fall away as a consequence of cable and satellite technology allowing
14136-468: The newscast with Vargas. During the spring of 2006, Vargas mostly anchored the broadcast alone, becoming the first de facto solo female evening news anchor. At the time, it was unknown what ABC News planned to do until Woodruff returned to the anchor chair, which appeared not to be within the near future, and when Vargas began her maternity leave. Rumors flew that Sawyer wanted to become the sole anchor of World News Tonight to beat Katie Couric 's switch to
14288-482: The newspapers. The outbreak of World War II led to a great increase in the quantity of news programming, consuming as much as 20% of the schedules of the major networks. Chief among these reporters was Edward Roscoe Murrow , whose reports from London kept the American public focused on a war far from home. Also, the eventual "big three" were complete in 1945; the FCC forced a sale of NBC Blue due to anti-trust concerns, and
14440-452: The next 15 years. In the fall of 1987, 20/20 was moved to Fridays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern; while in that timeslot, it ranked at 21st place in the annual Nielsen ratings by the 1991–92 season. It aired in that same Friday time slot until the fall of 2001, when ABC briefly replaced the program with the scripted family drama series Once and Again , only for 20/20 to return to the lineup again four months later; it has basically retained
14592-550: The only television stations in the country carrying a primetime newscast); conversely, pre-5:00 a.m. local newscasts do not exist in Canada. Like with U.S. television, many stations use varied titles for their newscasts; this is particularly true with owned-and-operated stations of Global and City (Global's stations use titles based on daypart such as News Hour for the noon and early evening newscasts and News Final for 11:00 p.m. newscasts, while all six City-owned broadcast stations produce morning news/talk programs under
14744-401: The other broadcasts them from Channel 10 . Israeli Army Radio general public stations broadcast the same news capsule every hour, and IBA 's Kol Israel stations broadcast theirs. 20/20 (American TV program) 20/20 (stylized as 20 ) is an American television newsmagazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge ,
14896-627: The outsourcing partner's own newscasts, as a result, minor network affiliates involved in these NSAs often will carry a morning newscast from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. (in competition with the national network newscasts instead of airing competing with the Big Three affiliates' newscasts) or a primetime newscast at 10:00 pm. Eastern and Pacific or 9:00 pm. Central and Mountain Time, with limited to no newscasts in other traditional news time periods (midday, late afternoon, or early evening). Because of
15048-444: The private broadcast networks, while CTV National News airs against locally produced 11:00 p.m. newscasts on other stations. The National , which has aired on CBC Television since 1954, is the longest-running national network newscast in Canada. All three networks also produce weekly newsmagazines : CBC's The Fifth Estate (aired since 1975), Global's 16x9 (aired since 2008), and CTV's W5 (aired since 1966 and currently
15200-618: The program (the latter preemption situation commonly affects stations in the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones); this is particularly common during fall, as the Saturday broadcast does not air at all from September through mid December due to ABC's college football coverage and during the winter and spring, when the Sunday broadcast is sometimes delayed or preempted due to overruns of the network's NBA telecasts . ABC News programs, including ABC World News Tonight , are shown for several hours
15352-437: The program debuted an updated set, new graphics during the introductory segment, along with a new announcer, Mike Rowe (then host of Discovery Channel 's Dirty Jobs ), who replaced longtime announcer Bill Rice. A new set for the program debuted on August 23, 2010. Substitute anchors for the program during Sawyer's tenure when she was away or on assignment, in addition to Vargas, included David Muir (who by that point, anchored
15504-463: The program during the early 1960s, sometimes for short periods, included Alex Dreier , John Secondari , Fendall Winston Yerxa, Al Mann, Bill Shadel , and the three-person team of John Cameron Swayze (formerly of NBC), Bill Lawrence , and Bill Sheehan. In 1962, Ron Cochran was appointed as full-time anchor, staying with the program, entitled, “Ron Cochran with the News”, until 1965. After Cochran left
15656-602: The program from local ABC affiliate WDAY / KBMY / WDAZ / KMCY . News broadcasting#television News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism . The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom , or by a broadcast network . A news broadcast may include material such as sports coverage, weather forecasts , traffic reports , political commentary , expert opinions, editorial content, and other material that
15808-551: The program has been called ABC World News Tonight. The weeknight edition of ABC World News Tonight airs live at 6:30 p.m. in the Eastern and 5:30 p.m. in the Central Time Zones . However ABC affiliates KGNS , KNOE-2 , WEEK-2 , and WNCF air ABC World News Tonight half-an-hour later on delay. WSB also airs it on a delay, the only ABC station in the Eastern Time Zone to do so. ABC began
15960-509: The program was dedicated in memory of Jennings and looked back at his four-decade career in news. His death ended the era of the so-called "Big Three" anchors: Jennings, NBC's Tom Brokaw , and CBS's Dan Rather (the latter two had retired from their positions as the respective anchors of NBC Nightly News and the CBS Evening News within the year prior to Jennings's death). During his career, Jennings had reported from every major world capital and war zone, and from all 50 U.S. states, according to
16112-411: The program was designed similarly to CBS 's 60 Minutes in that it features in-depth story packages, although it focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects. The program's name derives from the "20/20" measurement of visual acuity . The two-hour-long program has been a staple on Friday evenings (currently airing at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone ) for much of
16264-616: The program's expansion into the "24-hour space created by the digital world". In the February 2007 sweeps, World News with Charles Gibson achieved the number-one spot in the Nielsen ratings among the network evening news broadcasts, overtaking NBC Nightly News , marking ABC News' first victory since the week Jennings died in August 2005. World News with Charles Gibson won the May 2007 sweeps period decisively over NBC Nightly News , marking Gibson's second consecutive sweeps win and widening
16416-442: The program's lead in the evening news race. It was the first time that World News had won consecutive sweeps periods since 1996, the year ABC News ceded the ratings crown to NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw . NBC Nightly News retook first place in the November 2007 sweeps and the two programs remained in a tight race until the fall of 2008, when the NBC program established a consistent lead. On August 25, 2008, World News became
16568-514: The program's weekday broadcasts have been anchored by David Muir . As of February 6–7, 2021, Whit Johnson and Linsey Davis anchor the Saturday and Sunday editions of the newscast respectively. The program has been anchored at various times by a number of other presenters since its debut in 1948. It also has used various titles, including ABC Evening News from 1968 to 1978, World News Tonight from 1978 to 2006, World News from 2006 to 2009, and ABC World News from 2009 to 2014. Since 2014,
16720-485: The program, Peter Jennings , a Canadian journalist who was 26 years old at the time, was named anchor of the retitled Peter Jennings with the News . In December 1967, the inexperienced Jennings left the anchor chair and was reassigned by the news division as an international correspondent for the news program. The newly renamed ABC Evening News was hosted, in succession, by Bob Young (January 1968 to May 1968), and then by Frank Reynolds (May 1968 to December 1970), who
16872-566: The radio. NBC began broadcasts in November 1926, with CBS entering production on September 25, 1927. Both initially discussed similar topics, such as election results, presidential inaugurations, and other matters of concern to the general public. However, NBC soon emerged as the dominant force for entertainment talent. In response, CBS President William S Paley focused on giving CBS Radio an upscale reputation with better news as well as commentary programs with well-regarded hosts such as Lowell Thomas . Both broadcasters faced stiff competition from
17024-1106: The reporter provides additional information. Often in situations necessitating long-form reporting on a story (usually during breaking news situations), the reporter is interviewed by the anchor, known as a 'two-way', or a guest involved in or offering analysis on the story is interviewed by a reporter or anchor. There may also be breaking news stories which will present live rolling coverage. Television news organizations employ several anchors and reporters to provide reports (as many as ten anchors, and up to 20 reporters for local news operations or up to 30 for national news organizations). They may also employ specialty reporters that focus on reporting certain types of news content (such as traffic or entertainment ), meteorologists or weather anchors (the latter term often refers to weather presenters that do not have degrees in meteorology earned at an educational institution ) who provide weather forecasts – more common in local news and on network morning programs – and sports presenters that report on ongoing, concluded, or upcoming Packages will usually be filmed at
17176-506: The rest of the day after 4:00 pm. Eastern Time. On January 29, 2006, Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt , were injured by a road-side bomb while riding in an Iraqi military convoy. Both underwent surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Balad, Iraq (50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad ). Both men incurred head injuries in the incident, even though they were both wearing body armor and helmets. Woodruff and Vogt were then evacuated to
17328-635: The same programming direction as CBS 's 48 Hours and same-night competitor Dateline NBC . Special edition episodes, however, cover a wide range of topics. The anchors on the premiere telecast of 20/20 were Esquire magazine editor Harold Hayes , who also served as the program's senior producer, and Time art critic Robert Hughes . The program's debut received largely harsh reviews; The New York Times described it as "dizzyingly absurd" and The Washington Post denounced it as "the trashiest stab at candycane journalism yet." In his autobiography Roone: A Memoir , Roone Arledge recalled that probably
17480-438: The since-renamed ABC World News Tonight in September 2014). The program expanded once again on March 2, 2013, with the debut of 20/20 Saturday , which mainly features rebroadcasts of archived stories from previous editions of 20/20 (mainly those dating back as early as 2008) in the same single topic format as the flagship Friday broadcasts. 20/20 Saturday airs outside of college football season , at either 9:00 p.m. as
17632-740: The station's news department, and replace national newscasts and late-prime time network programs vacated as a result of losing its NBC affiliation (the byproduct of an affiliation switch caused by CBS and WSVN's former network partner NBC buying other stations in the market) with additional newscasts. This model was eventually replicated by many other stations affiliated with the post-1986 television networks as well as some news-producing independent stations (beginning with Fox's 1994 deals with New World Communications and SF Broadcasting that saw several major network stations change their affiliations), and also resulted in even NBC, CBS, and ABC affiliates adopting similar scheduling formats (tweaked to account for
17784-602: The station's on-air branding (such as combining the network affiliation and channel number with the word "News"), others use franchised brand names (like Eyewitness News , Action News and NewsChannel ) for their news programming. Conversely, the naming conventions for a station's newscast are sometimes used as a universal on-air branding for the station itself, and may be used for general promotional purposes, even used in promoting syndicated and network programming (such as KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma, which uses
17936-499: The syndicated news program The Daily Buzz , while some Tribune Broadcasting -owned CW and MyNetworkTV stations air a similar program called EyeOpener ). 24-hour news channels are devoted to current events around the clock. They are often referred to as cable news channels. The format was originated by the cable television channel CNN (Cable News Network), which was established in 1980. Many other television channels have since been established, including what has become known as
18088-644: The talk radio model. Hyper-local news is also more feasible on the Internet: issues such as school board meetings streamed on video, town parades, and so on. Silent news films were shown in cinemas from the late 19th century. In 1909 Pathé started producing weekly newsreels in Europe. Pathé began producing newsreels for the UK in 1910 and the US in 1911. News broadcasts in the United States were initially transmitted over
18240-405: The team of Elizabeth Vargas, Cynthia McFadden , Chris Cuomo, Jay Schadler and John Quiñones . The program was renamed Downtown but was canceled in 2002. In 2003, the program returned for one season as Primetime Monday , with the same anchors and format. Even though 20/20 still occasionally uses a multiple topic format, the program has seen a gradual shift towards single topic editions since
18392-407: The terminology varies around the world) segueing into news stories filed by a reporter (or correspondent) by describing the story to be shown; however, some stories within the broadcast are read by the presenter themselves; in the former case, the anchor "tosses" to the reporter to introduce the featured story; likewise, the reporter "tosses" back to the anchor once the taped report has concluded and
18544-478: The time Sawyer left World News , the program was the No. 1 network evening newscast in all major key demographics and significantly closed the ratings gap with NBC Nightly News in total viewership. David Muir became the weekday anchor and managing editor of the program on September 1, 2014, while retaining his duties as co-anchor of 20/20 . At the same time, Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos assumed
18696-436: The time since it moved to that timeslot from Thursdays in September 1987, though special editions of the program occasionally air on other nights. For most of its history, it was led into by ABC's two-hour TGIF block of sitcoms. Since 2019, it has shifted to a two-hour format highlighting true crime stories and celebrity scandals rather than the traditional investigative journalism associated with newsmagazines, following
18848-486: The time); usually these programs aired as supplements to network-supplied evening news programs or leadouts for primetime programming. Reports featured on local and national television newscasts during this time were generally provided via film or still photography; eventually, videotape began to be used to provide live coverage of news events. The 1950s also saw the first use of airborne newsgathering; most notably, in 1958, Los Angeles television station KTLA began operating
19000-513: The timeslot ever since. While the program briefly moved to the 8:00 p.m. timeslot on October 12, 2007, it reverted to its usual time two weeks later. In the late 1990s, ABC began to expand the show to additional nights. In September 1997, a second weekly edition of 20/20 with Downs and Walters made its debut on Thursday evenings, later moving to Mondays. From September 1998 to September 2000, ABC News chose to consolidate its newsmagazine programs by combining 20/20 and Primetime Live into
19152-442: The umbrella title Breakfast Television and its flagship station CITY-DT / Toronto 's evening newscasts are titled CityNews ). Overall umbrella titles for news programming use the titling schemes " (Network or system name) News " for network-owned stations or " (Callsign) News " for affiliates not directly owned by a network or television system (although the latter title scheme was used on some network-owned stations prior to
19304-448: The umbrella title Hechos . In the cases of Univision and Telemundo, both of their evening news programs compete with national evening news programs on their English-language competitors. Fox, The CW, and MyNetworkTV do not produce national morning and evening news programs (although Fox made a brief attempt at a morning program from 1996 to 1997 with Fox After Breakfast ; many CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates and independent stations air
19456-410: The uniform news and general branding NewsChannel 4 ). Many stations title their newscasts with catchy names like Daybreak , Good Morning (city or region name) , First at Four , Live at Five , Eleven @ 11:00 , or Nightcast . These names are intended to set one station apart from the rest, especially for viewers who are chosen for audience measurement surveys. If the respondent was unable to provide
19608-498: The variable scheduling of network sports programming (if a station is affiliated with a network with a sports division) usually prevents most stations from carrying midday newscasts (however a few stations located in the Eastern and Pacific time zones do produce weekend midday newscasts). From the 1940s to the 1960s, broadcast television stations typically provided local news programs only one to two times each evening for 15 minutes (the normal length for many locally produced programs at
19760-478: The week, playing a slow arrangement of the traditional theme music in memory of Jennings; Bob Woodruff anchored the final edition of World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on August 12, 2005. That night's broadcast ended with one of Jennings's favorite pieces of music instead of the traditional theme music. Beginning on August 15, 2005, the broadcast was introduced simply as World News Tonight and it remained that way until January 2006. The program would return to
19912-459: The weekday anchor of ABC World News ; Sawyer would be succeeded by the program's then weekend anchor, David Muir, effective September 2. On July 28, 2014, the program debuted a slightly updated set, which includes a new, larger monitor behind the anchor desk. Diane Sawyer ultimately decided to end her tenure as anchor of ABC World News nearly a week before Muir began as anchor of the weeknight editions on August 27, 2014, to spend time with family. By
20064-513: The weekend edition, with Johnson anchoring on Saturday and Davis anchoring on Sunday. Some ABC affiliates air the Saturday and Sunday editions of World News Tonight at 6:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Central and Mountain)—one half-hour earlier than the weekday broadcasts. The weekend editions of World News Tonight may periodically be abbreviated or preempted outright due to sports telecasts that overrun into its timeslot or occasionally air immediately following
20216-455: The weekend editions of World News and served as a weekday correspondent), George Stephanopoulos , Cynthia McFadden , Dan Harris, Paula Faris and Byron Pitts (with the exception of McFadden, who left ABC News in August 2014, most of these anchors/correspondents have also served as substitutes following Muir's appointment as anchor of the program). The Sawyer tenure was marked by a shift towards more " news you can use " features, and less of
20368-427: The word "Tonight" to the program title in the mid-1990s, further unifying it with the weekday editions, and in the mid-2000s, their respective names were shortened uniformly to World News Tonight to correspond with those broadcasts. However, the original names were restored on July 19, 2006, concurrent with the retitling of the weekday broadcasts, but the opening title sequence displayed the name as World News for both
20520-416: The younger-skewing 20/20 Downtown on Thursday nights in October 1999. In September 2000, ABC reinstated Primetime under the title Primetime Thursday , and spun off 20/20 Downtown as a separate newsmagazine simply titled Downtown on Monday evenings. By early 2002, 20/20 once again was airing only in its original Friday timeslot. On March 3, 1999, Monica Lewinsky , the former White House intern who
20672-550: Was a lead Producer at 20/20 and helped solidify the program's top Nielsen Ratings. Ratings were generally very good during the summer months during its eight years on Thursday nights despite competition from Knots Landing on CBS and Hill Street Blues on NBC . It was around this time that the program started using the Brock Brower-written signoff line "We're in touch, so you be in touch" to end each program, which continues to be used to now (the program also used
20824-455: Was aired every morning at 10:30 am. AET on Sky News Australia until it was moved to SBS and SBS Viceland in July 2019. WNT previously broadcast on New Zealand-based TVNZ Duke . In Hong Kong, the program was broadcast live on TVB Pearl daily at 07:30 until 08:00 HKT until May 31, 2009, when it was replaced by NBC Nightly News . In Japan, it airs on NHK BS 1 as part of the weekday morning program Catch! Sekai no Top News (Catch
20976-506: Was easing into eventual retirement. The program's distinct and easily identifiable theme (whose four-note musical signature was eventually used on other ABC News programs) was written by Bob Israel . Ratings slowly climbed to the point where World News Tonight eventually beat both NBC Nightly News and the CBS Evening News , marking the first time ever that ABC had the most-watched network evening newscast. In April 1983, Reynolds became ill, leaving both Jennings and Robinson to co-anchor
21128-493: Was first introduced in the United States by the National Captioning Institute . Always the perennial third in the national ratings, ABC News president Roone Arledge reformatted the program, relaunching it as World News Tonight in July 1978. Reynolds, who was demoted when the network hired Reasoner, returned as lead anchor, reporting from ABC News' Washington, D.C. bureau. Max Robinson – who became
21280-414: Was hired as a permanent co-host of the program in 2002; Miller never got very comfortable in the anchor chair, and a year later, he jumped at the chance to rejoin law enforcement. For a few months in early 2003, Barbara Walters temporarily anchored solo again. However, in May of that year, John Stossel – an investigative correspondent for the program who was behind the controversial, though popular, "Give Me
21432-417: Was infamously revealed to have been involved in an affair with then-President Bill Clinton a few years earlier, was interviewed by Barbara Walters on the program; that particular edition of 20/20 was watched by an estimated 70 million viewers, which ABC stated was a record audience for a news program. After Downs' retirement in 1999, Walters became the solo anchor of 20/20 . This lasted until John Miller
21584-515: Was joined by Howard K. Smith in May 1969. The program expanded from 15 to 30 minutes in January 1967, nearly 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 years after both CBS and NBC had expanded their evening news programs to a half-hour. Harry Reasoner , formerly of CBS News and 60 Minutes , joined ABC News in 1970 to co-anchor ABC Evening News with Smith, beginning that December, replacing Reynolds. The ratings increased steadily, but still remained in third place, behind dominant CBS and NBC. In 1975, Howard K. Smith
21736-450: Was moved to a commentator role, and Reasoner briefly assumed sole-anchor responsibilities until he was paired with Barbara Walters , who became the first female network anchor when she joined the program on October 4, 1976. Ratings for the nightly news broadcast declined shortly thereafter, possibly due in part to the lack of chemistry between Reasoner and Walters. Reasoner would eventually return to CBS and 60 Minutes , while Walters became
21888-485: Was named a contributing anchor to 20/20 on October 4, 2022, via a note from ABC News President Kimberly Godwin . The December 30, 2022 edition of the program was interrupted in the Eastern and Central time zones by news of Barbara Walters's death around 9:30 p.m. ET, and anchor Phil Liphof anchored coverage for 90 minutes with ABC News's official obituary and comment from other ABC News staff about her life and impact. Unlike most other newsmagazines, 20/20 Downtown
22040-493: Was never carried by any big name anchor. An ensemble team of anchors fronted the broadcast, which was aimed at attracting younger viewers, but was hampered by many of the network's larger market network affiliate stations bumping the program to late night or weekend timeslots to accommodate local pre-game shows or coach's shows/highlight recap programming dealing with NFL or college football teams preceding ABC's Monday Night Football . The anchor/reporting duties were filled by
22192-473: Was not carried by many stations, and was cancelled in January 1979. Following the Saturday news cancellation, and after the flagship weeknight broadcast became World News Tonight , the program premiered World News Sunday on January 28, 1979, and expanded to a full seven days with the restoration of a Saturday newscast ( World News Saturday ) on January 5, 1985, years after NBC and CBS had each launched their own weekend evening news programs. These editions added
22344-536: Was promoted to co-host 20/20 alongside Elizabeth Vargas. On January 29, 2013, it was announced that Chris Cuomo would leave ABC News and 20/20 for CNN to co-host the cable network's new morning news program, New Day ; on the same day, ABC announced David Muir would join Elizabeth Vargas as the new co-anchor of the program, in addition to continuing as weekend anchor of ABC World News Tonight (a role he retains after being appointed to main anchor of
22496-436: Was shown Tuesday through Fridays at 1:30 a.m. on BBC News , a channel that is frequently simulcast by BBC One at this time, meaning the program was broadcast on analogue terrestrial television in many parts of that country until the digital transition. The newscast was aired on a delay, in part because of the need to remove commercial advertisements, as the BBC's domestic channels operate as commercial-free services via
22648-522: Was the first morning news program to be broadcast on American television and in the world, when it debuted on January 14, 1952; the earliest national evening news program was The Walter Compton News , a short-lived 15-minute newscast that aired on the DuMont Television Network from 1947 to 1948. All four major English networks and the two largest Spanish networks also carry political talk programs on Sunday mornings (NBC's Meet
22800-466: Was the first murder to have been witnessed live on U.S. network television. The coverage provided by the local stations eventually led to further investments and technological developments to provide real-time news; newsgathering vehicles equipped with satellites began to be used on the local and national levels beginning in the 1970s. During the 1960s and 1970s, many stations began to provide additional news programming, beginning with midday news programs; in
22952-608: Was the most-watched network primetime newscast for the first time in 18 years. The last time World News held the top spot was during the 1998–99 season when Peter Jennings sat at the anchor's desk, according to Nielsen. World News Tonight was the most-watched network evening newscast for the week of March 30, 2015. This marked the first time in seven years that the program finished at No. 1, beating out NBC Nightly News in all categories. On August 10, 2020, World News Tonight marked 11 consecutive weeks as "America's Most-Watched Show". On September 8, 2020, World News Tonight debuted
23104-524: Was then named sole anchor of the program, effectively replacing Vargas and her injured co-anchor Woodruff. Vargas cited her doctors' recommendation to cut back her schedule considerably because of her maternity leave, and her wish to spend more time with her new baby. She has since returned to co-anchor 20/20 and ABC News specials, and has served as a substitute anchor on World News Tonight under Gibson and his successors. Woodruff, although still recovering from his injuries, returned to World News Tonight as
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