ABC World News Tonight

History

The ABC television network launched a nightly newscast in the summer of 1948 with H. R. Baukhage and Jim Gibbons hosting News and Views. After the Deadlines followed in 1951, and All Star News in 1952. In fall 1953, John Daly began anchoring the 15-minute John Daly and the News, remaining until 1960. Multiple anchors followed, including Alex Dreier, John Secondari, Fendall Winston Yerxa, Al Mann, Bill Shadel, and a three-person team of John Cameron Swayze, Bill Lawrence, and Bill Sheehan.

Ron Cochran became full-time anchor in 1962 on Ron Cochran with the News, staying until 1965. Peter Jennings, a 26-year-old Canadian journalist, then anchored Peter Jennings with the News. In December 1967, Jennings left the anchor chair to become an international correspondent. The program, renamed ABC Evening News, was hosted by Bob Young from January to May 1968, then Frank Reynolds from May 1968 to December 1970, joined by Howard K. Smith in May 1969.

The broadcast expanded from 15 to 30 minutes in January 1967, nearly three and a half years after CBS and NBC had done so. Harry Reasoner joined ABC News in 1970 to co-anchor with Smith, replacing Reynolds. Ratings rose but remained in third place. In 1975, Smith moved to a commentator role, and Reasoner anchored alone until Barbara Walters became the first female network anchor on October 4, 1976.

Ratings declined, possibly due to lack of chemistry between Reasoner and Walters. Reasoner later returned to CBS, and Walters joined 20/20.

Weekend newscasts

ABC first attempted an early evening weekend newscast in July 1975 with a Saturday bulletin anchored by Ted Koppel, later taken over by Tom Jarriel and Sylvia Chase in 1977. The broadcast was not carried by many stations and was cancelled in January 1979. After the weeknight broadcast became World News Tonight, World News Sunday premiered on January 28, 1979, and a Saturday newscast, World News Saturday, was restored on January 5, 1985, years after NBC and CBS had launched their weekend evening news programs.

These editions added 'Tonight' to the title in the mid-1990s, and in the mid-2000s their names were shortened to World News Tonight, but the original names were restored on July 19, 2006, concurrent with the weekday retitling, though the opening title sequence displayed 'World News' for both weekend editions. Before 1975, the only weekend newscasts on ABC were 15-minute late-night updates on Saturdays and Sundays, called ABC Weekend News and later ABC News Weekend Report, fed at 11:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 p.m. Central.

Some stations tape-delayed them. Due to declining affiliate interest and low viewership, ABC discontinued these late-night weekend reports in September 1991. Additionally, starting in 1973, weeknight co-anchor Harry Reasoner hosted The Reasoner Report, a half-hour newsmagazine with analysis and commentary on major stories, often carried on Saturday evenings; it was cancelled in 1975.

International newscasts

ABC World News Tonight airs for multiple hours each day on OSN News, a 24-hour news channel in the MENA region. In the Caribbean, some cable providers used to carry the program by simulcasting it from WPLG, ABC’s Miami affiliate. Canadian cable companies also simulcast the newscast, often as timeshift channels, with most picking up the feed from KOMO in Seattle, WCVB in Boston, or WXYZ in Detroit. In the United Kingdom, the program was shown on BBC News from Tuesday to Friday at 1:30 a.m., and because BBC One sometimes simulcasts that channel at that time, it reached analog terrestrial TV in many areas before the digital switchover.

To fit the BBC’s commercial-free model, paid ads were swapped out for promotions of BBC News specials. The program was pulled on June 14, 2011, replaced by Asia Business Report and Sport Today, then returned on August 20, 2012, before being dropped again on March 30, 2015. It was also available on BBC iPlayer for 28 days after broadcast. In Australia, World News Tonight aired on Sky News Australia at 10:30 a.m. AET each morning until July 2019, when it moved to SBS and SBS Viceland.

It previously ran on TVNZ Duke in New Zealand. Hong Kong’s TVB Pearl broadcast the program live daily from 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. HKT until May 31, 2009, when NBC Nightly News took its slot. In Japan, it appears on NHK BS 1 as part of the weekday show Catch! Sekai no Top News and later World News, and was also shown in clips on the English-language program Kōryaku!

ABC News Eigo until March 2021. In Belize, Great Belize Television airs all editions of World News Tonight weekdays at 8:00 p.m. and weekends at 7:00 p.m.