World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news broadcast seen on ABC. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with weather forecasts, sports highlights, feature segments, and repurposed segments and story packages from other ABC News programs; its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous.
Created by David Bohrman, who also served as the original executive producer, a number of well-known news personalities have anchored WNN early in their careers, including original anchors Aaron Brown and Lisa McRee, Thalia Assuras, Kevin Newman, Alison Stewart, Liz Cho, Anderson Cooper and current ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir. The program is primarily co-anchored by ABC News correspondent Sophie Flay, along with a weekly rotating staff of co-anchors, who also anchor the network's early-morning news program Good Morning America First Look. ABC News reporter Danny New also contributes to both programs.
WNN is divided into four segment blocks that start with national and international news headlines incorporating some pre-taped reports from ABC NewsOne correspondents or repeated reports from the network's evening news program ABC World News Tonight. The "A"-block also features a national weather forecast, normally from WABC-TV chief meteorologist Lee Goldberg or Jeff Smith on Mondays, and an often humorous "kicker" story that ends the block. The "B," "C" and "D" blocks usually feature a mix of stories from Nightline or other live-to-tape or pre-taped segments produced in-studio, depending on the day of the week.
History
1991–1993
In late 1991 and early 1992, ABC, CBS and NBC each created their own overnight general news programs -- World News Now, ''Up to the Minute, and NBC Nightside, respectively—to compete for viewer demand that was driven originally by CNN's 24-hour coverage of the Gulf War, and to supply local affiliates with overnight programming. Until the creation of these news programs, owned-and-operated and affiliate stations of the three networks commonly filled overnight timeslots with movies and/or syndicated programs, while some others simply signed off the air for the night. The original working title for the program was World News Overnight; ABC News executives chose to rename the program World News Now prior to the first broadcast.The program debuted on January 6, 1992, with Aaron Brown and Lisa McRee as its original anchors. Later that year, the production staff of World News Now took over production responsibilities for the network's early-morning news program World News This Morning, sharing anchors as a result. After McRee's departure in January 1993, Brown anchored solo until he was joined in May of that year by Thalia Assuras, who at five years became the program's longest-serving anchor when she left in 1998 for CBS News. Brown himself would leave a month later; from then, World News Now would experience significant turnover with its anchor staff that continues to this day.
In the tradition of NBC News Overnight, World News Now has featured serious as well as offbeat news stories interspersed with odd features such as the "World News Polka", video footage of dancing camels on Wednesdays, and laughter coming from off-camera. Weather predictions were made for obscure and exotic places around the world; some of the locales have had various ties to the show, while some have had popular culture significance, including Cicely, Alaska, and Twin Peaks, Washington.
The program also often replays story packages from other ABC News programs such as Nightline and ABC World News Tonight. It has been an apparent training ground for new news presenters who eventually go on to higher-profile positions with the network or local affiliates. The show is also unique for its interactive segments, some of which pioneered the email communication that is commonly used on television newscasts today. The ABC News WNN'' internet forum has offered viewers questions and comments from the anchors themselves, during the course of the show.
1994–1998
On November 23, 1995, World News Now became the first television program to be streamed live to the public over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe interface. Victor Dorff, a producer of WNN at the time, arranged to have the show simulcast on the Internet daily for a six-month trial period.World News Now was used as the prototype for Fred, ABC's plan to operate a cable news channel. The plan was floated by network management in 1995 and was later dropped within a couple of years due to issues with cable carriage, including competition with the recently launched MSNBC and Fox News.
In the fall of 1998, ABC News entered into a labor dispute, resulting in support employees being locked out from the news division's headquarters for several months. While World News This Morning continued to be produced in New York City with substitute production staff, production of World News Now was moved to the news division's London news bureau. Mark Mullen returned to anchor WNN during the last month of the lockout.
1999–2008
Following its CU-SeeMe trial, World News Now later attempted another webcast; between 1999 and 2001, the program was streamed live for free on the ABC News website. In 2005, the free behind-the-scenes webcast returned. Among the anchors of the broadcast during this period was David Muir, who eventually became co-anchor of the newsmagazine 20/20 and became anchor of the weekday editions of ABC World News Tonight in August 2014, who co-anchored World News Now from July 2003 to August 2004.On June 8, 2006, ABC White House Correspondent Martha Raddatz learned of the death of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near Baqubah, Iraq. Upon confirmation of the tip, ABC ran a breaking news at 2:38 a.m. Eastern Time, helmed by WNN anchors Ron Corning and Tai Hernandez. The show, which is normally repeated on tape after the initial broadcast, instead went live in all time zones and into the early-morning news program World News This Morning. The on-air and behind-the-scenes staff stayed on-air until Good Morning America began and took over coverage of the story at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
In January 2007, World News Now celebrated its 15th anniversary, with the brief resurrection of the National Temperature Index and a new version of the "World News Polka". On August 2, 2007, WNN abandoned its normal format and ran nearly continuous coverage of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse that occurred in Minneapolis the day before; coverage on the program was anchored by Hernández and Stephanie Sy, and continued into America This Morning.
Tai Hernandez left the show on December 18, 2007, in order to spend more time with her children, while Ryan Owens announced on February 29, 2008, that he would be leaving the show to become a full-time correspondent for ABC News. During the week of January 7, 2008, WNN celebrated its 16th anniversary on the air with retrospective segments on the early days of the broadcast and its anchors. Jeremy Hubbard was named co-anchor of World News Now on March 17, 2008, with Vinita Nair being named as Hubbard's co-anchor on September 17 of that year.
2009–2011
On September 22, 2009, World News Now became the first network overnight newscast to begin broadcasting in high definition.On July 9, 2010, Jeremy Hubbard left WNN to become a full-time correspondent for ABC News; he was replaced as Nair's co-anchor on the program by Rob Nelson. In Hubbard's honor, the World News Now staff looked back at his time with the program and as is tradition when an anchor leaves the show, Hubbard had a picture of his likeness raised into the ABC News rafters. There was also a polka, sung to Hubbard's dog Jake, and Jeremy received a cutout of his likeness as a going away present while also welcoming his replacement, Rob Nelson.
On January 24, 2011, World News Now debuted new graphics for all of the program's segments and began using a new set, a side view of the existing set of ABC World News. On February 17 of that year, Nair announced that she would be departing as co-anchor of World News Now after the next night's broadcast; the February 18 edition paid tribute to Nair in each of its three segments, including appearances from current and former colleagues including Jeremy Hubbard. Her legacy was to treat the crew to a hot breakfast on her last day. A brief send-off by Nelson to Nair was also given at the conclusion of America This Morning. Correspondent Peggy Bunker was named as interim successor.
On March 11, 2011, the program provided live coverage of the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, featuring updates and pictures from NHK World-Japan; the coverage continued during America This Morning and Good Morning America. On July 21, 2011, Bunker announced that she would be leaving World News Now after the July 22 broadcast, which acknowledged her departure in the first and last of its three, half-hour segments during that following night. In addition, a brief send-off by Nelson to Bunker was given at the conclusion of America This Morning.
Beginning on July 25, 2011, ABC News correspondents Tanya Rivero, Diana Alvear and Linsey Davis began rotating as co-anchors alongside Nelson until a permanent co-anchor was named; this lasted until Rivero was named sole co-anchor of the program on September 19, 2011. On October 14, 2011, Rivero shifted to a correspondent role on ABC's daytime news programs and was replaced by correspondent Yunji De Nies as a substitute anchor beginning the following day. On October 27, 2011, Paula Faris was named co-anchor of World News Now, taking over the role on January 2, 2012.