ABC World News Tonight is the ABC television network's flagship evening news program.
Harry Reasoner and Howard K. Smith co-anchored the ABC Evening News from December 1970. In 1975, Reasoner assumed sole anchor responsibilities until his pairing with Barbara Walters, the first female network anchor, in 1976. Ratings for the nightly news broadcast declined shortly thereafter.
On July 10, 1978, ABC launched World News Tonight with a trio of anchors. From Washington D.C., Frank Reynolds assumed primary anchor responsiblities while Peter Jennings (from London) and Max Robinson (from Chicago) - the first African American network news anchor - provided secondary duties.
Since 1983, the program has been anchored by Peter Jennings. It has maintained high viewership levels, often equalling or surpassing its rivals, NBC Nightly News, and the CBS Evening News.
External links
ABC World News Tonight Official Website (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/)
Robinson left ABC News in 1984, after stints of hosting news briefs and anchoring weekend editions of WorldNewsTonight; he died of AIDS in 1988.
With Jennings as lead anchor, WorldNewsTonight was the most-watched national newscast throughout most of the 1990s, but since 1997 it has been in second place behind its main rival NBC Nightly News.
WNT expanded to six nights a week with WorldNewsTonight Sunday (originally christened WorldNews Sunday, until the mid 1990's) on January 28, 1979, and to a full seven days with the premiere of WorldNewsTonight Saturday (originally WorldNews Saturday until the mid 1990's) on January 5, 1985.
Feeds |
Contact