ABC World News Tonight
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ABC World News Tonight (often abbreviated as WNT) is the ABC television network's flagship evening news program.
ABC first began a nightly newscast in the fall of 1953 with John Charles Daly as anchor of the then fifteen-minute ABC Evening News. After multiple hosts and formats, 26-year-old Peter Jennings was named anchor of Peter Jennings with the News in 1965. The program expanded from fifteen to thirty minutes during this time.
Following Jennings's reassignment as international correspondent in 1968, ABC News was hosted by Bob Young (October 1967 to May 1968), Frank Reynolds (May 1968 to May 1969), and, eventually, Reynolds and Howard K. Smith (May 1969 to December 1970).
Smith and Harry Reasoner, formerly of CBS News and 60 Minutes, co-anchored ABC Evening News beginning in December 1970. In 1975, Reasoner assumed sole anchor responsibilities until his pairing in 1976 with Barbara Walters, the first female network anchor. Ratings for the nightly news broadcast declined shortly thereafter.
Always the perennial third in the national ratings, ABC News President Roone Arledge reformatted the program, relaunching it as World News Tonight on July 10, 1978. Frank Reynolds returned as lead anchor, reporting from Washington D.C. Max Robinson, the first African American network news anchor, anchored national news from Chicago, and, also returing for a second stint, was Jennings, reporting international headlines from London. Occasional contributions included special reports by Barbara Walters and commentary by Howard K. Smith. The program’s distinct and easily identifiable theme was written by Bob Israel.
In April 1983, Reynolds left the broadcast for health reasons and succumbed to bone cancer on July 20. A rotation of replacement anchors (including Jennings) hosted the program until September 5, 1983 when the program was renamed to reflect the new host, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Robinson left ABC News in 1984, after stints of hosting news briefs and anchoring weekend editions of World News Tonight; he died of AIDS in 1988.
With Jennings as lead anchor, World News Tonight 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.
In April 2005, Jennings announced that he had lung cancer and, as before, a variety of anchors, including 20/20 co-host Elizabeth Vargas and Good Morning America co-host Charlie Gibson, filled in for him. Jennings died of lung cancer on August 7, 2005, at his apartment in New York City. He was 67.
The August 8 edition of the program was dedicated to Jennings's memory and four-decade career. Jennings remained the credited anchor until August 12. As of August 15, Jennings' name was removed from the title. ABC has not yet made an announcement on who will become the new main anchor of World News Tonight, however rumors persist that either Gibson, Vargas or Bob Woodruff will get the job.
Weekends
WNT expanded to six nights a week with World News Tonight Sunday (originally christened World News Sunday, until the mid 1990's) on January 28, 1979, and to a full seven days with the premiere of World News Tonight Saturday (originally World News Saturday until the mid 1990's) on January 5, 1985. However, in recent years both editions have dropped their respective names short to World News Tonight to match up with the weekday editions.
