World News Now

World News Now
Format	News
Starring	Jeremy Hubbard Vinita Nair
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	1 hour, 30 minutes (often repeated locally)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	January 6, 1992 – present
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

World News Now (WNN) is ABC's overnight news program. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent, and humorous. A number of well-known news personalities, including Thalia Assuras (CBS News), Aaron Brown (CNN), Kevin Newman (Global (Canada)), Alison Stewart (MSNBC and NPR), Liz Cho (WABC-TV), and Anderson Cooper (CNN) anchored WNN early in their careers.

The show is produced and airs live in three half-hour segments, from 2:00AM ET through 3:30AM ET, Monday Morning-Friday Morning. At 3:30ET, the network rebroadcasts the show (in some cases multiple times) until 4:30AM local time, at which time America This Morning is aired. A WNN anchor usually also anchors America This Morning, back-to-back.

Jeremy Hubbard was named co-anchor of WNN on March 17, 2008;^[1] Vinita Nair was named Hubbard's co-anchor on September 17, 2008. Previously, WNN had been anchored by Ryan Owens and Taina Hernandez. Hernandez left the show on December 18, 2007, to spend more time with her children, while Owens announced on February 29, 2008 that he was leaving the show to become a full time correspondent for ABC News.

Regular segments

• Top Story
• Weather
• Sports
• The Skinny -- An entertainment news segment. WNN has asked viewers to send webcam videos of themselves performing the "Skinny Shout", and they have been featured as the introductions to The Skinny.
• News Notes

• Morning Papers (announced with the voice-over "World News Now delivers: your morning papers!")

Special segments

In as rotating fashion, at the halfway point in each half hour, a special segment is presented. Some examples include:

• Nightline – The first minutes of the primary topic of the prior evening's Nightline is showcased.
• This Week (Monday mornings only) – The "Roundtable" segment, a debate of pundits from both sides of politics, is featured.
• "The ABC News Video Vault" (sometimes presented as "World News Then") – Somewhat of a "This Day in History" segment, a story from a given date in the past, having some relevance to the present is shown.
• "American Landscape" – A major national or international story is rebroadcast, seen from the perspective of a local station that covers it.
• Interviews – One of the anchors interviews a newsmaker or celebrity.
• "Gadget Guy" – Dick DeBartolo talks about and demonstrates the newest gadgets and technology.

Other segments

• Randomly, throughout the broadcast, a "new e-mail" sound effect will be heard. This is then followed by the ABC News announcer Bill Rice reading aloud an e-mail from a viewer. The anchors then respond (sometimes humorously) to the message.

• The final segment usually consists of the anchors discussing the news, their lives, or the day in general. Some half hours feature a discussion of headlines and smaller stories appearing in the new day's papers from around the country (similar to the segment on CNN's defunct Newsnight as Aaron Brown and producer David Bohrman brought said segment from his WNN tenure). Friday mornings close with one or another version of the "World News Polka," usually performed by the composer, comedian Barry Mitchell.

• When an anchor of numerous broadcasts finally leaves, a ceremony of sorts is held on their last broadcast. As the first few anchors moved on, cardboard cutouts were placed in the rafters of the studio for the "Anchor Hall of Fame." Today, this is done with a graphics sequence of a head-shot of the anchor moved into a graphic of the original set's rafters and monitors.

History

1991–1993

In late 1991 and early 1992, WNN and rival newscasts like CBS' Up to the Minute and NBC's Nightside were created to compete for viewer demand driven originally by CNN's 24-hour coverage of the Gulf War, and to supply local affiliates with overnight programming. The original working title was "World News Overnight"^{[citation needed]} but was changed to "World News Now" prior to its first broadcast.

In the tradition of NBC News Overnight, it has featured serious as well as offbeat news interspersed with odd features such as the "World News Polka" played by Barry Mitchell on the accordion, video footage of dancing camels, and laughter coming from off camera. Weather predictions are made for obscure and exotic places around the world, some of which have ties to the show for various reasons.

It also often replays clips from Nightline, World News with Charles Gibson, and other ABC News programming. It has been an apparent training ground for new news anchors (see list below) who go on to higher profile network or local affiliate positions. The show is also unique for its interactive segments, some of which pioneered the email communication that is commonly used on newscasts today.^{[citation needed]} The ABC News WNN Message board has been known^[who?] to offer viewers questions and comments from the anchors themselves, during the course of the show.

1994–1998

"More insomniacs get their news from World News Now" vanity card from 1997: a reference to "More Americans get their news from ABC News", used by the network in bumpers of the late 1990s.

On Thanksgiving morning in 1995, World News Now was the first television program to be broadcast live on 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. CU-SeeMe was also used in a taped interview segment in which anchor Kevin Newman and Global School House director Yvonne Andres discussed the future of computers in communication.^[2]

World News Now was used as the prototype for Fred, ABC's plan to run a cable news channel. ^[3] The plan was floated in 1995 and was later dropped due to issues with cable carriage, including competition with the recently started MSNBC and Fox News Channel.^[4] World News Now also competes for overnight viewers with CBS' Up to the Minute and NBC's All Night entertainment block.

In the fall of 1998, ABC News experienced a labor dispute, seeing support employees locked out for several months. While World News This Morning continued to be produced in New York City with substitute production staff, World News Now moved to the London news bureau. Mark Mullen returned to WNN during the last month of the lockout.

1999–present

World News Now was also one of the first shows to webcast; between 1999 and 2001, free live streaming was on the ABC News web site.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, the free behind-the-scenes webcast returned.

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 launched a special report at 2:38 AM EDT, anchored by WNN team Ron Corning and Taina Hernandez. The show, normally repeated on tape after the initial broadcast, instead went live for all time zones and into follow-up program World News This Morning. The on-air and behind-the-scenes staff stayed on until Good Morning America began and took over coverage at 7:00 AM ET.^[5]

In January, 2007, WNN celebrated its fifteenth anniversary with the brief resurrection of the National Temperature Index (see below) and a new version of the "World News Polka."

On Thursday, August 2, 2007, WNN abandoned its normal format and went with nearly-continuous coverage of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis. WNN coverage was anchored by Hernández and Stephanie Sy and continued into America This Morning.

During the week of January 7, 2008, WNN celebrated 16 years on the air with segments looking back on the early days of the broadcast and its anchors.

Previous segments

• The National Temperature Index (NTI) – WNN featured the National Temperature Index (NTI), which is the sum of the day's forecast high temperatures for Boston, MA; Casper, WY; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Fargo, ND; Las Vegas, NV; Miami, FL; New Orleans, LA; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Seattle, WA. The NTI appeared during nightly weather segments until January 6, 2003. It was reintroduced on January 5, 2007, but was again dropped in mid-February, 2007. The NTI was originally discontinued when staff meterorologist Gerard McNiff revealed the method used for its calculation to San Francisco Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null ^[6], who published the formula in the San Jose Mercury News ^[7].

• Leah At The Movies – People Magazine's Leah Rozen would give her top picks for new releases of the week.

• Their News Now – World News Now would check in with a different news producer at a local ABC affiliate around the country each night to see what stories they were working on in their local market. This was usually rotated between four or five local markets, which included Seattle and Denver, and was discontinued sometime in 2005 when "American Landscape" was expanded to a nightly segment.

• World News Now "InsomniACTS" – Local jazz bands typically from around the New York City area would be invited into the studio to play a number on-the-air.

• World News Knows – A quick useless knowledge fact flashed on the screen some nights after a return from a commercial.

• WNN also featured a full sportscast, which became a scene of comedic fodder for many anchors on the show since many of them did not have a great deal of experience calling sports highlights. This was later replaced by a scoreboard graphic displaying sports scores coming out of a commercial break, leaving time for more general segments.

• Asia Business Now – A daily segment involving Asia business with an anchor from Japan's NHK network. This was referenced in the early editions of the "World New Polka" as "business news from Tokyo."

• BBC News - Declan Curry and other BBC anchors presented mostly lighter stories from "across the pond."

• Financial News from the BBC - again with Declan Curry or other BBC anchors, presenting an update on the European financial markets from the London Stock Exchange. The BBC presenters typically stood in front of a video wall looking out on a London intersection, and sometimes a small counter at the bottom of the screen would note the number of double-decker buses that passed by in the background.

Criticism

Taina Hernandez has been criticized in the national press for laughing during various segments, some of them serious. She laughed through the story of Owen Wilson's attempted suicide and she and Owens have giggled through segments on terrorism and the Iraq war.^[8] These laughing fits have earned her the nickname "The Laughing Taina"

WNN anchor timeline

Thalia Assuras and Mark Mullen laugh after a Tickle Me Elmo being shown on the air, collapses face down in front of a Menorah and vibrates uncontrollably.

References

1. ^ mediabistro.com: TVNewser
2. ^ December 1995: * FYI: regular broadcasting of ABC's news via CU-SeeMe
3. ^ http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.howard-stern/msg/4f48cc4f7468136f?&q=world+news+now+fred+arledge
4. ^ A New Chief Of ABC News, With Arledge In the Shadows - New York Times
5. ^ mediabistro.com: TVNewser
6. ^ Golden Gate Weather Services- Experience
7. ^ Weather Corner (12/31/2002)
8. ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6476915.html

External links

• World News Now Message Boards
• After midnight: The wee small hours of the morning are the latest battleground for television news, American Journalism Review, Dec. 1993
• Tuned In: 'World News Now' has a wink or two for night owls, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 2, 1999
• WNN theme music
• National Temperature Index
• World News Now at the Internet Movie Database
• World News Now at TV.com