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Revision as of 05:10, 3 July 2005
For other uses, see Nightline (disambiguation).
Nightline is a late-night hard news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs five nights a week (weeknights), usually for 30 minutes. Ted Koppel has served as main anchor since March 1980. Koppel usually anchors on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, while Chris Bury anchors on Mondays and Fridays.
The program had its beginnings in 1979 during the Iran hostage crisis. ABC News president Roone Arledge felt the best way to compete against NBC's The Tonight Show was to update Americans on the latest news from Iran. At that time, the show was called: "The Iran Crisis--America Held Hostage: Day xxx" where xxx represented each day Iranians held hostage the occupants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran.
At the end of the hostage crisis in 1981, Nightline had entrenched itself on the ABC programming schedule, and made Koppel a national figure. The program has prided itself on providing a mix of investigative journalism and extended interviews which would look out of place on ABC World News Tonight. Thanks to a video sharing agreement with the BBC, Nightline also repackages some of the BBC's output for an American audience. Nightline broadcasts also reappear in a condensed form on the overnight program ABC World News Now.
The program remains unique in American media, considering its nightly broadcasts. Most other similar shows only air once a week, though usually in a prime-time slot for a full hour. Nightline is usually less sensationalistic than the weekly newsmagazines (which often emphasize soft news programming), though the program has caused controversy on occasion.
On April 30, 2004, Koppel read the names of the members of the United States Armed Forces who were killed in Iraq. This prompted controversy from conservatives who believed Koppel was making a political statement and from Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which felt that ABC was undermining the war effort in Iraq. Others, most notably the Washington Post television columnist, thought it was a ratings stunt for sweeps, and indeed Nightline was the highest rated program during that time period, and had about 30% more viewers than other Nightline programs that week. Sinclair stations did not air the program.
Koppel has repeated the format on May 28, 2004, reading the names of service members killed in Afghanistan, and on May 30, 2005, reading the names of all service members killed in Afghanistan or Iraq between the last program and the preparation of the program. This time, Sinclair stations aired the program as scheduled.
Threats of cancellation
Rumors have spread for many years about the show's cancellation. Many believe that a talk-show format would receive better ratings for the network, which has struggled in late-night ratings over the past few years. However, this was not always the case. During the so-called "late show wars" of 1993, when The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show were battling it out for viewers, Nightline would often place second and occasionally be in first place.
In 2002, ABC attempted to hire David Letterman from CBS, a move that would likely have forced Nightline's cancellation. However, Letterman opted to re-sign with CBS.
Rumors also have spread about the show's cancellation after Koppel announced in March 2005 that he will be leaving the show at the end of his contract in December 2005. Koppel has considerably reduced his hosting duties at the show beginning in 2002.