World News Now

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World News Now
Image:Abc_wnn_logo04_t.jpg
Genre News
Running time 1 hours, 30 minutes (often repeated locally)
Starring Taina Hernandez
Hari Sreenivasan (co-anchors)
Sonya Crawford (correspondent)
Country of origin United States
Original channel ABC
Original run January, 1992–present
No. of episodes N/A (airs daily)
IMDb profile
TV.com summary
"More insomniacs get their news from World News Now" vanity card; clear parody of the late 1990s "More Americans get their news from ABC News" bumpers.
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"More insomniacs get their news from World News Now" vanity card; clear parody of the late 1990s "More Americans get their news from ABC News" bumpers.
A pre-CNN Anderson Cooper says "talk to the hand".
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A pre-CNN Anderson Cooper says "talk to the hand".
Thalia Assuras and Mark Mullen have a laugh after Elmo collapses in front of a Menorah.
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Thalia Assuras and Mark Mullen have a laugh after Elmo collapses in front of a Menorah.

World News Now (often abbreviated as WNN) is ABC's overnight news program. Its presentation is typically lighthearted, irreverent and comical. Several well-known news personalities, including Thalia Assuras, Aaron Brown, Andrea Stassou and Anderson Cooper have anchored WNN early in their careers.

Contents

[edit] History

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" but was changed to "World News Now" prior to its first broadcast. The program is generally watched by insomniacs (in the late 1990s, its slogan was "More insomniacs get their news from World News Now than from any other source."), college students, and parents of infants. 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 a training ground for several young up and coming news anchors (see list below) which eventually 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. The ABC News WNN Message board has been known offer to viewers questions and comments from the anchors themselves, during the course of the show.

In 1994, World News Now was the first television program to be broadcast on the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe interface. The program was interactive with the few viewers with Internet access at the time (mainly college students). Victor Dorff, a producer of WNN at the time, arranged for viewers to send web cam images of themselves, which were broadcast in several interactive segments. [1] 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. In 2005, the free behind-the-scenes webcast returned.

Of note is that World News Now was used as the prototype for Fred, ABC's plan to run a cable news channel. 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. World News Now also competes for overnight viewers with CBS's Up to the Minute.

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, many local affiliates rebroadcast 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.

Due to its informative and yet irreverent treatment of the news, WNN has numerous fans. Some of its fans record the show and use it as a substitute to early morning news broadcasts. There are also several fan sites.

WNN is currently anchored by Taina Hernandez and Hari Sreenivasan in New York, and Sonya Crawford in Washington.

[edit] Regular Segments

  • Top Story
  • Weather
  • Sports
  • The Skinny-- An entertainment news segment (usually announced with the anchors shouting "It's time for the Skinny!") WNN "Chief Chuckler" and Camera Operator Willis Chambers also joins in the yelling many nights.
  • News Notes
  • BBC News-- Declan Curry, and other BBC anchors filling in, present lighter, (but sometimes more serious 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. The BBC anchors typically stood in front of a window 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.
  • Morning Papers (which is announced with the cumbersome voice-over "World News Now delivers: your morning papers!")

In a 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 each evening's nightline
  • This Week - (Only on Monday Mornings) The "Roundtable" segment, a debate of pundits from both sides of politics, is featured.
  • 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, 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

[edit] Previous Segments

  • 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 the National Temperature Index (NTI), which was presented during nightly weather segments until January 6, 2003. The NTI was discontinued when staff meterorologist Gerard McNiff revealed the method used for its calculation to San Francisco Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null, who revealed the formula (the sum of the temperatures of Boston, Casper, WY, Dallas, Denver, Fargo, ND, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Raleigh, and Seattle) to the San Jose Mercury News [2]. Unwilling to permit the disappearance of this cherished institution, fans created http://www.nationaltemperatureindex.com, which contains the daily National Temperature Index, derived using McNiff's formula, as well as links to various NTI resources. (The NTI was initially replaced with the "National Darkness Quotient" -- it lasted only a few weeks.)
  • 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.

[edit] Other Segments

  • 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) or of course, Friday Morning's Polka, sung by 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.

[edit] WNN anchor timeline

From To Anchors
01/1992 01/1993 Aaron Brown and Lisa McRee
01/1993 05/1993 Aaron Brown and guest anchors
05/1993 07/1993 Aaron Brown and Thalia Assuras
07/1993 09/1993 Thalia Assuras and guest anchors
08/1993 08/1994 Thalia Assuras and Boyd Matson
08/1994 11/1994 Thalia Assuras and guest anchors
11/1994 03/1995 Thalia Assuras and Kevin Newman
03/1995 12/1995 Kevin Newman and guest anchors
12/1995 01/1996 Kevin Newman and Thalia Assuras
01/1996 04/1996 Thalia Assuras and guest anchors
04/1996 01/1997 Thalia Assuras and Mark Mullen
01/1997 05/1998 Mark Mullen and Asha Blake
03/1998 07/1998 Asha Blake and guest anchors
02/1999 09/1999 JuJu Chang and guest anchors
09/1999 02/2000 JuJu Chang and Anderson Cooper
02/2000 08/2000 Anderson Cooper and Alison Stewart
08/2000 02/2002 Alison Stewart and Derek McGinty
02/2002 06/2003 Derek McGinty and Liz Cho
07/2003 12/2003 Andrea Stassou and David Muir
12/2003 08/2004 David Muir and Tamala Edwards
08/2004 01/2005 Tamala Edwards and Ron Corning
01/2005 12/2005 Ron Corning and Heather Cabot
12/2005 08/2006 Ron Corning and Taina Hernandez
08/2006 - Taina Hernandez and Hari Sreenivasan


Other anchors, generally regular guests/substitutes, have been:

In Fall of 1998, ABC News experienced a labor dispute, seeing support employees locked out for several months. While Worlds 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 World News Now during the last month of the strike.

[edit] External links

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