The World Tonight (Philippine TV program)
| The World Tonight | |
|---|---|
 Title card used since January 12, 2015 | |
| Genre | Newscast |
| Presented by | Weekday anchors Tony Velasquez Pia Gutierrez Saturday anchor Stanley Palisada |
| Country of origin | Philippines |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | N/A (airs daily) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Production locations |
|
| Running time | 30 minutes (1966–1972; 1986–2015; 2017–present) 1 hour (2015–2017) |
| Production company | ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs |
| Release | |
| Original network |
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| Picture format | NTSC HDTV 1080i |
| Audio format | Mono (1966-1972, 1986-1987) Stereo (1987-present) |
| Original release | First incarnation: November 21, 1966 – September 22, 1972 Second incarnation: September 15, 1986 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Bandila (ABS-CBN; second incarnation) |
| Followed by | Newsbreak (ABS-CBN Channel 9/4; first incarnation) Pulso: Aksyon Balita (ABS-CBN; second incarnation) The Weekend News/ABS-CBN Weekend News (ABS-CBN, weekends) |
The World Tonight is a Philippine television English-language late-night newscast broadcast by Kapamilya Channel and ANC. It was formerly the English language late-night newscast of ABS-CBN from November 21, 1966 to September 22, 1972 and was originally anchored by Angelo Castro Jr., Loren Legarda and Tina Monzon-Palma from September 15, 1986 to August 13, 1999. The newscast is now anchored by Tony Velasquez and Pia Gutierrez on weeknights and Stanley Palisada on Saturdays. It airs from Monday to Saturday at 9:00 pm on ANC and every weeknight at 10:45 pm on the Kapamilya Channel. It also airs worldwide via TFC.[1]
The World Tonight holds the record as the longest-running English newscast on Philippine television after the October 2012 ending of RPN's NewsWatch due to the retrenchment of 200 employees amid the network's privatization, although this is disputed since this did not air from 1972 to 1986 due to ABS-CBN's closure because of the country's declaration of martial law.
Airing history[]
The early years (1966–72)[]
The World Tonight premiered on November 21, 1966 at 8:30pm on ABS-CBN's DZXL-TV Channel 9 as the network's answer to ABC's Big News, The News with Uncle Bob on RBS, and later, NewsWatch on KBS. The World Tonight became one of the first Philippine television newscasts to broadcast in color. Co-anchoring the newscast were Hal Bowie, a veteran announcer from ABS-CBN radio, Eric Eloriaga, and Henry Halasan, a former ABS-CBN Cebu talent who was transferred to the network's main offices in Manila as a sales executive. Bowie, who was in his late 50s when the newscast first aired, later bowed out of the newscast due to health reasons and concentrated instead on producing news reports for the network. This left Halasan and Eloriaga as main anchormen of the program.
The program was transferred to its sister station, DZAQ-TV Channel 3 on the 10:00pm time slot a year later. This happened when Channel 9 premiered Newsbreak with Bong Lapira, who transferred from rival newscast Big News on ABC. The newscast continued after Channel 3 moved to the present Channel 2 and Channel 9 moved to Channel 4 for Metro Manila in 1969 until ABS-CBN's closure by the Marcos government during the declaration of martial law on September 22, 1972 with his sign Proclamation No. 1081.
The roster of field reporters for the newscast in its pre-Martial Law days included Orly Mercado, Jun Bautista, Antonio Seva, Tony Lozano, Boo Chanco, Philip Pigao, Lito Tacujan and Danny Hernandez.
Revival; Legarda-Castro era[]
The World Tonight returned on September 15, 1986, coinciding with the reopening of ABS-CBN after the People Power Revolution. It was anchored by Larry Ng (an ABS-CBN executive during the pre-Martial Law era), Angelo Castro Jr. (then the network's news director) and Loren Legarda who came from anchoring rival newscast NewsWatch on RPN with Harry Gasser. Ng left the newscast after a while, and was replaced by Korina Sanchez. However, she eventually left the newscast to concentrate on hosting the morning show Magandang Umaga (later Magandang Umaga Po), leaving Castro, Legarda, and Amy Godinez (who left in 1991) as main anchors. On May 4, 1992, Ces Oreña-Drilon (or Cathy Yap-Yang for Business), and Dyan Castillejo (for Sports) joined the program as segment anchors. Sanchez returned as an anchor but only on Saturdays along with Castro (or Bon Vibar as his substitute), Drilon, Castillejo with additional segments by Angelique Lazo (entertainment). It was replaced by The Weekend News in 1996.
Transition into cable; start of Castro-Palma era[]
The World Tonight began to simulcast on the network's cable news channel Sarimanok News Network launched on May 1, 1996, even it was still airing on ABS-CBN.
On February 9, 1998, Tina Monzon-Palma replaced Loren Legarda and joined Angelo Castro Jr. to the newscast when Legarda ran and later won as the top senator in the next year's elections. Palma used to anchor rival newscasts GMA Headline News (on GMA Network) from 1986 until 1992 and The Big News (on the reopened ABC, now TV5) from 1992 to 1997. Loren Legarda made her final broadcast on the newscast on February 6, 1998.
However in early 1999, the ratings of English late-night newscasts including The World Tonight started to decline when rival GMA introduced Filipino language late-night news with the relaunch of GMA Network News, anchored by Mike Enriquez and Vicky Morales; it debuted as an English newscast in 1992 and switched to Filipino with the relaunch, surging ahead of the ratings game in the process.
The World Tonight made its final broadcast on the ABS-CBN television network on August 13, 1999. It was then replaced by the network's first Filipino-language late-night newscast, Pulso: Aksyon Balita anchored by Korina Sanchez and Ted Failon. The show competed with Frontpage: Ulat ni Mel Tiangco, which replaced GMA Network News on August 23, 1999.
ABS-CBN News Channel years (1999–present)[]
Two months later, The World Tonight premiered solely on the network's 24-hour ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) on October 11, 1999 due to the channel's relaunch. Angelo Castro Jr. and Tina Monzon-Palma still remained as anchors at that time. The program continues to be one of the channel's flagship newscasts.
On March 12, 2001, as part of the major programming changes of ABS-CBN, The World Tonight relaunched to its graphics along with other ANC and ABS-CBN newscasts.
Castro retired as a news anchor on September 2009, as Palma went solo. However, he later returned on November 7, 2011 on a sporadic basis until December 26 of that year. He died on April 5, 2012 of lung cancer at the age of 67.
Revitalization (2015–present)[]
On January 12, 2015, 3 days before the Philippine visit of Pope Francis, The World Tonight reformatted as part of the "internationalization" of the ABS-CBN News Channel. It moved to an earlier timeslot at 9:00pm and expanded into a 1-hour newscast to compete with State of the Nation of then GMA News TV (now GTV) and CNN Philippines Nightly News of CNN Philippines, among other newscasts on the timeslot. New segments & reports with original content were also aired during the launching day.[2]
On November 21, 2016, The World Tonight celebrated its 50th anniversary. Also this year, ANC marked its 20th anniversary. As part of the celebration of the two important milestones for the channel, an ANC X event was held at 8 Rockwell on December 7, 2016 which was attended by ABS-CBN executives, past and present anchors of The World Tonight and ANC, and prominent members of the business community. A documentary on the history of "The World Tonight" was aired on ANC on December 30, 2016.[3]
On March 30, 2017, Palma took a sabbatical leave and Tony Velasquez temporarily took over as the program's main anchor. On January 29, 2018, Palma returned to the newscast after the leave, making her and Velasquez as the main anchors of the program.
However, the production of the newscast's Sunday edition was halted on March 22, 2020, due to the enhanced community quarantine done to help control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and was replaced by provisional programming from the ABS-CBN News Channel on the same date, as well as the extended edition of Documentary Hour from April 26, 2020, when the timesharing of programming between both DZMM TeleRadyo and ANC ended. It’s Airs Monday - Saturday at 9:00 pm.
On May 18, 2020, Palma and Velasquez returned to anchor the newscast after 2 months of hiatus in lieu of ANC and DZMM's special coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic. Like TV Patrol and the other programs airing on ANC and Teleradyo, the newscast began to livestream online in their Facebook and YouTube channels.
Kapamilya Channel (2020–present)[]
On July 27, 2020, The World Tonight started its broadcast on ABS-CBN's replacement channel, Kapamilya Channel, replacing Bandila. This marks the newscast's indirect return on its original network.[1]
On January 4, 2021, ANC head Nadia Trinidad announced on Twitter that it will relaunch The World Tonight with Tony Velasquez and Karen Davila (replacing Palma after 22 years in the anchor desk),[4] while retaining the OBB, title card, theme music and other graphics including the lower third (a maroon-used color introduced in November 2020) and the news ticker graphics currently used by the channel. However, the newscast is airing live from ABS-CBN's Studio 7 (which is also used to air ABS-CBN's flagship news program TV Patrol and was their original studio during their ABS-CBN days). As Palma "has retired from the daily grind", Trinidad said that she will have her own upcoming public affairs program launching "soon", which later debuted as Tina Monzon-Palma Reports in May 2021.[5]
On October 8, 2021, ABS-CBN News announced that Davila would return to TV Patrol on October 11, replacing Noli de Castro. Senior news reporter Pia Gutierrez took over her role for the newscast on the same day.[6]
Anchors[]
Weekday[]
- Tony Velasquez (2015–present; then segment anchor for "Metro Wrap", "World Focus", "7,107", and "In Business")
- Pia Gutierrez (2021–present)
Weekend[]
- Stanley Palisada (Saturday anchor)
Segment hosts[]
- Michelle Ong (segment anchor for "In Business")
Former[]
- Hal Bowie (1966–1972)
- Henry Halasan (1966–1972)
- Eric Eloriaga (1966–1972)
- Angelo Castro Jr.† (1986–2009; 2011–2012)
- Loren Legarda (1986–1998)
- Larry Ng (1986, relief anchor 1987–1990)
- Ces Oreña-Drilon (business anchor and occasional relief anchor for Legarda/Palma, 1992–1999)
- Cathy Yap-Yang (alternate business anchor, 1992–1999; main business anchor, 2015–2017)
- Daphne Oseña-Paez (weatherwoman, 1996–1999)
- TJ Manotoc (2015–2017; segment anchor for "In the Zone", now an ABS-CBN North American Bureau Chief)
- Coco Alcuaz (2015; segment anchor for "In Business")
- Amy Godinez-Cuenco (1989–1991)
- Korina Sanchez (weekday anchor, 1986; Saturday/Sunday Edition anchor, 1987–1995)
- Bon Vibar (alternate Saturday/Sunday Edition anchor for Castro, 1987–1996, relief anchor for Castro Jr. 1986–1996)
- Angelique Lazo (Saturday/Sunday entertainment anchor, 1987–1995)
- Frankie Evangelista† (relief anchor for Castro Jr., 1994–1999)
- Tina Monzon-Palma (1998–2017; 2018–2021)
- Teodoro Locsin Jr. (2011–2017) (segment anchor for "Teditorial")[7]
- Marie Lozano (2015–2016; segment anchor for "Scene")
- Warren de Guzman (2015–2016; segment anchor for "Business")
- Dyan Castellejo (1992–1999; 2015–2016, segment anchor for "In the Zone")
- Gigi Grande (2015-2019; Saturday anchor)
- Ron Cruz (2013-2020; Sunday anchor)
- Karen Davila (2021)
Segments[]
- TWT Report
- In Business
- Metro Wrap
- World Focus
- 7,107
- In The Zone/Gametime
- Scene
- Final Word Tonight
See also[]
- List of programs broadcast by ABS-CBN
- List of programs shown on the ABS-CBN News Channel
- List of programs broadcast by Kapamilya Channel
References[]
- ^ a b "Powerhouse newscasts "TV Patrol" and "The World Tonight" air on Kapamilya Channel starting Monday". ABS-CBN PR. ABS-CBN Corporation. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "ANC's 'The World Tonight' to move to earlier timeslot". www.medianewser.com. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
- ^ "50 years of 'The World Tonight,' ANC Leadership Awards launched". Manila Standard. December 16, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
- ^ Trinidad, Nadia [@nadiatrinidad] (January 4, 2021). "Captain's Log, Stardate 20211.4 Today we venture into the exciting unknown. ANC is relaunching The World Tonight with @KakanTuring and @iamkarendavila sitting on the anchor's desk. And as with all new beginnings we can only hope for the best, to live long and prosper.