Television news in the United States has undergone significant evolution over the years. It has transformed from a brief 10- to 15-minute evening broadcast into a diverse array of programs and channels. Today, audiences have access to local, regional, and national news coverage through various platforms, available at any time of the day.
Origin of television news
Lowell Thomas hosted the first-ever, regularly scheduled, nightly news broadcast on American television in March 1940; it was a simulcast of his nightly 6:45 PM NBC network radio newscast, with the television broadcast seen only in New York City over what was then experimental TV station W2XBS."Toscanini Will Present Special Easter Program," Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, March 20, 1940, p. 18. The television simulcast lasted for only a few months. In June 1941, W2XBS became pioneering NBC television station WNBT (now WNBC)."On the Air," Elmira (New York) Star-Gazette, July 1, 1941, p. 22.
The first serious attempt at dedicated television news broadcasts in the United States was by CBS. Upon becoming commercial station WCBW (now WCBS-TV) in 1941, the pioneer New York CBS television station broadcast two daily news programs, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, most of the newscasts featuring Richard Hubbell reading a script with only occasional cutaways to a map or still photograph.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Ray Forrest, WNBT’s announcer, broke into the broadcast of the movie Millionaire Playboy with news of the attack. According to The Magic Window: American Television, 1939-1953, news of the attack on Pearl Harbor constituted television’s first bulletin and Sam Cuff of WNBT’s Face of the War stood in front of a map showing viewers where the Japanese attacks occurred.
WCBW (which was usually off the air on Sunday to give the engineers a day off), took to the air at 8:45 PM with an extensive special report. The national emergency even broke down the unspoken wall between CBS radio and television. WCBW executives convinced radio announcers and experts such as George Fielding Elliot and Linton Wells to come down to the Grand Central Station studios during the evening and give information and commentary on the attack. The WCBW special report that night lasted less than ninety minutes, but that special broadcast pushed the limits of live television in 1941 and opened up new possibilities for future broadcasts. As CBS wrote in a special report to the FCC, the unscheduled live news broadcast on December 7 “was unquestionably the most stimulating challenge and marked the greatest advance of any single problem faced up to that time.” Additional newscasts were scheduled in the early days of the war.
In May 1942, WCBW (like almost all television stations) sharply cut back its live program schedule and the newscasts were canceled, since the station temporarily suspended studio operations, resorting exclusively to the occasional broadcast of films. This was primarily due to the fact that much of the staff had either joined the service or were redeployed to war related technical research, and to prolong the life of the early, unstable cameras which were now impossible to repair due to the wartime lack of parts. In May, 1944, as the war began to turn in favor of the Allies, WCBW reopened the studios and the newscasts returned, briefly anchored by Ned Calmer, and then by Everett Holles.http://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/7533_h.jpg Everett Holles 1944 WCBW Newscast
After the war, expanded news programs appeared on the WCBW schedule—renamed WCBS-TV in 1946—first anchored by Milo Boulton, and later by Douglas Edwards. On May 3, 1948, Douglas Edwards began anchoring CBS Television News, a regular 15-minute nightly newscast on the rudimentary CBS Television Network, including WCBS-TV. It aired every weeknight at 7:30 PM, and was the first regularly scheduled, network television news program featuring an anchor (as mentioned, the nightly Lowell Thomas NBC radio network newscast was simulcast on television locally on NBC's WNBT—now WNBC—for a time in the early 1940s and the previously mentioned Richard Hubbell, Ned Calmer, Everett Holles and Milo Boulton on WCBW in the early and mid-1940s, but these were local television broadcasts seen only in New York City). The NBC Television Network's regularly scheduled news offering at the time NBC Television Newsreel was simply film with voice narration.
In 1950, the name of the nightly news was changed to Douglas Edwards and the News, and the following year, it became the first news program to be broadcast on both coasts, thanks to a new coaxial cable connection, prompting Edwards to use the greeting "Good evening everyone, coast to coast." The broadcast was renamed the CBS Evening News when Walter Cronkite replaced Edwards in 1962."The Origins Of Television News In America" by Mike Conway. Chapter: "The Birth of CBS-TV News: Columbia's Ambitious Experiment at the Advent of U.S. Commercial Television". (Peter Lang Publishing, New York NY). Edwards remained with CBS News with various daytime television newscasts and radio news broadcasts until his retirement on April 1, 1988.
History of network news
There were irregularly scheduled, quasi-network newscasts originating from NBC's WNBT in New York City and reportedly fed to WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia and WRGB in Schenectady, NY prior to the regularly scheduled NBC Television Newsreel, such as Esso sponsored news features as well as The Face of War and The War As It Happens. In the final days of World War II, irregularly scheduled NBC television news and newsreel programs were broadcast which were also seen in New York, Philadelphia and Schenectady on the relatively few (roughly 5,000) television sets which existed at the time (early to mid 1940s). Shortly after the war, NBC Television Newsreel aired filmed news highlights with narration. Later in 1948, when sponsored by Camel Cigarettes, NBC Television Newsreel was renamed Camel Newsreel Theatre and then, when John Cameron Swayze was added as an on-camera anchor in 1949, the program was renamed Camel News Caravan.
On CBS in 1948, CBS Television News premiered on the network in May with on-camera anchor Douglas Edwards, later retitled Douglas Edwards and the News. CBS Television also featured public affairs programs such as Longines Chronoscope which featured newsworthy public figures, and which ran from June 1951 to April 1955 at 11pm ET.
The DuMont Television Network had The Walter Compton News (June 1947 – 1948), I.N.S. Telenews and Camera Headlines (1948–1949), and DuMont Evening News (September 1954 – 1 April 1955).
However, Edward R. Murrow is widely regarded as the most important figure in the early days of U.S. television news. On his weekly news show See It Now on CBS, Murrow presented live reports from journalists on both the east and west coasts of the United States—the first program with live simultaneous transmission from coast to coast. See It Now focused on a number of controversial issues, but its most memorable moment was a 30-minute special on March 9, 1954, entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," which contributed to the eventual political downfall of the senator.
Expansion from 15 to 30 minutes NBC's Camel Newsreel Theatre was later expanded to 15 minutes and renamed Camel News Caravan when John Cameron Swayze was added as an on-camera anchor in 1949. The show was succeeded by the Huntley-Brinkley Report in 1956, featuring a duo-anchor format with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. On September 9, 1963, the Huntley-Brinkley Report expanded to 30 minutes, following a similar move by CBS. It was renamed NBC Nightly News in 1970, after Huntley's retirement. Initially, NBC Nightly News was presented by two anchors from a rotating group of three: Brinkley, John Chancellor, and Frank McGee. A year later, Chancellor became sole anchor, and Brinkley provided commentaries. (McGee became host of Today.) In 1976, Brinkley rejoined the program as co-anchor. He continued in that role until 1979, when Chancellor resumed anchoring the program solo. Chancellor moved to the role of commentator in 1982 and was succeeded by a team of Tom Brokaw in New York and Roger Mudd in Washington. Brokaw became sole anchor in 1983.
CBS launched CBS Television News in May 1948 to compete against the NBC newsreel programs, hosted on camera by Douglas Edwards, it was renamed Douglas Edwards with the News in 1950. In 1962, Walter Cronkite landed the anchor seat, which he would hold until 1981, and the program's name was changed to CBS Evening News. On September 2, 1963, the show expanded from 15 to 30 minutes. In the 1970s, CBS Evening News was the dominant newscast on American television, and Cronkite was often cited as the "most trusted man in America." After Cronkite's retirement in 1981, Dan Rather became the anchor of CBS Evening News. He was joined by co-anchor Connie Chung from 1993 to 1995.
ABC Evening News began airing in 1953, hosted by John Charles Daly. Daly had been a well-known CBS radio correspondent, though today he is best remembered as the emcee of CBS's long-running game show, What's My Line?, which he hosted while serving as ABC's anchorman. Daly left ABC in 1960 and was succeeded by a frequently expanding list of successors that included John Cameron Swayze, Bill Laurence, Bill Sheehan, Ron Cochran, a young Peter Jennings, and Bob Young. In 1968, Frank Reynolds became anchor of the program, and it soon expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. A year later, Howard K. Smith joined as co-anchor, reporting from Washington. In early 1971, Harry Reasoner left CBS News and replaced Reynolds as the New York anchor. Reasoner became the sole anchor in 1975, and Smith provided commentaries. In 1976, Barbara Walters joined the program as Reasoner's co-anchor in New York, thus becoming the first woman to serve as a regular network news anchor. (Marlene Sanders had previously served as an occasional substitute anchor). Other women who would occasionally appear in daytime and weekend anchor roles in earlier days were Pauline Frederick of ABC and NBC and Nancy Dickerson of NBC. From the early 1970s forward, females such as Lesley Stahl of CBS, Carole Simpson of ABC and Jessica Savitch of NBC began to appear in significant on-camera newscasting roles. Reasoner was very unhappy with the addition of Walters, and the two did not work well together. With Roone Arledge as President of ABC News, the ABC Evening News was rebranded as ABC World News Tonight around 1977 with a trio of anchors: Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings and Max Robinson. Jennings assumed solo anchor responsibility in 1983 following Reynolds's death.
Jennings, Rather, Brokaw era Brokaw, Rather, and Jennings became the familiar faces of network news for more than two decades. But changes began in December 2004, when Brian Williams took over from Brokaw as anchor of NBC Nightly News, after Brokaw's well-anticipated retirement, announced in 2002. Rather also retired from the anchor seat of CBS Evening News in March 2005, albeit quite abruptly, after it was discovered that CBS used documents whose authenticity could not be verified in a report on George W. Bush's Air National Guard record. Jennings stepped away from the network anchor seat as well in April 2005, after he announced that he had lung cancer and would undergo chemotherapy. After the announcement, ABC World News Tonight was hosted by Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas.