The program was originally hosted by
Maury Povich. In the fall of 1990,
Maureen O'Boyle replaced Povich and continued to host until May 1994.
Jim Ryan then became interim host for the summer of 1994.
Penny Daniels became host for the 1994–95 season and for what ultimately became the show's final season,
Jon Scott subsequently took her place. Its creator and producer was
Peter Brennan. One of its lead personalities was
Steve Dunleavy, a columnist for the
New York Post; at the time of the show's launch the
Post, WNYW, Fox Television Stations and syndicator
20th Television were units of the original iteration of
News Corporation. Initially, the program was broadcast as an irreverent, late-night broadcast on WNYW, but as it expanded, and under the direction of Brennan and producers
Burt Kearns and
Wayne Darwen, the program began to cover stories throughout America that were overlooked or ignored by the then-dominant network news organizations. The
logo of the program is a distinctive
pyramid with a "zoom-like" sound effect (immortalized as the "ka-chung") for a theme. While showing some
hard news stories, the focus of the program is often entertainment, scandals, gossip and exploitative
tabloid journalism. It was popular during the 1990s when magazine-type news shows were common during daytime television. Its main competitors were
Hard Copy and
Inside Edition (the latter of which remains on the air today), along with the many talk shows that dominated daytime TV during the 1990s. ==Revival==