The Iran Crisis—America Held Hostage (1979) The program began on November 8,
1979, four days after the start of the
Iran hostage crisis. ABC News president
Roone Arledge figured that the best way to compete against
NBC's
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 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 the number of days that Iranians held the occupants of the
U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran as hostages. At first,
World News Tonight lead anchor
Frank Reynolds hosted the 20-minute special reports. Shortly after its creation, Reynolds stopped hosting the program.
Ted Koppel, then ABC News's State Department Correspondent, took on the hosting duties. A few days later a producer had the idea of displaying the number of days on
America Held Hostage (e.g., Day 15, Day 50, Day 150, etc.).
Ted Koppel's Nightline (1980–2005) By the end of the hostage crisis in 1981 (after 444 days), the program – which had been retitled the previous year as
Nightline – had entrenched itself on ABC's programming schedule, and made Koppel a national figure. ABC had previously used the title "
Night Line" for
a short-lived 1 a.m. talk show starring Les Crane that was broadcast over the network's
New York City flagship station,
WABC-TV, starting in 1963. The program originally aired four nights a week (on Monday through Thursdays) until 1982, when the
sketch comedy program
Fridays was shifted to air after
Nightline. By this time, the news program had expanded to 30 minutes. For much of its history, the program prided itself on providing a mix of investigative journalism and extended interviews (something that continues to be featured to this day, albeit at a reduced extent), which would look out of place on
World News Tonight. The format of the show featured an introduction by the host, then a taped piece on the specific topic of the night; then after a commercial break, there was a live interview related to the topic of the piece. In 1983, ABC attempted to change the program's format to feature multiple topics and expand it to one hour, as opposed to focusing on a single topic in a half-hour. This switch proved to be unsuccessful, and after a few months, the original format of the program was restored. Once the original format returned, reverting to a 31-minute structure, it remained unchanged through the end of Koppel's tenure; it was changed following his retirement. 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 news magazines (which often emphasize
soft news programming, stories of such type – such as
pop culture-related stories –
Nightline has incorporated to a moderate degree following Koppel's departure), though the program has caused controversy on occasion. In 1982, Koppel interviewed
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief
Yasser Arafat on the program, in which he had indicated that he would not accept conditions from the U.S. to recognize the PLO. In 1984, the program featured an interview with
Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, marking his first live television appearance. In honor of the 40th Anniversary of D-Day in 1984,
Nightline aired a special edition which "covered" the
landings on Normandy as though modern television news, along with satellite reports, had existed at the time. The following year in 1985, the program conducted its first on-remote broadcast from
South Africa. In 1986, the program featured interviews with the
Philippines' first female
president,
Corazon Aquino, and outgoing president
Ferdinand Marcos, the latter of which tried to defend the extravagant lifestyle (including the extensive shoe collection) of his wife
Imelda during the country's economic hardship. In an interview with
Nightline in 1987,
Colorado Democratic senator and 1988 presidential candidate
Gary Hart admitted to having cheated on his wife, Lee Ludwig, with
Donna Rice, in the aftermath of an exposé in the
Miami Herald that revealed the affair, leading to his withdrawal from the presidential election. That year,
Nightline broadcast for the first time in the
Soviet Union. In 1988,
Nightline conducted a special report on-location from
Jerusalem. In 1996,
Times Books published
Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television, about the program's history up to that point, with author credits attributed to Koppel and
Nightline producer Kyle Gibson. The book received numerous lackluster reviews. In
Walter Goodman's review of the book for
The New York Times, he observed "Ted Koppel announces in his introduction to
Nightline that he did none of the interviews that went into the book and that although he 'influenced' and 'contributed' to it, 'in the final analysis Kyle wrote it.
Ken Tucker in
Entertainment Weekly pointed in an unfavorable manner to the book's use of the
third person: "Throughout
Nightline the book, the star is referred to in the third person: 'Koppel said' this or that; 'Koppel hadn't been asleep an hour when the phone rang. Frederic M. Biddle of
The Boston Globe wrote "This book reminds us not only that good television doesn't necessarily translate into scintillating prose, but that behind every successful journalist lurks a good editor – who in this case didn't show up."
Memorable subjects During Ted Koppel's tenure as anchor (and on rare occasions since his departure),
Nightline devoted each episode to a unique subject. Since its inception, the program has covered many subjects (
science,
education,
politics,
economics,
society, and
breaking news). Many candidates for government offices, such as
David Duke (in November 1991), have appeared on
Nightline to try to promote themselves. Seeing that there are a large number of prisons in the United States, it created an ongoing series in 1994 called "Crime and Punishment". The program also aired a series of episodes called "America: In Black and White" dealing with individual aspects of American race relations, and another on homosexuality titled "A Matter of Choice?". Over the years,
Nightline had a number of technological firsts. The program did the first live report from the base of
Mount Everest. In November 1992, science reporter Michael Guillen did the first live broadcast from
Antarctica. There were times when a major breaking news story occurred as late as 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, resulting in the subject of that night's edition being changed in order to cover the story in some form of detail, depending on the depth of information available at the time of broadcast. Examples of this were the deaths of
John Lennon (
1980) and
Yasser Arafat (2004).
Nightline also held a series of
town hall meetings; these included the Israeli-Palestinian Town Meeting in 1987, one with
Nelson Mandela on June 21, 1990, and one discussing the
War in Iraq in 2003. The first such "Town Meeting", in 1987, was an extended edition (running for four hours and 12 minutes, until 3:47 a.m. Eastern Time, on the night of its broadcast) discussing the
AIDS epidemic of that period in the U.S. A major portion of the episode was devoted to interviews where important people were asked tough questions on the spot. Another series of town hall meetings featured public discussions and appearances by Japanese officials on the poor performance of American business during the 1980s, contrasted with the success of Japanese businesses. These town hall meetings coincided with the
corporate takeovers of U.S. companies by Japanese corporations during the early 1990s (such as
MCA by
Matsushita, and
CBS Records and
Columbia Pictures by
Sony Corporation). What had been intended to be a benign episode dedicated to the 40th anniversary of
Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier ended up being remembered for one of the show's controversial moments. The April 6,
1987 broadcast included longtime
Los Angeles Dodgers executive
Al Campanis, who had been with the franchise since before Robinson's debut. When Ted Koppel asked Campanis about why there were so few
black field managers or
general managers in the sport, Campanis responded awkwardly, saying that blacks may lack the "necessities" to succeed in those positions. Despite Koppel offering Campanis numerous chances to clarify or retract his remark (asking Campanis several times "Do you really believe that?"), Campanis' subsequent responses only worsened his position. Koppel ultimately scolded Campanis on-air for proposing the "same kind of garbage" that Robinson's critics and skeptics had peddled in 1947. Shortly after the interview, the
Dodgers fired Campanis. Later in 1987, the program broadcast an exclusive interview with televangelists
Jim and
Tammy Faye Bakker, following the former's sex scandal that brought down their PTL ministry. On December 3, 1990,
Nightline played
Madonna's controversial
music video "
Justify My Love" in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video's sexual content and censorship. The video contained imagery of
sadomasochism,
voyeurism and
bisexuality. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on
MTV, she shrugged and answered, "Yeah, so? Lucky me." She also mentioned that the banning was hypocritical, as male artists were able to show music videos on the channel which contained sexist and violent imagery. She also mentioned that in her "
Vogue" music video she had worn a see-through lace top which exposed her breasts, but this was passed by the channel. In 1997,
Nightline aired "ABC Exclusive" footage of the trial of former
Cambodian dictator
Pol Pot, in
violation of a verbal agreement between ABC News and
freelance journalist Nate Thayer to use the footage of Pot's trial. Thayer later sued Koppel and ABC News for $30 million in
punitive damages and unspecified
compensatory damages.
Reading of the names On April 30,
2004, Koppel read the names of members of the
United States Armed Forces who were killed in the
Iraq War since it began in March 2003. This prompted controversy from
conservatives who believed that Koppel was making a political statement, and from management at
Hunt Valley,
Maryland–based television station owner
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which felt that ABC was undermining the war effort in Iraq; in protest, ordered forced its ABC-
affiliated stations not to air that night's edition, and instead had the stations air a special in which the "merits" of the war would be debated. Sinclair invited Koppel to participate in the replacement program, but he declined. Others, most notably the television columnist for
The Washington Post, thought it was a
ratings stunt for
sweeps; indeed
Nightline was the highest-rated program during that time period, and had about 30% more viewers than other editions of the program which aired that week. ABC responded to the controversy, saying that the program was meant to be "an expression of respect which seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country." Every so often, Koppel ended the program with a "Closing Thought", in which Koppel usually expressed his opinion on the subject of the night's broadcast. On his final night, urging viewers to continue watching the program, Koppel concluded his final
Nightline broadcast with the following "Closing Thought":
Post-Koppel Nightline (2005–present) British journalist and producer
James Goldston was appointed as the programme's executive producer in 2005. He opted to scrap the format of the existing broadcast, and on November 28, 2005, replaced Koppel with a three-anchor team of
Martin Bashir (Goldston's compatriot and colleague on ITV's
Living with Michael Jackson) and
Cynthia McFadden at
Times Square Studios in
New York City and
Terry Moran in
Washington, D.C. However, ratings increased after the new format was implemented, even beating the
Late Show with David Letterman for three consecutive weeks in August 2006 and again in 2008. On July 11, 2006, in his first appearance on the program since leaving
Nightline in November 2005, Ted Koppel made a surprise appearance on that night's broadcast to discuss the prisoner situation at the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp with co-anchor Terry Moran, and to discuss his then upcoming series for the
Discovery Channel. On August 7, 2006, ABC shut down full-time
Nightline production from Times Square and moved the program to the ABC News Headquarters in
Lincoln Square, citing high production costs and logistical problems, though some special editions still do originate from Times Square Studios. In 2009,
Nightline announced that an online program was in development that would be hosted by the show's anchors through
Twitter, encouraging viewer discussion on the website. In a 2008 interview with correspondent
Bob Woodruff featured on the program, former
United States Senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate
John Edwards admitted to
having had an adulterous affair unbeknownst his wife,
Elizabeth, with a campaign staffer (later identified as
Rielle Hunter) who worked on his
campaign for the then-forthcoming 2008 presidential election, which he would drop out of. In the 2009–2010 television season, the series narrowly beat
Late Show with David Letterman as the highest-rated late-night program in the United States in terms of total viewers, assisted by the
Tonight Show conflict and notable interviews with
Bill Clinton,
Terry Jones, and
Sarah Palin.
2010s In August 2010,
Martin Bashir left
Nightline to serve as a correspondent with
NBC News and host a
daytime news/interview program on
MSNBC; he was subsequently replaced by
Bill Weir. On January 20, 2011, ABC News president
Ben Sherwood announced that
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (for which
Nightline had been serving as its lead-in since that program premiered in January 2003) would have its start time moved five minutes earlier to 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time, reducing
Nightlines running time from 31 to 25 minutes. It was also announced that ABC would produce up to 13 hours of prime-time news content under the
Nightline brand. For the 2011–2012 television season,
Nightline again placed as the most-watched late-night television program among the major networks. In 2011, Goldston departed as executive producer to move to ''Good Morning America. As part of this move, ABC also announced that it would launch a
prime time news magazine extension of
Nightline, which was originally scheduled to premiere on March 1, 2013; the premiere of this program – later retitled
The Lookout, which focuses mainly on consumer reports and is produced by the
Nightline staff – was subsequently pushed back to May 29, 2013, airing in a Wednesday 10:00 p.m. Eastern timeslot. Another prime time version of
Nightline,
Nightline Prime, premiered on March 15, 2014, in a Saturday 9:00 p.m. Eastern timeslot; this series featured reporters using small cameras to cover stories from within. In October 2013,
Good Morning America weekend co-anchor
Dan Harris was named as a co-anchor of
Nightline, replacing
Bill Weir (who had recently left ABC News to become a correspondent for
CNN). In August 2014, Cynthia McFadden left
Nightline and ABC News to become a correspondent for
NBC News, and was replaced as co-anchor by existing ABC News correspondent (and frequent contributor to the program)
Juju Chang. On December 18, 2014, it was announced that
Dan Abrams would step down as an anchor of the program after that night's broadcast (although he would remain with ABC News as a correspondent and legal analyst), and would be replaced by
Byron Pitts effective the following day (December 19).
2020s From March 16, 2020,
Nightline presented extended coverage of the initial impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States; co-anchor Pitts explained that the show was "leaning more heavily into [its] roots", and was consistent with the show itself having been "born in response to a crisis, giving facts, context and, when possible, comfort as our nation dealt with the Iran hostages". It was also announced that the program would temporarily return to its former 11:35 p.m. time slot from March 17 to April 10, replacing
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (which went on hiatus with reruns until March 30, when the program returned with original episodes produced from
Kimmel's home).
Nightline was the highest-rated late-night program that week in total and key demographic viewership. On March 24, 2020,
Nightline marked its 40th anniversary; Ted Koppel made a guest appearance, where he discussed his wife's vulnerability to
COVID-19 due to
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and opined that "it's time more than ever in this country to come to the realization that what we need more than anything else, is reliable, credible journalists." In 2022, ABC News launched a sister newsmagazine,
IMPACT x Nightline, that streams on
Hulu. On March 24, 2025, as part of the program's 45th anniversary,
Nightline reintroduced the all-caps italicized version of the 1997 logo (which itself was introduced in 2003), albeit in gold and cyan color. According to ABC News, they reintroduced the old logo to honor its iconic legacy, blending elements from its original look with an updated, modern design. As part of celebration,
Byron Pitts and
Juju Chang anchored the special episode together and feature archival footage and recount “Nightline's” place in journalism. At the same time, the show's production was moved from Times Square Studios to Studio 4E in
The Walt Disney Company's new 7 Hudson Square headquarters in New York. ==On-air staff==