The early years (1966–1972) The World Tonight premiered on November 21, 1966, at 8:30 PM on
ABS-CBN's
DZXL-TV Channel 9 as the network's answer to
ABC's
The Big News.
The World Tonight became one of the first Philippine television newscasts to broadcast in color. Co-anchoring the newscast were Hal Bowie, a veteran radio announcer and TV news anchor, and
Henry Halasan, a former ABS-CBN Cebu station manager who was transferred to the network's main offices in Manila as a sales executive. This happened when Channel 9 premiered the half-hour daily evening news program called
Newsbreak in March 1, 1967 at 9:00 PM with
Bong Lapira, who transferred from rival newscast
The Big News on ABC-5. 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. 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 airs from Monday to 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.
The World Tonight Weekend aired its final episode on November 30, 2024, along with other channel-produced Saturday newscasts. This follows ABS-CBN’s announcement that it will lay off another batch of employees, including some reporters and cameramen, due to financial difficulties caused by declining ad revenues.
Kapamilya Channel (2020–present) On July 27, 2020,
The World Tonight started its broadcast on ABS-CBN's replacement channel, the 24-hour
Kapamilya Channel (albeit as a delayed telecast), taking the timeslot previously occupied by
Tonight with Boy Abunda and the replays of
TV Patrol. This marks the newscast's indirect return on its original network as part of the Primetime Bida programming block after 21 years. It's also one of the few English-language programs on this channel. In December 2020, main anchor Tina Monzon-Palma left the newscast, citing a new public affairs program starting in June 2021. Co-anchor Tony Velasquez replaced her as a main anchor. On January 4, 2021,
ANC head Nadia Trinidad announced on Twitter that it would relaunch
The World Tonight with Tony Velasquez and
Karen Davila, who replaced Palma after 22 years, 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 would have her own public affairs program launching "soon", which later debuted as
Tina Monzon-Palma Reports in May 2021. On October 8, 2021, ABS-CBN News announced that Davila would return to
TV Patrol on October 11, replacing
Noli de Castro. She was replaced by senior news reporter Pia Gutierrez. From March 25 to April 7, 2022,
The World Tonight temporarily suspended its delayed airing on Kapamilya Channel due to the special program of ABS-CBN News Harapan 2022, while it continued to broadcast on ANC. On March 14, 2025,
The World Tonight temporarily pre-empted its delayed airing on both ANC and Kapamilya Channel due to the delayed coverage of the pre-trial of former President
Rodrigo Duterte at the
International Criminal Court. On August 29, 2025, Gutierrez left the newscast, leaving Velasquez as the sole anchor. On January 2, 2026,
The World Tonight started its simulcast on
All TV as part of
Kapamilya Channel sa All TV brand under license agreement with
Advanced Media Broadcasting System, marked its return to free-to-air television after almost 27 years since its final broadcast on
ABS-CBN on August 13, 1999. ==Anchors==