The station previously aired a program called
Noonday for many years, beginning with the news at noon and at 12:30 continuing on for the rest of the hour with features, akin somewhat to the
Today Show. This program was canceled in 1997, but the half-hour noon newscast was preceded by the hour-long
Atlanta & Company, a program which has some similar features, but is partly
paid for by the companies featured on it, until 2015, when the noon newscast was canceled. The program then expanded to 90 minutes, currently running from 11 to 12:30 p.m.
Sports programming Owing to
NBC's longstanding contract with the
International Olympic Committee, WXIA was the local broadcaster for the
1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta. It also carried the
Atlanta Braves'
World Series victory
the previous year (coverage alternated between NBC and
ABC as part of
The Baseball Network, so WSB had Games 1, 4 and 5, while WXIA received Games 2, 3 and the clinching sixth game; all Braves games on
NBC's
MLB broadcast contract from
1981 to
1989 (and before that, from
1976 to
1980 with ABC's broadcast contract) and postseason games in select years from
1996 to
2000 were also broadcast on WXIA which include their
1999 World Series appearance). WXIA also aired a Braves game in
2023 as part of a simulcast between NBC and
Peacock's
MLB Sunday Leadoff package. From its switch to NBC in
1980 up to
1997, all
Atlanta Falcons involving them playing an
AFC team at home were aired on WXIA. Today, the station airs any Falcons contests under NBC's
Sunday Night Football banner (afternoon games air either on
WAGA or
WUPA). The station also provided local coverage of
Super Bowl XXVIII, which was hosted at the
Georgia Dome. WXIA also aired all
Atlanta Hawks games carried through
NBC's NBA coverage from
1990 to
2002, and from
2025 onward.
News operation WXIA presently broadcasts 41 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 5 minutes each weekday; hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays). It also produces a half-hour prime time newscast at 10 p.m. and morning newscasts for sister station WATL; the 10 p.m. show competes with the longer-running hour-long newscast on Fox-owned WAGA-TV. The station's
Doppler weather radar site is located west of Atlanta in far southern
Cobb County, south-southwest of
Mableton, on the south side of
Interstate 20 not far west of
Six Flags Over Georgia. The station began calling its newscasts
News Watch in 1963 and began broadcasting news in color for the first time on March 20, 1967. From the early 1970s onward, channel 11's newscasts waged a spirited battle with WAGA for second place behind long-dominant WSB-TV. When WAGA switched to Fox in 1994, WXIA surged to become a solid
runner-up, usually finishing well ahead of perennial third-place finisher
WGCL-TV; however, by May 2009, WXIA's ratings had been surpassed by WGCL at noon and 11 p.m. The morning news program
Today in Atlanta had experienced a 40% ratings drop, leaving them a very distant third behind the local morning shows on WSB and WAGA, and sometimes fourth behind WGCL. WXIA formerly had a partnership with
The Weather Channel to use their weather forecasters and provide local
weather forecasts (incidentally,
NBCUniversal—which owns NBC through parent company
Comcast, Atlanta's primary cable television provider—held a majority ownership stake in The Weather Channel until 2018). WXIA became the first Atlanta station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition on February 2, 2006. As part of the conversion to HD, a new HD-ready news set from Production Design Group, Ltd. was built and the station began using a new graphics package from Giant Octopus. In February 2010, WXIA began a nightly news segment, "Bull Fighters", which consists of eight reporters/anchors; the segment is usually provided by former WAGA sports reporter
Jeff Hullinger. On April 28, 2010, a new 4:30 a.m. newscast called
Wake Up with Chesley debuted, featuring meteorologist Chesley McNeil and travel producer Matt Holmes; in addition to news updates throughout the show, McNeil primarily gives weather updates while Holmes gives travel delays and information. On January 29, 2013, on the noon broadcast, WXIA debuted the new Gannett standardized graphics and music ("This is Home" by
Gari Media Group); their renovated studio debuted on February 12, 2013. On January 29, 2015, WXIA announced that the 5 p.m. newscast would return for the first time since 2003, when
Dr. Phil took over that time slot; that show moved to the 3 p.m. timeslot. However, the new newscast came at the cost of ending its noon and 7 p.m. newscasts, which were replaced by an extension of
Atlanta & Company and
Wheel of Fortune, respectively (the latter reversing its 2007 move from WXIA to WATL). These changes went into effect on March 2, 2015. Between July 31 and August 28, 2017, WXIA underwent a significant relaunch of its news department, mirroring a similar move that was made by Tampa Bay sister station
WTSP in April of that same year. The station renamed its morning and late-night newscasts as
Morning Rush ATL and
The Late Feed, respectively. Shiba Russell, who came over from NBC O&O station
WNBC the previous year, became the solo anchor of
Morning Rush ATL, while Vinnie Politan became the anchor of
The Late Feed. In March 2020, WXIA relaunched its noon newscast; however, it was meant to be temporary due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2021, WXIA re-titled its morning and late-night newscasts once again; the former is now titled
11 Alive Morning News and the latter, which had been renamed from
The Late Feed to
Up Late following Vinnie Politan's departure from the station in November 2018, returned to the previous
11 Alive News at 11 title.
Notable former on-air staff •
Roz Abrams – anchor/reporter (1972–1980) •
Renee Chenault-Fattah – anchor/reporter (1989–1991) •
Jim Huber – weekend sports anchor (1970s–1984) •
Jeff Hullinger – co-anchor and sports director (2010–2023) •
Walt Maciborski – anchor/reporter •
Steve McCoy –
Noonday co-host (1990–1992) •
Steen Miles – reporter •
Demarco Morgan – anchor/reporter (2012–2015) •
Stone Phillips – reporter (1978–1979) •
Vinnie Politan –
The Late Feed anchor (August 28, 2017–November 2, 2018) •
Del Rodgers – sports anchor/reporter (1986–1997) •
Steve Somers – sports anchor/reporter (1976–1978) •
Tom Sullivan –
Atlanta & Company co-host (2007–2009) •
Harmon Wages – sports anchor/reporter (1979–1984) ==Technical information==