The World Tonight is a Philippine television English-language late-night newscast broadcast by Kapamilya Channel and ANC. It was formerly the English language late-night newscast of ABS-CBN from November 21, 1966, to September 22, 1972, and was originally anchored by Angelo Castro Jr., Loren Legarda and Tina Monzon-Palma from September 15, 1986, to August 13, 1999. The newscast is now anchored by Tony Velasquez and Pia Gutierrez on weeknights and Stanley Palisada on Saturdays. It airs from Monday to Saturday at 9:00 pm on ANC and every weeknight at 10:45 pm on the Kapamilya Channel. It also airs worldwide via TFC.
The World Tonight holds the record as the longest-running English newscast on Philippine television after the October 2012 ending of RPN's NewsWatch due to the retrenchment of 200 employees amid the network's privatization, although this is disputed since this did not air from 1972 to 1986 due to ABS-CBN's closure because of the country's declaration of martial law.
Airing history
The early years (1966–1972) The World Tonight premiered on November 21, 1966, at 8:30pm on ABS-CBN's DZXL-TV Channel 9 as the network's answer to ABC's Big News, The News with Uncle Bob on RBS, and later, NewsWatch on KBS. The World Tonight became one of the first Philippine television newscasts to broadcast in color. Co-anchoring the newscast were Hal Bowie, a veteran announcer from ABS-CBN radio, and Henry Halasan, a former ABS-CBN Cebu talent who was transferred to the network's main offices in Manila as a sales executive. Bowie, who was in his late 50s when the newscast first aired, later bowed out of the newscast due to health reasons and concentrated instead on producing news reports for the network. This left Halasan as main anchorman of the program.
The program was transferred to its sister station, DZAQ-TV Channel 3 on the 10:00pm time slot a year later. This happened when Channel 9 premiered the evening news program called Newsbreak in March 1967 at 9:00pm with Bong Lapira, who transferred from rival newscast Big News on ABC 5. The newscast continued after Channel 3 moved to the present Channel 2 and Channel 9 moved to Channel 4 for Metro Manila in 1969 until ABS-CBN's closure by the Marcos government during the declaration of martial law on September 22, 1972, with his sign Proclamation No. 1081.
The roster of field reporters for the newscast in its pre-Martial Law days included Orly Mercado, Jun Bautista, Antonio Seva, Tony Lozano, Boo Chanco, Philip Pigao, Lito Tacujan and Danny Hernandez.
Revival; Legarda-Castro era
The World Tonight returned on September 15, 1986, coinciding with the reopening of ABS-CBN after the People Power Revolution. It was anchored by Larry Ng (an ABS-CBN executive during the pre-Martial Law era), Angelo Castro Jr. (then the network's news director) and Loren Legarda who came from anchoring rival newscast NewsWatch on RPN with Harry Gasser. Ng left the newscast after a while, and was replaced by Korina Sanchez. However, she eventually left the newscast to concentrate on hosting the morning show Magandang Umaga (later Magandang Umaga Po), leaving Castro, Legarda, and Amy Godinez (who left in 1991) as main anchors. On May 4, 1992, Ces Drilon (or Cathy Yap-Yang for Business), and Dyan Castillejo (for Sports) joined the program as segment anchors. Sanchez returned as an anchor but only on Saturdays along with Castro (or Bon Vibar as his substitute), Drilon, Castillejo with additional segments by Angelique Lazo (entertainment). It was replaced by The Weekend News in 1996.
Transition into cable; start of Castro-Palma era
The World Tonight began to simulcast on the network's cable news channel Sarimanok News Network launched on May 1, 1996, even it was still airing on ABS-CBN.
On February 2, 1998, Tina Monzon-Palma replaced Loren Legarda and joined Angelo Castro Jr. to the newscast when Legarda ran and later won as the top senator in the elections. Palma used to anchor rival newscasts GMA Headline News (on GMA Network) from 1986 until 1992 and The Big News (on the reopened ABC, now TV5) from 1992 to 1997. Loren Legarda made her final broadcast on the newscast on January 30, 1998.
However, in early 1999, the ratings of English late-night newscasts including The World Tonight started to decline when rival GMA introduced Filipino language late-night news with the relaunch of GMA Network News, anchored by Mike Enriquez and Vicky Morales; it debuted as an English newscast in 1992 and switched to Filipino with the relaunch, surging ahead of the ratings game in the process.