The-World-Tonight-Primetime-Edition



The World Tonight is an English language late-night newscast of the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC). It was formerly the late-night English newscast of ABS-CBN from November 21, 1966 to September 23, 1972 and from July 16, 1986 to August 13, 1999. It is aired at 12:00-1:00am daily and anchored by Tina Monzon-Palma on weekdays, and by Gigi Grande on Saturdays and Ron Cruz on Sundays. The World Tonight holds the record as the longest-running English newscast on Philippine television after RPN's NewsWatch's demise in October 2012.

Airing history
The World Tonight premiered on November 21, 1966 at 8:30pm on CBN's (predecessor of ABS-CBN) DZXL-TV Channel 9 as the network's answer to ABC's The Big News, The News with Uncle Bob on RBS, and NewsWatch on RPN. Co-anchoring the newscast were Hal Bowie, a veteran announcer from ABS-CBN radio, Eric Eloriaga, 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 70s 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 and Eloriaga as main anchormen of the program.The program was transferred to sister station DZAQ-TV ABS Channel 3 on the 10:00pm time slot a year later when ABS-CBN formally merged. This happened when Channel 9 premiered Newsbreak with Bong Lapira, who transferred from rival newscast The Big News on ABC. 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 23, 1972.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.The World Tonight returned on July 16, 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. Ng left the newscast after a while, and was replaced by Korina Sanchez. However, Sanchez eventually left the newscast to concentrate on hosting the morning show Magandang Umaga (later Magandang Umaga Po), leaving Castro and Legarda as main anchors, with Ces Oreña-Drilon (business), Cathy Yap-Yang (business) and Dyan Castillejo (sports) joining in the '90s as segment anchors. Sanchez returned as an anchor but only on Saturday Edition along with Castro, Drillon, Castillejo additional segments with Angelique Lazo (entertainment) and Bon Vibar (alternating anchor with Castro). The weekend edition was replaced by ABS-CBN Weekend News in 1995 which was also an English newscast until 1999 when it was switched to Filipino language after The World Tonight ended due to low ratings.During the ABS-CBN era, it was also simulcast on the network's 24-hour news channel ABS-CBN News Channel, then known as the Sarimanok News Network from its launch on May 1, 1996. Legarda left the newscast on March 6, 1998 to run for senator. She was replaced by Tina Monzon-Palma on March 9, 1998, who used to anchor rival newscasts GMA Headline News (on GMA Network) and The Big News (on the reopened ABC).In late 1998, the ratings of English late-night newscasts including The World Tonight of ABS-CBN began to get low when rival GMA introduced Filipino language late-night news with GMA Network News since it debuted as a English newscast in 1992 and was fasten to higher when it was switched to Filipino. Thus, the ABS-CBN management needed to move the said newscast to early evening slot and TV Patrol would move to late-night or move their English news reporting to its 24-hour cable news channel ABS-CBN News Channel and to its sister station Studio 23 airing News Central during that time. The World Tonight made its final broadcast on the ABS-CBN television network on August 13, 1999 when it was replaced by the network's first Filipino-language late-night newscast, Pulso: Aksyon Balita to compete with GMA's Frontpage: Ulat ni Mel Tiangco which was the replacement of GMA Network News and was premiered two weeks ago on August 2, 1999. This was the start of both ABS-CBN and GMA as all-Tagalog networks with rival ABC joined in 2004 with Big News switching from English to Filipino and starting the dawn of the 21st century by airing late-night news in Filipino language on television today.Two months later, The World Tonight premiered solely on the network's 24-hour news channel ANC on October 11, 1999. Angelo Castro, Jr. and Tina Monzon-Palma still remains as anchors at that time. The program continues to be one of the news channel's flagship newscasts.On March 12, 2001, prior to the big changes in most programs of ABS-CBN, The World Tonight relaunched to its graphics and theme music.Castro retired as a news anchor on September 1, 2009, as Palma went solo. However, he later returned on November 7, 2011, on a sporadic basis. He died on April 5, 2012 of lung cancer at the age of 67. Despite Angelo Castro, Jr.'s death, Tina Monzon-Palma continued as solo anchor until now.In January 12, 2015, 3 days before the Philippine visit of Pope Francis, The World Tonight reformatted as part of the "internationalization" of the ABS-CBN News Channel and move to an earlier timeslot at 9:00pm and expands into a 1-hour newscast to compete with State of the Nation with Jessica Soho of GMA News TV & CNN Philippines Nightly News of CNN Philippines, among other newscasts on the timeslot. New segments & reports with original content were also aired during the launching day. 

Weekday Edition

 * Tina Monzon-Palma (1998–present); managing editor of TWT / special reports presenter)


 * Teddy Locsin, Jr. (2011–present) (segment host for "Teditorial")

Former anchors

 * Angelo Castro, Jr. – from 1986 to 2009, and 2011.


 * Loren Legarda (1986–1998)


 * Dyan Castillejo (Sports anchor, 1992–1999)


 * Ces Drilon (business anchor from 1992 to 1999)


 * Cathy Yap-Yang (alternate business anchor with Drilon from 1993-1999)


 * Korina Sanchez – alternating anchor for Legarda from 1988 to 1991


 * Pia Hontiveros – anchor from 1992 to 1995


 * Erwin Tulfo – anchor from 1994 to 1995