NBC Nightside (also known as NBC News Nightside) is an American overnight rolling newscast on NBC, that aired from 1991 to 1998. The program was produced in three half-hour segments. It usually aired live seven nights a week, and was fed to NBC stations beginning at 2:00 a.m. ET Sunday through Friday (immediately following Later) and 2:30 a.m. ET on Saturdays (after Friday Night Videos), and looped until the next morning, with NBC News at Sunrise following it out on weekdays.
| NBC Nightside | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Campbell Brown Tom Donovan Bruce Hall Sara James Kim Hindrew Antonio Mora Tom Miller Tonya Strong |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | NBC News Channel, Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 1 hour 90 minutes (live, followed by rebroadcast) |
| Production company | NBC News Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | November 4, 1991 – September 20, 1998 |
| Related | |
| NBC News Overnight (1982–1983) | |
History
editThe program premiered on November 4, 1991, and was NBC's second attempt at a late night news program after NBC News Overnight, which ran for seventeen months from 1982 to 1983.[1]
Nightside differed from its two competitors – CBS' Up to the Minute and ABC's World News Now, which are both based in New York City – in that rather than being broadcast from the headquarters of NBC News itself in New York, it was instead based out of the Charlotte, North Carolina facilities of NBC News Channel,[1] the network's newsfeed service providing customized reports and video of national news to NBC's owned-and-operated stations and network affiliates, and which was based in studios connected to those of Charlotte's NBC affiliate WCNC-TV. Nightside also aired Saturday and Sunday mornings, whereas ABC and CBS's shows did not.
Some of Nightside's many anchors went on to national success, including Antonio Mora and Campbell Brown. Former NBC News president Steve Capus once served as a senior producer for the program.
Despite financial profitability of the show and decent ratings, it was canceled by the network in 1998 and aired its last telecast on September 20 of that year, with NBC filling the overnight timeslot beginning two days later with NBC All Night, a block consisting of repeats of the network's late night and daytime talk shows.
Currently, the timeslot is the home to syndicated and paid programming on NBC's affiliates outside network contributions; NBC currently provides its affiliates a replay of that evening's Top Story with Tom Llamas (itself a contribution from streaming network NBC News Now, an Internet spin-off of NBC News a la the NBC News Channel, which itself remains in operation), along with a late night replay of The Kelly Clarkson Show to NBC affiliates carrying that syndicated talk show, with weekends featuring LX programming after Saturday Night Live and a Meet the Press replay late Sunday night/Monday morning. Conversely, Early Today, which formerly started two hours before Today during the run of Nightside, is now fed to NBC stations starting at 3:30 a.m. Eastern, as local morning newscasts have encroached into the early morning hours (starting as early as 4 a.m. local time).
Anchors
editThe program's anchors included:
- Campbell Brown
- Tom Donovan[2]
- Bruce Hall
- Sara James[3]
- Kim Hindrew[2]
- Hilary Lane
- Antonio Mora[4]
- Tom Miller[2]
- Tonya Strong
References
edit- ^ a b McDougal, Dennis (November 4, 1991). "NBC, ABC: It's Never Too Late for News". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
- ^ a b c "We Have Good News and Bad News". Entertainment Weekly. June 18, 1993. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
- ^ Du Brow, Rick (November 17, 1992). "Today a Rare Bright Spot at NBC". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
- ^ Benson, Jim (May 26, 1993). "KTTV, KTLA to join the battle for early risers". Variety. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
