As a now-diagnosed night owl, there have been many hours in my life spent flipping channels at ungodly hours of the night. Sixteen years ago, the kind folks at ABC came to my rescue for a while. They decided that there were enough idiots like me awake overnight to actually fill the time between the "end of the broadcast day" and World News This Morning.
The result?
World News Now, possibly the best newscast ever.
In contrast to the poised crispness of Peter Jennings at the main anchor desk, Aaron Brown and Lisa McRee were at first relegated to casually anchoring from some ratty desks in the ABC Newsroom in New York City.
It set the show free. The show made clear that anyone crazy to be up all night should give them the liberty to take a looser attitude towards the news of the day.
When events required them to be serious, they were respectful. Otherwise they toyed freely with newscast conventions. They mocked sportscast cliches, had a semi-arbitrary weather index each night, and closed the show on occasion with a World News Polka, accordion and all.
It has been years since I kept my eyes glued open to catch World News Now, especially on my newly enforced sleep schedule. But, clearly, I am not the only one with fond memories. Thanks to TVNewser for the heads up on this "15 plus 1" retrospective that ABC aired this week:
To any old nowbies that stumble across this, it was neat staying up with all of you, way back then.
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