''Eyewitness News'' is a style of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast.

History

Pioneered by Westinghouse

The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness News'' name in American television was on April 6, 1959, when KYW-TV (now WKYC-TV) – at the time, based in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

and owned by

Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndica ...

– launched the nation's first 90-minute local newscast (under the title ''Eyewitness''), which was combined with the then 15-minute national newscast. The name was then adopted for use by Westinghouse's other television stations – KPIX in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

;

WJZ-TV WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios and offices on Tele ...

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;

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (ch ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

; and

KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Jeannette-licensed CW affil ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

– for their local newscasts. After the

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is Owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations divisio ...

call letters, management, and some staffers moved from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1965 the station's then-news director, Al Primo, created the ''Eyewitness News'' format. In this format, which was meant to be faster in pace than the standard newscast format (in which an anchor simply read headlines), a reporter in the field would be the "eyewitness" to a news event to the anchor in the studio and the viewer at home. The anchors became personalities instead of presenters with the introduction of banter, or "happy talk" as it was named by Al Primo. Anchors would give their own personal comments in between stories to let viewers know their personalities. Primo used the cue ''

007 The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

'' from the 1963 film '' From Russia with Love'' as the musical theme. The format quickly became a hit in Philadelphia and allowed KYW-TV to surge past longtime leader WCAU-TV for first place, a position it kept on and off until the late 1970s. KYW-TV's success inspired rival station WFIL-TV (now

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network. owned-and-operated station, Owned and opera ...

) to develop the ''

Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...

'' format to compete with it (after NBC was ordered to re-assume control of its Cleveland broadcasting properties in 1965, the ''Eyewitness News'' name left that city until WEWS adopted it for its newscasts in the 1970s). KYW-TV used the name and format until 1991, and re-adopted it in 1998. All five major stations owned by Westinghouse prior to its 1995 acquisition of CBS have used ''Eyewitness News'' as their newscast title at some point in time; as of October 23, 2017, only KYW-TV continues to do so.

Expansion to ABC

In 1968, Primo moved to WABC-TV in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and took the ''Eyewitness News'' concept there with him, choosing music from the 1967

Paul Newman Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...

film ''

Cool Hand Luke ''Cool Hand Luke'' is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison ca ...

'' – the "Tar Sequence" cue (composed by

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical eleme ...

) – as the theme. However, he added a new twist at WABC-TV – light, informal-sounding conversation among the anchors between the news stories and segments, which came to be known as " happy talk". Among the newscasters in the first wave of happy talk on WABC-TV was young reporter

Geraldo Rivera Geraldo Rivera (born Gerald Riviera; July 4, 1943) is an American journalist, attorney, author, political commentator, and former television host. He hosted the tabloid talk show '' Geraldo'' from 1987 to 1998. He gained publicity with the liv ...

, a comical and entertaining weatherman in

Tex Antoine Herbert Jon Antoine Jr. (April 21, 1923 – January 12, 1983), known professionally as Tex Antoine, was an American weatherman on New York City television for nearly three decades. Early life and career He was born Herbert Jon Antoine Jr., in ...

, and Bill Beutel and Roger Grimsby as anchormen of contrasting yet complementing styles. Primo also criticized the then-standard practice of "three white men" "preaching the news" at viewers and included women and persons of color to reflect the diversity of the viewing audience. WABC-TV has kept the name and format since then, and has been the highest-rated station in New York City for much of that time. The format, as modified by WABC-TV, was copied by many other stations in the United States, with four other stations owned and operated by ABC – KABC-TV in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North Stat ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 ...

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and KGO-TV in San Francisco – using both the format and the ''Cool Hand Luke'' theme (in the case of KGO, since KPIX was already using the ''Eyewitness News'' name, KGO titled its newscasts as ''Channel 7 NewsScene'' in 1969 and by 1983 simply ''Channel 7 News'', while WXYZ used the ''Action News'' name since rival

WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facil ...

was using the ''Eyewitness News'' name for its newscasts; KABC and WLS were free to use the ''Eyewitness News'' name as did WABC-TV). Ironically, WPVI, which developed the ''Action News'' format, is also now an ABC owned-and-operated station. In addition, U.S. Spanish-language stations also use their own version of ''Eyewitness News'', called ''Noticias de Primera Plana'' (''Headline News'', a concept translation in Spanish of ''Eyewitness News'') on certain owned-and-operated stations of Spanish networks. A separate, but mostly unrelated, ''Eyewitness News'' format was developed by

Irv Weinstein Irwin B. "Irv" Weinstein (April 29, 1930 – December 26, 2017) was an American local television news anchor and occasional radio actor. He hosted WKBW-TV's ''Eyewitness News'' in Buffalo, New York, for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998, becoming an i ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

for WKBW-TV. This format was mostly based not on the original ''Eyewitness News'' (though it used the same logo; in actuality, a slightly modified version of it) but rather on the ''Action News'' format of its sister stations in the

Capital Cities Communications Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...

stable. While based on ''Action News''s brief and numerous reports, Weinstein built his ''Eyewitness News'' newscast around attention-grabbing

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recogni ...

s and

alliterative Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

headlines, along with occasional wisecracking or sarcastic one-liners about the day's news stories. This version of ''Eyewitness News'' was used on WKBW as well as other Capital Cities stations where the ''Action News'' name was in use by another station, such as WTVD in Durham, North Carolina. It was also used on a few stations not owned by Capital Cities, including WOKR (now WHAM-TV) in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

. Despite its familiarity as a format on ABC owned-and-operated stations, it is actually CBS that owns the rights to the ''Eyewitness News'' name, as it originated from KYW-TV. WKBW dropped the Eyewitness News brand in 2022, as its owner, The E. W. Scripps Company, was convinced the brand was outdated.

Outside the United States

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and other

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

n countries during the 1970s and 1980s, some local newscasts also used the ''Eyewitness News'' format, under the names ''Noticias de Primera Plana'' (''Headline News'') and ''Noticias de Acción'' (''

''). The title was used in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, on

CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

affiliate CFRN-TV in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

. In

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Metro TV Metro TV may refer to: * Metro TV (Ghana), a television station in Ghana * Metro TV (Indonesian TV network) Metro TV is an Indonesian free-to-air television news network based in West Jakarta. It was established on 25 November 2000 and now has ...

branded its newscasts as ''iWitness'', and abbreviated as ''Eyewitness''. It has since become one of the featured segments on the

daytime Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's he ...

news program ''Wide Shot''. In Australia, BTQ-7 in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

adopted the ''Eyewitness News'' branding in the early 1970s. The branding was also employed by NWS-9 in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

for its evening newscast. TEN-10 in Sydney and ATV-0 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, the principal stations of

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

, adopted the ''Eyewitness News'' branding in the mid-1970s and it was later adopted by other stations in the Network Ten group (SAS-10 (later SAS-7) in 1976 and TVQ-0 (later TVQ-10) in 1978) as BTQ-7 and NWS-9 later relinquished the brand. Regional affiliates for Network Ten including CTC-7 in Canberra (''Ten Capital Eyewitness News'', formerly ''Capital 7 Eyewitness News'', ''Capital Television Eyewitness News'' and ''Ten National News''), Southern Cross Network in Victoria (''Southern Cross/TV8 Eyewitness News'' formerly ''TV8 Newshour''), and QTV in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 30 ...

(''QTV Eyewitness News'' and later ''Ten North Queensland Eyewitness News''), also used the ''Eyewitness News'' name. The Australian version of ''Eyewitness News'' more closely resembled Weinstein's version than the original format, but it became one of the ratings winners in the 1980s due to its one-hour duration unlike other newscasts. Network Ten dropped the use of the ''Eyewitness News'' name in September 1988 (but retained it in Brisbane until October 31, 1988 on TVQ-10) but later reinstated it in July 1989 for six months, and then again in January 1991 until late 1994, this time using its present logo. Network Ten reinstated the "Eyewitness News" branding once again on September 16, 2013 and was later retired on October 31, 2018 as part of a network relaunch and has since been replaced with ''10 News First''. In

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, ''Eyewitness News'' is used by ''Eyewitness News'', located in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

and in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

. It is also used by Talk Radio 702 and 94.7 Highveld Stereo in

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

567 CapeTalk CapeTalk is a commercial AM radio station based in Cape Town, South Africa, broadcasting on AM/MW 567 to Cape Town. The station is also webcast via its website. It claims to be Cape Town's number one news and talk station, offering news, spo ...

and

94.5 Kfm Kfm 94.5 is an adult contemporary radio station based in Cape Town, South AfricaBroadcast Research Council of South Africa * /www.sentech.co.za Sentech Website94.5 Kfm Live Stream+ songs played Radio stations in Cape Town Radio stations ...

United States stations that use or have used the ''Eyewitness News'' format or name

* ¹Indicates station was originally owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting and now is owned-and-operated by CBS * ²Indicates station is owned-and-operated by ABC

References

External links

{{portal, Television
TV Newscast Titles
– listings of other stations that have used the Eyewitness News name

– unofficial site documenting the development of Eyewitness News at KYW-TV Franchised television formats Local news programming in the United States 1950s neologisms