''Live at Five'' was a local afternoon television news program that aired on

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

(channel 4), the

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. The hour-long program was broadcast from Studio 6B at

30 Rockefeller Plaza 30 Rockefeller Plaza (officially the Comcast Building; formerly RCA Building and GE Building) is a skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1933, the 66 ...

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. Featuring a mix of news, features and interviews, the ''Live at Five'' concept was first introduced in 1979 by WNBC

news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ph ...

Ron Kershaw Ron Kershaw (August 19, 1943 – July 3, 1988) was an American television news reporter. Kershaw was the news director in several U.S. markets, including New York City, Chicago and Baltimore. Early life Kershaw grew up in Hendersonville, North Caro ...

and Bob Davis; its final broadcast aired on September 7, 2007.

History

''Live at Five'' was born of necessity; the 5 p.m. broadcast was part of a two-hour early evening news block called ''NewsCenter 4'' which combined features and hard news, and attempted to compete with old

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and syndicated programming that aired on its competitors in the time period. The first anchors of ''Live at Five'' were

Pia Lindström Friedel Pia Lindström (born 20 September 1938) is a Swedish television journalist, and the first child of actress Ingrid Bergman. Life and career Lindström is the only child born to Ingrid Bergman and her first husband, Swedish neurosurgeon ...

and

Melba Tolliver Melba Tolliver (born 1939) is an American journalist and former New York City news anchor and reporter. She is best remembered for her defiant stance against ABC owned WABC-TV when she refused to don a wig or scarf to cover up her Afro in order ...

; Jack Cafferty joined the anchor chair a few months later. When ratings for the news block crumbled in 1980, WNBC decided to pour its resources into its 6 p.m. newscast, which would feature its best reporters, while the 5 p.m. newscast would be more of an interview and lifestyle program with news headlines featured at the top of the show. In October 1980,

Sue Simmons Sue Simmons (born May 27, 1942) is an American retired news anchor who was best known for being the lead female anchor at WNBC in New York City from 1980 to 2012. Her contract with WNBC expired in June 2012 and WNBC announced that it would not ren ...

joined the WNBC and ''Live at Five'' team from

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sister station

WRC-TV WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television se ...

. Simmons had several co-anchors, or as she colloquially called them "anchor husbands", including Cafferty,

Tony Guida Tony Guida (born November 5, 1941) is a New York-based local television and radio personality. He is currently a news anchor for WCBS Newsradio 880 and a business correspondent for CBS News. Life and career Guida began his career working as a re ...

Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...

, Dean Shepherd and

Jim Rosenfield Jim Rosenfield is an American local television news anchor currently working for WCAU-TV, the NBC-owned television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Rosenfield started his television news career in 1981, after graduating from Duk ...

. From 1980 to 1991, announcer

Don Pardo Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...

performed the talent introductions and other voice overs, usually live in-studio. In the 1980s, the show reached popularity with guests ranging from

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Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " ...

. The show's impressive guest lineup was fodder for a running joke on NBC's ''

Late Night with David Letterman ''Late Night with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the ''Late Night'' franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company ...

'', which taped simultaneously across the hall from WNBC's news studio in Studio 6A, where

Letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

complained that ''Live at Five'' got better guests than he did. It was not unusual for Letterman to venture out of his studio with a portable camera, and interview ''Live at Five'' staffers manning the doors, or guests coming and going, or even crashing, live and unannounced, the ''Live at Five'' set. The program continued to maintain an impressive guest lineup well into the 2000s, with everyone from

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stars to NFL football players to politicians coming to Studio 6B to be interviewed. ''Live at Five'' was originally cancelled in September 1991 and replaced by a traditional newscast known as ''News 4 New York at 5'', anchored by Simmons and Chuck Scarborough. This format did not stay long, however – Simmons was paired with Matt Lauer for a new iteration of ''Live at Five'', originating from the Window on the World studios used for NBC's ''

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''. Shortly afterwards, ''Live at Five'' was moved back to 30 Rockefeller Center and adopted a more traditional news-based format in September 1993. In 2005,

Jim Rosenfeld Jim Rosenfield is an American local television news anchor currently working for WCAU-TV, the NBC-owned television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Rosenfield started his television news career in 1981, after graduating from Duke ...

left WNBC to return to

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WL ...

(channel 2). His replacement was

Perri Peltz Perri Peltz is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist and public health advocate. Most recently, Perri created the documentary news series ''Axios'' on HBO with Matthew O’Neill. Perri & Matthew also co-directed and produced the 2019 ...

, who worked for WNBC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The 5 p.m. edition of

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(channel 7)'s '' Channel 7 Eyewitness News'' also had two female anchors; first with veterans

Roz Abrams Roslyn Maria Abrams (born September 7, 1948) is a former American television news journalist. She had a long career as an anchor on ''Eyewitness News'', which is broadcast by WABC-TV, working in Manhattan. More recently she worked for WCBS-TV, al ...

and

Diana Williams Diana Williams (born July 18, 1958) is a retired American television journalist. She was a news anchor at WABC television in New York City, where she co-anchored the one-hour 5 p.m. ''Eyewitness News'' broadcast. She also hosted the Sunday mo ...

, then with

Sade Baderinwa Folasade Olayinka Baderinwa (born April 14, 1969), known professionally as Sade Baderinwa ( ), is an American broadcast journalist. Since 2003, she has been a news anchor at WABC-TV, the ABC flagship station in New York, and currently co-anch ...

when Abrams left for WCBS-TV in 2004; and in April 2006, WCBS switched to the two-female-anchor format at 5 p.m. with

and

Mary Calvi Mary Calvi (born June 11, 1969) is an American television journalist and author of ''If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt's First Love, ''publishing Valentine's Day 2023, which is based on love letters from Gilded Age to ...

, who anchored together until November 6, 2006. At one point in time, three major market stations had leading female anchors at 5:00 p.m. Several stations throughout the

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(among them many NBC affiliates) attempted to copy the ''Live at Five'' format or just rebranded their newscast "Live at Five" or some variant thereof. WNBC's ''Live at Five'' broadcast was discontinued on September 10, 2007, in favor of a new 7 p.m. newscast anchored by

Chuck Scarborough Charles Bishop Scarborough III (born November 4, 1943) is an American television journalist and author. Since 1974, he has been the lead news anchor at WNBC, the New York City flagship station of the NBC Television Network, and has also appeared ...

. The syndicated entertainment newsmagazine ''

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'' replaced ''Live at Five'' at its former timeslo

For a while, WNBC moved its 5:30 newscast back to 5 p.m. (bumping ''Extra'' to the 5:30 slot), but did not return the ''Live at Five'' name to the newscast. Once again, Sue Simmons anchored the program, with

David Ushery David Ushery (born June 5, 1967) is an African-American television news anchor at WNBC News 4 New York, NBC’s flagship owned and operated station. An integral member of the NBC 4 New York News team, Ushery has covered many of the largest and m ...

as co-anchor; the current 5 p.m. newscast continues to use the general ''News 4 New York'' brand rather than the ''Live at Five'' brand.

References

External links

WNBC: Perri Peltz Returns To WNBC As Co-Anchor, Live At Five
{{DEFAULTSORT:Live At Five (Wnbc Tv Series) Local news programming in the United States Local talk shows in the United States 1979 American television series debuts 1970s American television talk shows 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows 2007 American television series endings Television news program articles using incorrect naming style