''NBC News Overnight'' was a television news program on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

television network that aired weekday mornings from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Central) Mondays through Thursdays and 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. (1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Central) Fridays from July 5, 1982, to December 3, 1983, for 367 telecasts. The program was noteworthy because during this era, a large majority of TV stations signed off between 1 and 3 a.m., with those few stations that operated 24 hours a day at the time either running syndicated shows and/or old movies.

Key personalities

''NBC News Overnight'' was the brainchild of

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

president Reuven Frank, who conceived the show as inexpensive overnight programming after '' Late Night with David Letterman'' (Mondays-Thursdays) or '' SCTV Network'' (Fridays; later ''

Friday Night Videos ''Friday Night Videos'' (later becoming ''Friday Night'' and then ''Late Friday'') is an American music video show that was broadcast on NBC from July 29, 1983 to May 24, 2002. It was the network's attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularit ...

''). The time slot was one that had originally been offered to and partially occupied by

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...

's '' Tomorrow'', before Snyder quit and ended that program in 1981 (and being replaced by Letterman in Snyder's former timeslot in February 1982). Frank had created the news program '' Weekend'' in 1974, and the two programs shared a similar, sometimes ironic outlook on the news. ''Weekend's'' co-hosts Lloyd Dobyns and

Linda Ellerbee Linda Ellerbee (born Linda Jane Smith; August 15, 1944) is an American journalist, anchor, producer, reporter, author, speaker and commentator, noted as longtime Washington correspondent for NBC News and host of NBC News Overnight. She is widel ...

were reunited for the program initially, though Bill Schechner replaced Dobyns in November 1982. Herb Dudnick was the program's first executive producer and was succeeded by Deborah B. Johnson.

Humorous sign offs

During the show's early months, the anchors were known for ending the program in a humorous fashion. For example, during one installment, Dobyns was given a very long, complex word to say and he stumbled over it; at the end of that broadcast, the anchor took a moment to praise his writing staff, only to light-heartedly threaten to "take it all back" if they ever included such a word in his scripts again. Dobyns and then Ellerbee closed each show by saying, "And So It Goes." (which had been Dobyns' closing on ''Weekend''). It became a bit of a

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

and was the title of Ellerbee's first autobiographical book.

Critical response

''NBC News Overnight'' was widely regarded as one of the smartest television news shows. Appealing to an eclectic audience of college students, nursing mothers, and late shift workers, the show broke the conventional "lowest common denominator" style of most news programs and injected humor into an otherwise seemingly boring medium, while providing news analysis of a kind usually unseen on other major-network newscasts. TIME named it one of the best programs of 1982, calling it "TV's wittiest, toughest, least snazzy news strip", and, after the program left the air, one of the best programs of 1983. The duPont Columbia Awards awards jury cited ''NBC News Overnight'' as "possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever." Encyclopedia of Television, 2nd Ed. 2004,

Museum of Broadcast Communications The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum, the stated mission of which is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain through our archi ...

, by Fitzroy Dearborn,

Horace Newcomb Horace Newcomb held the Lambdin Kay Chair for the Peabody Award in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia from 2001 through June 2013. Prior to this, he was a member of the Board of Jurors from 1989 to ...

(ed.), CRC Press, Boca Raton

Influences

''NBC News Overnight'' was the inspiration for many news shows. From ABC's ''

World News Now ''World News Now'' (or WNN) is an American overnight news broadcast seen on ABC. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with weather forecasts, ...

'' to '' Countdown with Keith Olbermann'', many have attempted to imitate ''Overnights signature style of combining hard news features with incisive commentary and light-hearted stories."Reuven Frank, RIP," TV Barn, Feb. 7, 2006.
/ref> The

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

in Australia had a similar program with the same name (minus the "NBC") airing overnights on weeknights between 1985 and 1989. Clips from NBC News programs would often be shown within the broadcast.

Cancellation

Despite a loyal audience, the show's rather weak ratings, high production cost (the show cost $3.5 million to produce) and corresponding lack of ad revenue led to the show's demise after only a year and a half on the air. After news of this got out, some viewers sent in money to help defray the costs of producing the program, all of which was returned to the donors. The 367th and final telecast of ''NBC News Overnight'' aired on December 3, 1983. The show's timeslot was replaced by either local programming (movies or syndicated shows) or dead air (if a station had signed off after ''Late Night With David Letterman'' or the then-new ''Friday Night Videos'' on Fridays). In 1984, NBC flagship WNBC-TV began carrying a syndicated revival of its former daytime game show ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...

'' in the slot, which lasted less than half a season before its syndicator moved it to a station that offered a far more favorable time slot. NBC eventually resumed programming the 1:30/12:30 time slot when it debuted '' Later'' in 1988, which has been succeeded in the 21st century by ''

Last Call In a bar, a last call (last orders) is an announcement made shortly before the bar closes for the night, informing patrons of their last chance to buy alcoholic beverages. There are various means to make the signal, like ringing a bell, flash ...

'' and '' A Little Late''. NBC eventually surrendered the time slot back to its affiliates in 2021, following the end of ''A Little Late's'' run. NBC's next late-night newscast, '' NBC Nightside'', premiered in 1991; it would last until 1998. The network has not had a late-night newscast since then, with NBC stations today running either paid programming, Early Today or local morning newscasts in ''Nightsides timeslots.

Notes

{{reflist

External links

Wayback Machine archives of NBC News Overnight tribute siteYouTube clip of closing of last program, December 3, 1983
1980s American television news shows 1982 American television series debuts 1983 American television series endings American late-night television shows NBC original programming NBC News NBC late-night programming