''The World Tonight'' is a Philippine television English-language late-night

newscast News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...

broadcast by

Kapamilya Channel Kapamilya Channel (stylized as Kapamilya channel) is a 24-hour Philippine pay television network formerly known as ABS-CBN Corporation, a company under Lopez Holdings Corporation owned by the López family. The network is headquartered at th ...

and

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installe ...

. It was formerly the English language late-night newscast of

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

from November 21, 1966, to September 22, 1972, and was originally anchored by Angelo Castro Jr.,

Loren Legarda Lorna Regina "Loren" Bautista Legarda (born January 28, 1960) is a Filipina politician, environmentalist, cultural worker, and former journalist who is currently serving as a Senator and the president pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippin ...

and

Tina Monzon-Palma María Cristina Mapa Monzón-Palma (born María Cristina Mapa Monzón on March 29, 1951 in Manila), popularly known as Tina Monzón-Palma (), is a Filipina broadcast journalist and anchorwoman. She is best known as a late night news presenter i ...

from September 15, 1986, to August 13, 1999. The newscast is now anchored by Tony Velasquez and Pia Gutierrez on weeknights and Stanley Palisada on Saturdays. It airs from Monday to Saturday at 9:00 pm on

and every weeknight at 10:45 pm on the

. It also airs worldwide via TFC. ''The World Tonight'' holds the record as the longest-running English newscast on Philippine television after the October 2012 ending of RPN's '' NewsWatch'' due to the retrenchment of 200 employees amid the network's privatization, although this is disputed since this did not air from 1972 to 1986 due to ABS-CBN's closure because of the country's declaration of martial law.

Airing history

The early years (1966–72)

''The World Tonight'' premiered on November 21, 1966, at 8:30pm on

's DZXL-TV Channel 9 as the network's answer to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

Big News ''The Big News'' is the evening television news program of ABC 5. It was the first evening news program on Philippine television. It aired from March 19, 1962, to September 22, 1972. After the reopening of ABC 5 in 1992, Originally anchored by ...

'', ''The News with Uncle Bob'' on

RBS RBS may refer to: Organisations Banking * The Royal Bank of Scotland, a retail banking subsidiary of NatWest Group ** RBS International, the offshore banking arm of NatWest Group Education * Regent's Business School * Rotterdam Business School ...

, and later, '' NewsWatch'' on KBS. The World Tonight became one of the first Philippine television newscasts to broadcast in color. Co-anchoring the newscast were Hal Bowie, a veteran announcer from ABS-CBN radio, and Henry Halasan, a former ABS-CBN Cebu talent who was transferred to the network's main offices in Manila as a sales executive. Bowie, who was in his late 50s when the newscast first aired, later bowed out of the newscast due to health reasons and concentrated instead on producing news reports for the network. This left Halasan as main anchorman of the program. The program was transferred to its sister station, DZAQ-TV Channel 3 on the 10:00pm time slot a year later. This happened when Channel 9 premiered the evening news program called ''Newsbreak'' in March 1967 at 9:00pm with Bong Lapira, who transferred from rival newscast ''Big News'' on ABC 5. The newscast continued after Channel 3 moved to the present Channel 2 and Channel 9 moved to Channel 4 for Metro Manila in 1969 until ABS-CBN's closure by the Marcos government during the declaration of

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

on September 22, 1972, with his sign

Proclamation No. 1081 Proclamation No. 1081 was the document which contained Ordinance Power of the President of the Philippines#Proclamations, formal proclamation of martial law in the Philippines by President of the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos, as announ ...

. The roster of field reporters for the newscast in its pre-Martial Law days included

Orly Mercado Orlando Sanchez Mercado (, born Orlando Mercado y Sanchez; April 26, 1946), better known as Orly Mercado, is a Filipino politician and broadcast journalist best known for having served as a senator of the Philippines from 1987 to 1998, Secretary ...

, Jun Bautista, Antonio Seva, Tony Lozano, Boo Chanco, Philip Pigao, Lito Tacujan and Danny Hernandez.

Revival; Legarda-Castro era

''The World Tonight'' returned on September 15, 1986, coinciding with the reopening of ABS-CBN after the

People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...

. It was anchored by Larry Ng (an ABS-CBN executive during the pre-Martial Law era), Angelo Castro Jr. (then the network's news director) and

who came from anchoring rival newscast NewsWatch on RPN with

Harry Gasser Harry Gasser (December 2, 1936 – April 3, 2014) was a Philippine news presenter Korina Sanchez Korina Maria Baluyot Sanchez-Roxas (; born October 5, 1964), known professionally as Korina Sanchez, is a Filipino broadcast journalist, television news anchor, senior field correspondent, magazine show host, radio anchor, and newspaper columnis ...

. However, she eventually left the newscast to concentrate on hosting the morning show ''Magandang Umaga'' (later '' Magandang Umaga Po''), leaving Castro, Legarda, and Amy Godinez (who left in 1991) as main anchors. On May 4, 1992,

Ces Oreña-Drilon Cecilia Victoria Oreña-Drilon (; born July 8, 1961), simply known as Ces Drilon, is a Filipino broadcast journalist. She presented news and public affairs programs for the News and Current Affairs division of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation ...

(or

Cathy Yap-Yang Catherine "Cathy" Yap-Yang (born February 1, 1971) is a multi-awarded Filipina business journalist who has worked in various international news outfits across the Asia-Pacific region over a span of 15 years. She is currently the head of the PLDT c ...

for Business), and

Dyan Castillejo Dyan Castillejo-Garcia (; born September 15, 1965), commonly known by her maiden name, Dyan Castillejo, is a Filipino former tennis player and sports reporter. Tennis career Castillejo represented the Philippines in the Fed Cup ties from 1981 ...

(for Sports) joined the program as segment anchors. Sanchez returned as an anchor but only on Saturdays along with Castro (or Bon Vibar as his substitute), Drilon, Castillejo with additional segments by Angelique Lazo (entertainment). It was replaced by ''The Weekend News'' in 1996.

Transition into cable; start of Castro-Palma era

The World Tonight began to simulcast on the network's cable news channel Sarimanok News Network launched on May 1, 1996, even it was still airing on ABS-CBN. On February 2, 1998,

replaced Loren Legarda and joined Angelo Castro Jr. to the newscast when Legarda ran and later won as the top senator in the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

. Palma used to anchor rival newscasts ''

GMA Headline News ''GMA Headline News'' is a Philippine television news broadcasting show broadcast by GMA Network. Originally anchored by Tina Monzon-Palma and Jose Mari Velez and later by Leslie Espino and Vicky Morales, it premiered on May 19, 1986 replacing ...

'' (on

GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...

) from 1986 until 1992 and '' The Big News'' (on the reopened ABC, now TV5) from 1992 to 1997. Loren Legarda made her final broadcast on the newscast on January 30, 1998. However, in early 1999, the ratings of English late-night newscasts including The World Tonight started to decline when rival GMA introduced

Filipino language Filipino (; , ) is an Austronesian language. It is the national language ( / ) of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of Tagalog based on the native dialect, spoke ...

late-night news with the relaunch of ''

GMA Network News Below is a partial list of shows that were previously aired on the Philippine television network, GMA Network. For the currently aired shows of the network, see the list of programs broadcast by GMA Network. Original programming News Drama ;An ...

'', anchored by

Mike Enriquez Miguel Castro Enriquez (; born September 29, 1951), professionally known as Mike Enriquez, is a Filipino television and radio newscaster. He is also the Consultant for radio operations of GMA Network, and president of the network's regional ...

and

Vicky Morales Victoria "Vicky" Torres Morales-Reyno (; born July 10, 1969) is a broadcast journalist from the Philippines. She is best known for being one of the anchors of GMA Network's early evening newscast ''24 Oras'' with Mike Enriquez and Mel Tiangco as ...

; it debuted as an English newscast in 1992 and switched to Filipino with the relaunch, surging ahead of the ratings game in the process. The World Tonight made its final broadcast on ABS-CBN on August 13, 1999. It was then replaced by the network's first Filipino-language late-night newscast, ''Pulso: Aksyon Balita'' anchored by

Korina Sanchez Korina Maria Baluyot Sanchez-Roxas (; born October 5, 1964), known professionally as Korina Sanchez, is a Filipino broadcast journalist, television news anchor, senior field correspondent, magazine show host, radio anchor, and newspaper columnis ...

and

Ted Failon Mario Teodoro Failon Etong (; born March 29, 1962), popularly known as Ted Failon, is a multi-awarded Filipino broadcast journalist both on radio and television. He also served as a representative of the 1st district of Leyte from 2001 to 2004 ...

. The show competed with Frontpage: Ulat ni Mel Tiangco'','' which replaced GMA Network News on August 23, 1999.

ABS-CBN News Channel years (1999–present)

Two months later, The World Tonight premiered solely on the network's

24-hour The modern 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States as military time, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) pas ...

ABS-CBN News Channel ABS-CBN News Channel, commonly known as ANC, is a 24/7 Philippine pay television news channel. It was launched in 1996 as the first all-news network in English language. The majority of its programs are produced by ABS-CBN News. The channel is ...

(ANC) on October 11, 1999, due to the channel's relaunch. Angelo Castro Jr. and

still remained as anchors at that time. The program continues to be one of the channel's flagship newscasts. On March 12, 2001, as part of the major programming changes of

, The World Tonight relaunched to its graphics along with other ANC and ABS-CBN newscasts. Castro retired as a news anchor in September 2009, as Palma went solo. However, he later returned on November 7, 2011, on a sporadic basis until December 26 of that year. He died on April 5, 2012, of lung cancer at the age of 67.

Revitalization (2015–present)

On January 12, 2015, 3 days before the Philippine visit of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

, The World Tonight reformatted as part of the "internationalization" of the ABS-CBN News Channel. It moved to an earlier timeslot at 9:00pm and expanded into a 1-hour newscast to compete with '' State of the Nation'' of then

GMA News TV GMA News TV (GNTV; visually rendered in its logo in all capital letters as GMA NEWS TV) is a 24-hour Philippine-based international pay television channel owned by Citynet Network Marketing and Productions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GM ...

(now GTV) and ''

CNN Philippines Nightly News ''CNN Philippines Nightly News'' (titled as CNN Philippines Nightly News with Mitzi Borromeo) or simply ''Nightly News'' was the flagship late night newscast of CNN Philippines that aired every weeknights 9:00-9:30 pm and replayed Tuesdays-Satu ...

'' of

CNN Philippines CNN Philippines (abbreviated as CNN PH) is a commercial broadcast, cable and satellite television network in the Philippines. It is owned and operated by Nine Media Corporation, together with Radio Philippines Network (RPN) as the main content ...

, among other newscasts on the timeslot. New segments & reports with original content were also aired during the launching day. On November 21, 2016, The World Tonight celebrated its 50th anniversary. Also this year, ANC marked its 20th anniversary. As part of the celebration of the two important milestones for the channel, an ANC X event was held at 8 Rockwell on December 7, 2016, which was attended by ABS-CBN executives, past and present anchors of The World Tonight and ANC, and prominent members of the business community. A documentary on the history of "The World Tonight" was aired on ANC on December 30, 2016. On March 30, 2017, Palma took a sabbatical leave and Tony Velasquez temporarily took over as the program's main anchor. On January 29, 2018, Palma returned to the newscast after the leave, making her and Velasquez as the main anchors of the program. However, the production of the newscast's Sunday edition was halted on March 22, 2020, due to the

enhanced community quarantine COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines were series of stay-at-home orders and ''cordon sanitaire'' measures that have been implemented by the government of the Philippines through its Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emer ...

done to help control the spread of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic in the Philippines and was replaced by provisional programming from the

on the same date, as well as the extended edition of ''Documentary Hour'' from April 26, 2020, when the timesharing of programming between both DZMM TeleRadyo and ANC ended. It's Airs Monday - Saturday at 9:00 pm. On May 18, 2020, Palma and Velasquez returned to anchor the newscast after 2 months of hiatus in lieu of

and

DZMM DZMM (630 AM) Radyo Patrol was a commercial news/talk radio station broadcasting from Quezon City, Philippines, serving the Mega Manila market. It was the flagship station of the Radyo Patrol Network owned by ABS-CBN. The station's studio was l ...

's special coverage on the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Like ''

TV Patrol ''TV Patrol'' is a Philippine television newscast produced by ABS-CBN News. It premiered on March 2, 1987, at the former ABS-CBN television network, replacing ''Balita Ngayon''. ''TV Patrol'' is the flagship national newscast of the network an ...

'' and the other programs airing on ANC and Teleradyo, the newscast began to livestream online in their

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channels.

Kapamilya Channel (2020–present)

On July 27, 2020, The World Tonight started its broadcast on ABS-CBN's replacement channel,

, replacing ''

Bandila ''Bandila'' () was a Philippine television late-night news program broadcast by ABS-CBN with simulcast worldwide via TFC, Originally anchored by Korina Sanchez, Henry Omaga-Diaz and Ces Oreña-Drilon. The program premiered on July 3, 2006, an ...

''. This marks the newscast's indirect return on its original network as part of the ''Primetime Bida'' programming block after 21 years. It's also one of the few English-language programs on this channel. In December 2020, main anchor Tina Monzon Palma left the newscast citing to a new public affairs program starting on June 2021. Co-Anchor Tony Velasquez replaced him as a Main Anchor. On January 4, 2021,

head Nadia Trinidad announced on Twitter that it will relaunch The World Tonight with Tony Velasquez and

Karen Davila Kristine Karen Lising Davila-Sta. Ana (; born November 21, 1970), professionally known as Karen Davila, is a Filipino journalist. Early life Davila went to high school at the Colegio San Agustin – Makati. She took a degree of Bachelor of A ...

(replacing Palma after 22 years in the anchor desk), while retaining the OBB, title card, theme music and other graphics including the lower third (a maroon-used color introduced in November 2020) and the news ticker graphics currently used by the channel. However, the newscast is airing live from

's Studio 7 (which is also used to air ABS-CBN's flagship news program

and was their original studio during their

days). As Palma "has retired from the daily grind", Trinidad said that she will have her own upcoming public affairs program launching "soon", which later debuted as ''Tina Monzon-Palma Reports'' in May 2021. On October 8, 2021, ABS-CBN News announced that Davila would return to TV Patrol on October 11, replacing

Noli de Castro Manuel Leuterio de Castro Jr. (; born July 6, 1949), professionally known as Noli de Castro, is a Filipino journalist, news anchor and politician who served as the 12th vice president of the Philippines from 2004 until 2010, under President G ...

. Senior news reporter Pia Gutierrez took over her role for the newscast on the same day. From March 25 to April 7, 2022, The World Tonight temporarily suspended its delayed airing on Kapamilya Channel due to the special program of ABS-CBN News Harapan 2022. It continued to broadcast on ANC.

Anchors

Weekday

* Tony Velasquez (2015–present; then segment anchor for "Metro Wrap", "World Focus", "7,107", and "In Business") * Pia Gutierrez (2021–present)

Weekend

* Stanley Palisada (Saturday anchor)

Segment hosts

* Michelle Ong (segment anchor for "In Business")

Former

* Hal Bowie (1966–1967) * Henry Halasan (1966–1972) * Angelo Castro Jr.† (1986–2009; 2011) *

(1986–1998) * Larry Ng (1986, relief anchor 1987–1990) *

(business anchor and occasional relief anchor for Legarda/Palma, 1992–1999) *

(alternate business anchor, 1992–1999; main business anchor, 2015–2017) *

Daphne Oseña-Paez Daphne Oseña-Paez (born March 15, 1970) is a Filipino people, Filipino television host, news reporter, author, blogger and entrepreneur. Education Oseña-Paez obtained her Bachelor of Arts with a Specialist in Art History and Major in Urban S ...

(weatherwoman, 1996–1999) * TJ Manotoc (2015–2017; segment anchor for "In the Zone", now an ABS-CBN North American Bureau Chief) * Coco Alcuaz (2015; segment anchor for "In Business") * Amy Godinez-Cuenco (1989–1991) *

(weekday anchor, 1986; Saturday/Sunday Edition anchor, 1987–1995) * Bon Vibar (alternate Saturday/Sunday Edition anchor for Castro, 1987–1996, relief anchor for Castro Jr. 1986–1996) * Angelique Lazo (Saturday/Sunday entertainment anchor, 1987–1995) *

Frankie Evangelista Francisco "Frankie" Fermin Evangelista (July 24, 1934 – February 18, 2004) was a Filipino newspaper columnist, radio and television broadcaster of Manila Chronicle (1956–1975), IBC (1975–1986), and ABS-CBN (1986–2004). Early life a ...

† (relief anchor for Castro Jr., 1994–1999) *

(1998–2017; 2018–2021) * Teodoro Locsin Jr. (2011–2017) (segment anchor for "Teditorial") * Marie Lozano (2015–2016; segment anchor for "Scene") * Warren de Guzman (2015–2016; segment anchor for "Business") *

(1992–1999; 2015–2016, segment anchor for "In the Zone") * Gigi Grande (alternate weatherwoman, 1996–1999; 2015–2019, Saturday anchor) * Ron Cruz (2013-2020; Sunday anchor) *

(2021)

Segments

*TWT Report *In Business *Metro Wrap *World Focus *7,107 *In The Zone/Gametime *Scene *Final Word Tonight

References

External links