''Lateline'' was an Australian television news program which ran from 1990 until 2017. The program initially aired weeknights on ABC TV. In later years it was also broadcast internationally throughout Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Plus Satellite Network, and on the 24-hour ABC News Channel. The flagship current affairs program developed a longstanding reputation for setting the agenda of the following days' news across the continent. It was well known to feature head-to-head debates on current issues, hard hitting political interviews, and attracted the appearance of many world leaders in industry, politics and media. It was labelled by the influential Australian online website

Crikey Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in ''Th ...

magazine as being, "an unmissable current affairs program that almost certainly creates more headlines in the next day's newspapers than any other TV show in the country." The program's late timeslot in AEST benefited enormously from its favourable alignment with overseas correspondents.

History

When ''Lateline'' premiered on 13 February 1990, it was a thirty-minute single-topic debate forum hosted by Kerry O'Brien, broadcast nationally on ABC-TV from Canberra. Airing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in 1990 and 1991, and expanding to Monday to Thursday from 1992 onwards, the program opened with a short video piece examining the perceived most compelling topic at hand in news and current affairs on the given day with disciplined, journalistic balance. O'Brien then followed the video with a moderated debate between two and four participants for the duration of the program. It was later hosted by Maxine McKew who retired from broadcasting in 2006 to pursue a political career with the Australian Labor Party. Later hosts included Tony Jones, Leigh Sales, Ali Moore, and Emma Alberici. The most notable aspect of the format when it premiered was that many guests appeared via satellite. Whether in the studio or on the other side of the world all the guests would appear as 'remote', on TV monitors beside the host. The time slot of the program greatly improved the prospective line up of the overseas contributors and enabled the show to interpolate the Australian perspective with relevant, international viewpoints. In 2000, the program was moved from Canberra to the TV network's headquarters in Sydney. ''Lateline'' thereafter incorporated the ''ABC Late News'', a ten-minute news-break style rundown of the day's top stories and important events from the day. In October 2017, ABC announced that after 28 years ''Lateline'' would be cut as the broadcaster launches new investigative and specialist journalism teams. The management of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

announced the termination of the ''Lateline'' program, after 28 years on air, on 5 October 2017, though assuring its full resources until the end of the Australian TV season in December of the same year. The Corporation's news and current affairs chief, Gaven Morris, cited the demise of the program as being due to changes in audience preference and digital disruption from the internet. The Australian non-commercial broadcaster has proposed a new approach to in-depth, investigative reporting, also announcing a new program and improved multi-platform support for other, existing programs.

Presenters, reporters, and producers

The show was hosted by Emma Alberici in its final years. Alberici was appointed as the co host of the program with Tony Jones in 2012. Esteemed reporters on the program included Margot O'Neill, John Stewart, Kerry Brewster, Ginny Stein, Jason Om, Jamie Cummins, David Lipson, Barbara Miller, and Matt Wordsworth. Former presenters included: Kerry O'Brien, Mark Colvin, Maxine McKew, Virginia Trioli, Leigh Sales, Ali Moore, Ticky Fullerton, and Tony Jones. Recipients of

Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

from ''Lateline'' include Maxine McKew in 1998 and Tony Jones, who received Walkley awards for broadcast interviewing in 2004, 2007 and 2011. Reporter Suzanne Smith in 2005 won a

Logie Award The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine '' TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as th ...

for "Most Outstanding News Coverage" for her story about sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

References

External links

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''Lateline'' at the National Film and Sound Archive
{{News & Current Affairs in Australia, state=collapsed Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming ABC News and Current Affairs 1990 Australian television series debuts 1990s Australian television series 2000s Australian television series 2010s Australian television series 2017 Australian television series endings English-language television shows Television shows set in Sydney

History

Presenters, reporters, and producers

See also

References

External links