''News 4: Live at Five'' was a local afternoon television news program that aired on

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(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, New York. Completed in 1933 ...

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

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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 ''NewsCenter4'' 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 212 area code time period. The first anchors of ''News 4 Live at Five'' were Pia Lindström and Melba Tolliver; Jack Cafferty joined the News 4 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 joined the 'News 4 '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., serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television service, Class A Telemundo outlet W ...

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

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Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is a former American 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 who worked for WCAU-TV, the NBC-owned television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Rosenfield started his television news career in 1981, after graduating from Duke Univer ...

. From 1980 to 1991, News 4: Live at Five announcer

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performed the talent introductions and other voice overs, usually live in-studio. On set, the "die-cut 4" was originally on a orange background. In the 1980s, the show reached popularity with four guests ranging from

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

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

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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 ''News 4: 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

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football players to politicians coming to Studio 6B to be interviewed. ''News 4: 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 left WNBC to return to

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(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 and Diana Williams, then with

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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 Roz Abrams and Mary Calvi, 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 (such as

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ABC affiliate

WEWS WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of three stations that have been built and signed on ...

, which titled its similarly formatted 5 p.m. newscast, ''Live on 5'', referencing the station's assigned broadcast channel). 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. 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 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 television 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