''Sydney Tonight'' was an Australian television variety series which aired from December 1956 to early 1959 on Sydney station ATN-7. Originally compered by Keith Walshe, it was later hosted by Roy Hampson and re-titled ''Tonight''. The series featured a format including guests, interviews, audience participation, and music. Like '' In Melbourne Tonight'', which came later, it was patterned on the groundbreaking U.S. series '' Tonight Starring Steve Allen''. In October 1958, station ATN-7 experimented by using video-tape recordings of ''Sydney Tonight'' segments as part of their morning line-up. Reviewing the morning line-up, Nan Musgrove of ''

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known simply as ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Are Media in Sydney and founded in 1933. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before bein ...

'' criticised the use of the ''Sydney Tonight'' segments, saying that ''"I may be peculiar, but ladies in full warpaint and baretopped evening dresses at 7:30 a.m. wiggling their way through seductive songs are not my favorite breakfast entertainment"'', though the reviewer had more positive feelings towards the other morning offerings, soap opera '' Autumn Affair'' and music series '' The Toppanos''. The series had segment titled '' Ardath Hit Parade'' which was later spun off into its own series. A kinescope of a 1958 episode of the series is held by the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

Reception

The 2 January 1957 edition of ''Australian Women's Weekly'' gave the series 2/4, saying that ''"Variety artists so far have been good"'' but felt that Walshe was not a compelling host.

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*{{IMDb title Seven Network original programming 1956 Australian television series debuts 1959 Australian television series endings Black-and-white Australian television shows Australian English-language television shows Australian live television series Australian variety television shows