''West 57th'' is a

newsmagazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio, or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories in greater depth than newspapers or new ...

television program that aired on CBS from August 13, 1985, through September 9, 1989. ''West 57th'' originally premiered as a summer show, and took its name from the New York City address of the CBS Broadcast Center, 524 West 57th Street. The original correspondents were Jane Wallace, Bob Sirott,

Meredith Vieira Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American broadcast journalist and Celebrity, television personality. She is best known as the original moderator of the daytime talk show ''The View (talk show), The View'' (1997–2006), the ...

and John Ferrugia. Later contributors included Steve Kroft, Selina Scott, Karen Burnes and

Stephen Schiff {{Infobox person , name = Stephen Schiff , image = Stephen Schiff at the Peabody Awards 2019.jpg , image_size = 140 , alt = , caption = Schiff at the Peabody Awards 2019 , birth_na ...

. The program's popularity, a concern for ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

'' creator Don Hewitt, prompted pundit Andy Rooney to dedicate one of the closing segments on his program to a parody of ''West 57th'' correspondents. This was widely interpreted by the ''West 57th'' team that Hewitt perceived their show as a threat. After the cancellation, the program was replaced by ''Saturday Night with

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (née Chung; born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks American Broadcasting Company, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her m ...

'', and then '' 48 Hours''. Vieira and fellow correspondent Steve Kroft transferred to ''60 Minutes'', from which Kroft retired in 2019. Vieira went on to anchor

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'' (after appearing on '' The View'' for nine years). Sirott moved to

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to continue a successful career in local TV and

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

. John Ferrugia moved to

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, where he has been an investigative reporter and is currently anchor and managing editor of ''Insight with John Ferrugia'' at Rocky Mountain PBS.

Reaction

Despite serious reporting on issues like the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair (; ), also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitat ...

, the

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, and the dangers of

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drugs, the program was criticized for its slickness and superficiality. This may have been because ''60 Minutes'' executive producer Don Hewitt campaigned against the program both internally at CBS and through media contacts outside the company. ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'' called it "a ditsy, disco-beat docu-mag for viewers with a short attention span". In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', John Corry wrote that the program "isn't really television, and it certainly isn't journalism; it's video, and it's a mess. Nothing works well except the synthesizer music. It's as if news and entertainment fell into combat and neither side won." By contrast, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' critic Tom Shales wrote of a particular segment, "What's again impressive is the quality of footage obtained, especially unusual on an investigative piece like this. "West 57th" is raising the standards of broadcast journalism as far as video photography and editing are concerned."

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1980s American television news shows 1985 American television series debuts 1989 American television series endings CBS original programming Television series by CBS Studios CBS News