- Live at Five (WNBC TV series)
Live at Five was
WNBC 's 5 p.m. weekday newscast broadcasting fromNBC Studio 6B at 30Rockefeller Center . A mix of news, features and interviews. The "Live at Five " concept was first introduced in 1979 by WNBC News DirectorRon Kershaw and Bob Davis. Their first anchors were Pia Lindstrom andMelba Tolliver .Jack Cafferty joined the anchor chair a few months later. The final broadcast of "Live at Five" was Friday,September 7 ,2007 .History
"Live at Five" was born of necessity. The 5 p.m. broadcast was part of a two-hour early news block called "
NewsCenter 4 " which combined features and hard news, and attempted to compete with its competitors' old movies and syndicated programing. When ratings crumbled in 1980, WNBC decided to pour 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 show with news headlines at the top of the show.In October 1980,
Sue Simmons joined the WNBC and "Live at Five" team from Washington'sWRC-TV . She has had several co-anchors, or as Sue called them "anchor husbands", includingJack Cafferty ,Tony Guida ,Matt Lauer , Dean Shepherd andJim Rosenfield . From 1980 to 1991, legendary NBC announcerDon Pardo of "Jeopardy! " and "Saturday Night Live " fame did the talent introductions and other voice overs, usually live in the studio.In the 1980s, the show was the talk of the town with guests ranging from
Jimmy Carter toOrson Welles toLittle Richard . The show's impressive guest lineup was fodder for a running joke onLate Night with David Letterman , which taped across the hall in Studio 6A at 30Rockefeller Center , where Letterman complained that Live at Five got better guests than he did. Today, the show still maintains an impressive guest lineup, with everyone from Broadway stars toNFL football stars to politicians coming to Studio 6B to be interviewed.Live at Five was originally cancelled in November 1991. Its replacement was "News 4 New York at 5", anchored by Simmons and Chuck Scarborough. This format didn't stay long, however - Simmons was paired with Matt Lauer for a new iteration of Live at Five, originating from NBC's Today Show Window on the World studios. Shortly afterwards, Live at Five was moved back to 30 Rock and adopted a more traditional news-based format.
In 2005,
Jim Rosenfeld jumped ship to return toWCBS-TV . His replacement wasPerri Peltz , who worked for WNBC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Interestingly though, the 5 p.m. edition of WABC-TV's "Eyewitness News " has two female anchors; first with veteransRoz Abrams andDiana Williams , then withSade Baderinwa when Roz went toWCBS-TV in 2004; and in April 2006, WCBS switched to the two females at 5pm format withRoz Abrams andMary Calvi 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
United States attempted to copy the Live at Five format or just rebranded their newscast "Live at Five " or some variant thereof.WNBC's Live at Five was discontinued in favor of a new 7 P.M. newscast anchored by
Chuck Scarborough starting onSeptember 10 ,2007 . EXTRA replaced Live at Five at its former timeslot. [http://www.wnbc.com/news/13763335/detail.html?dl=mainclick] WNBC has since moved its 5:30 newscast back to 5 PM (moving "Extra" to 5:30), but did not return the "Live at Five" name to the newscast. Once again, Sue Simmons anchors, withDavid Ushery as co-anchor.External links
* [http://www.wnbc.com/station/4537060/detail.html WNBC: Perri Peltz Returns To WNBC As Co-Anchor, Live At Five]
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