World News Now
World News Now (or WNN) is an American overnight news broadcast seen on ABC and ABC News Live. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with weather forecasts, sports highlights, feature segments, and repurposed segments and story packages from other ABC News programs; its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous.
"WNN" redirects here. For other uses, see WNN (disambiguation).World News Now
ABC World News Now
Andrew Dymburt (2021–present)
Rhiannon Ally (2022–present)
(for past anchors, see section)
Yanni (1992–2001)
JOEDtracks (2001–2004)
Score Productions (2004–present)
United States
English
30
ABC News Headquarters, New York City
60 minutes
(aired in tape-delayed loop)
January 6, 1992 –
present
Created by David Bohrman, who also served as the original executive producer, a number of well-known news personalities have anchored WNN early in their careers, including original anchors Aaron Brown and Lisa McRee, Thalia Assuras, Kevin Newman, Alison Stewart, Liz Cho, Anderson Cooper and current ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir. The program is primarily co-anchored by ABC News correspondents Andrew Dymburt and Rhiannon Ally, who also anchor the network's early-morning news program America This Morning. ABC News reporter Will Ganss also contributes to both programs.
WNN is divided into four segment blocks ("A", "B" "C" and "D") that start with national and international news headlines incorporating some pre-taped reports (with some live wraparounds) from ABC NewsOne correspondents or repeated reports from the network's evening news program ABC World News Tonight. The "A"-block also features a national weather forecast (significant weather stories are also reported during the broadcast through analysis from meteorologists employed with AccuWeather, which provides forecasts for ABC's owned-and-operated stations) and an often humorous "kicker" story that ends the block. The "B," "C" and "D" blocks usually feature a mix of stories from Nightline or the BBC, or other live-to-tape or pre-taped segments produced in-studio, depending on the day of the week.
The show is produced and airs in two half-hour segments from 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time each Monday through Friday morning, and is transmitted in a continuous 60-minute tape delayed loop until 8:00 a.m. Eastern, when America This Morning begins in certain areas of the Pacific Time Zone. America This Morning – which uses the same production and anchor staff as World News Now, although the program is branded as a tie-in to Good Morning America – airs live to the network at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time and is also tape delayed for many ABC stations. Most ABC stations do not air the entire program loop of WNN and preempt portions of the program in favor of airing locally slotted programming (usually infomercials or syndicated programs) – joining the program in progress anywhere from five minutes to as much as two hours after the start of the newscast – with affiliates looping the show until America This Morning airs.
Although most ABC stations clear World News Now, a small number of affiliates do not air the program:
Criticism[edit]
Occasional anchor Taina Hernandez has been criticized in the national press for laughing during various segments of the program, some of them dealing with serious stories. She laughed through the story of Owen Wilson's attempted suicide in 2007, and she and co-host Ryan Owens have giggled through segments centering on terrorism and the Iraq War.[17]