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Live at Five

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Live at Five is a name used by several television stations in some countries to refer to their 5:00 pm newscasts or talk shows. The name was coined in 1980 for Live at Five (WNBC TV series) by WNBC-TV in New York City for a lifestyle and celebrity news show. Other American television stations picked up the name through the 1980s, to varying degrees of success. For example, in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV's Live at 5—that market's first 5 p.m. newscast—was so successful that the station rechristened its late news Live at 11 using the 5 pm anchor team; the success was short-lived, though, once market-leader WPVI expanded its Action News broadcasts to the 5 p.m. hour.

With the possible exception of WNBC, one of the most popular instances of the Live at Five format was shown on the CTV Atlantic network in Atlantic Canada. Its version of Live at 5 premiered in 1982, after network executives became aware of WNBC's experiment and decided to copy it. The program continues to this day, staying true to the original format. CTV often boasts of a 51% ratings share for Live at 5 in a market of approximately 1.5 million. The program's name was changed to CTV News at 5 in August 2012. Also in Canada, Live at 5 refers to the 30-minute newscast airing on CP24 at 5:00 pm in Toronto Also in Cyprus Live At Five is the daily flagship news programme on Radio Napa. In the United Kingdom, the name was used by Sky News from 1989 until 2011. See Live at Five (Sky). Live at Five Radio Show is also the name of a West Coast sports radio show with former major leaguers Eric Karros and Jeromy Burnitz. A short-lived "Live at Five" aired on the Nine Network between 1988 and 1989, hosted by Terry Willesee, Jo Pearson and Greg Matthews.

Other stations that used the brand

Here is a list of stations with a newscast called Live at Five or some other variation of such:

  • KATV (7, ABC) - Little Rock, Arkansas
  • KTBS (3, ABC) - Shreveport, Louisiana
  • WBIR (10, NBC) - Knoxville, Tennessee (now Live at Five at Four at 4:00 p.m)
  • WTMJ-TV (4, NBC) - Milwaukee, Wisconsin (has used Live at xx:00 as title for all of its newscasts since 2004)
  • WTWO (2, NBC) - Terre Haute, Indiana
  • WTKR (3, CBS) - Norfolk, Virginia (used Live at Five for 5:00 newscasts between the late 1980s until the Eyewitness News branding was retired in 1994)
  • KREM (2, CBS) - Spokane, Washington (briefly used First News Live at Five for 5:00 newscasts in 1991)
  • WTHR (13, NBC) - Indianapolis (used Live at Five for 5:00 newscasts from the late 1980s until the Eyewitness News branding debuted in 1995; rival Fox station WXIN now uses Live at Five for its 5:00 newscast since 2010)
  • WFLA-TV (8, NBC) - Tampa, Florida
  • KTIV (4, NBC) - Sioux City, Iowa
  • KCTV (5, CBS) - Kansas City, Missouri
  • WGME (13, CBS) - Portland, Maine
  • KTRK (13, ABC) - Houston, Texas
  • WIBW-TV (13, CBS) – Topeka, Kansas
  • References

    Live at Five Wikipedia