Nightline

The program had its beginnings in 1979 during the Iranian hostage crisis. ABC News president Roone Arledge felt the best way to compete against the NBC Tonight Show was to update Americans on the latest news from Iraq. At that time, the show was called: "America Hostage: Day xxx" where xxx represented each day Iranians held hostage the occupants of the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

At the end of the hostage crisis in 1981, Nightline had entrenched itself on the ABC programming schedule, and made Koppel a national figure. The program has prided itself on providing a mix of investigative journalism and extended interviews which would look out of place on ABC World News Tonight. Thanks to a video sharing agreement with the BBC, Nightline also repackages some of the BBC's output for an American audience.