Editing Nightline (section)

=== Ted Koppel's ''Nightline'' (1980–2005) ===
By the end of the hostage crisis in 1981 (after 444 days), the program – which had been retitled the previous year as ''Nightline'' – had entrenched itself on ABC's programming schedule, and made Koppel a national figure. ABC had previously used the title "''Night Line''" for [[Les Crane#Television|a short-lived 1 a.m. talk show starring Les Crane]] that was broadcast over the network's [[New York City]] [[flagship (broadcasting)|flagship station]], [[WABC-TV]], starting in 1963.

The program originally aired four nights a week (on Monday through Thursdays) until 1982, when the [[sketch comedy]] program ''[[Fridays (TV series)|Fridays]]'' was shifted to air after ''Nightline''. By this time, the news program had expanded to 30 minutes. For much of its history, the program prided itself on providing a mix of investigative journalism and extended interviews (something that continues to be featured to this day, albeit at a reduced extent), which would look out of place on ''World News Tonight''.

[[File:Ted Koppel in 1982.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ted Koppel in 1982]]
The format of the show featured an introduction by the host, then a taped piece on the specific topic of the night; then after a commercial break, there was a live interview related to the topic of the piece. In 1983, ABC attempted to change the program's format to feature multiple topics and expand it to one hour, as opposed to focusing on a single topic in a half-hour. This switch proved to be unsuccessful, and after a few months, the original format of the program was restored. Once the original format returned, reverting to a 31-minute structure, it remained unchanged through the end of Koppel's tenure; it was changed following his retirement.

The program remains unique in American media, considering its nightly broadcasts. Most other similar shows only air once a week, though usually in a [[prime time]] slot for a full hour. ''Nightline'' is usually less [[sensationalism|sensationalistic]] than the weekly news magazines (which often emphasize [[soft media|soft news]] programming, stories of such type – such as [[popular culture|pop culture]]-related stories – ''Nightline'' has incorporated to a moderate degree following Koppel's departure), though the program has caused controversy on occasion.

In 1982, Koppel interviewed [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO) chief [[Yasser Arafat]] on the program, in which he had indicated that he would not accept conditions from the U.S. to recognize the PLO.<ref>{{cite news|title=Arafat Says He Will Never Accept U.S. Conditions for Recognizing PLO|url=http://www.jta.org/1982/03/18/archive/arafat-says-he-will-never-accept-u-s-conditions-for-recognizing-plo|work=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]|date=March 18, 1982|access-date=February 6, 2015}}</ref> In 1984, the program featured an interview with [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] [[Warren Burger]], marking his first live television appearance. In honor of the 40th Anniversary of D-Day in 1984, ''Nightline'' aired a special edition which "covered" the [[Normandy landings|landings on Normandy]] as though modern television news, along with satellite reports, had existed at the time. The following year in 1985, the program conducted its first on-remote broadcast from [[South Africa]].

In 1986, the program featured interviews with the [[Philippines]]' first female [[President of the Philippines|president]], [[Corazon Aquino]], and outgoing president [[Ferdinand Marcos]], the latter of which tried to defend the extravagant lifestyle (including the extensive shoe collection) of his wife [[Imelda Marcos|Imelda]] during the country's economic hardship.<ref>{{cite web|title=Imelda Marcos' 3,000 Pairs of Shoes|url=https://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9044413|work=ABC News|date=February 5, 1986}}</ref> In an interview with ''Nightline'' in 1987, [[Colorado]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] senator and 1988 presidential candidate [[Gary Hart]] admitted to having cheated on his wife, Lee Ludwig, with [[Donna Rice Hughes|Donna Rice]], in the aftermath of an exposé in the ''[[Miami Herald]]'' that revealed the affair, leading to his withdrawal from the presidential election. That year, ''Nightline'' broadcast for the first time in the [[Soviet Union]]. In 1988, ''Nightline'' conducted a special report on-location from [[Jerusalem]].
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?72606-1/nightline-history-making Koppel interviewed by Jeff Greenfield on ''Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television'', May 30, 1996], [[C-SPAN]]}} 
In 1996, [[Times Books]] published ''Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television'', about the program's history up to that point, with author credits attributed to Koppel and ''Nightline'' producer Kyle Gibson. The book received numerous lackluster reviews. In [[Walter Goodman (critic)|Walter Goodman's]] review of the book for the ''New York Times'', he observed "Ted Koppel announces in his introduction to ''Nightline'' that he did none of the interviews that went into the book and that although he 'influenced' and 'contributed' to it, 'in the final analysis Kyle wrote it.'"<ref name="NYT Goodman">{{cite news |last1=Goodman |first1=Walter |author-link=Walter Goodman (critic) |title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES;Starry Eyes Look Back at Koppel and 'Nightline' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/08/books/books-of-the-times-starry-eyes-look-back-at-koppel-and-nightline.html |access-date=March 29, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=July 8, 1996}}</ref> [[Ken Tucker]] in ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' pointed in an unfavorable manner to the book's use of the [[Illeism|third person]]: "Throughout ''Nightline'' the book, the star is referred to in the third person: 'Koppel said' this or that; 'Koppel hadn't been asleep an hour when the phone rang.'."<ref name="EW Tucker">{{cite magazine |last1=Tucker |first1=Ken | author-link = Ken Tucker |title=Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/06/14/nightline-history-making-and-making-television/ |access-date=March 29, 2020 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=June 14, 1996|quote= Throughout Nightline the book, the star is referred to in the third person: 'Koppel said' this or that; 'Koppel hadn't been asleep an hour when the phone rang.' Koppel notes in the introduction that 'I have contributed to this book, influenced it; but in the final analysis, Kyle wrote it,' so that probably explains it. Still, Ken Tucker thinks it comes off as silly and self-important of Koppel to have agreed to tell his story this way.}}</ref> Frederic M. Biddle of the ''[[Boston Globe]]'' wrote "This book reminds us not only that good television doesn't necessarily translate into scintillating prose, but that behind every successful journalist lurks a good editor – who in this case didn't show up."<ref name="Trib/Globe Biddle">{{cite news |last1=Biddle |first1=Frederic M. |title=IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT 'NIGHTLINE,' STICK TO THE TV |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-07-24-9607240283-story.html |access-date=March 29, 2020 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=July 24, 1996}}</ref>

==== Memorable subjects ====
During Ted Koppel's tenure as anchor (and on rare occasions since his departure), ''Nightline'' devoted each episode to a unique subject. Since its inception, the program has covered many subjects ([[science]], [[education]], [[politics]], [[economics]], [[society]], and [[breaking news]]). Many candidates for government offices, such as [[David Duke]] (in November 1991) have appeared on ''Nightline'' to try to promote themselves. Seeing that there are a large number of prisons in the United States, it created an ongoing series in 1994 called "Crime and Punishment".  The program also aired a series of episodes called "America: In Black and White" dealing with individual aspects of American race relations, and another on homosexuality titled "A Matter of Choice?".

Over the years, ''Nightline'' had a number of technological firsts. The program did the first live report from the base of [[Mount Everest]]. In November 1992, science reporter Michael Guillen did the first live broadcast from [[Antarctica]]. There were times when a major breaking news story occurred as late as 11:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time, resulting in the subject of that night's edition being changed in order to cover the story in some form of detail, depending on the depth of information available at the time of broadcast. Examples of this were the deaths of [[John Lennon]] ([[Death of John Lennon|1980]]) and [[Yasser Arafat]] (2004).

''Nightline'' also held a series of [[town hall meeting]]s; these included the Israeli-Palestinian Town Meeting in 1987, one with [[Nelson Mandela]] on June 21, 1990, and one discussing the [[Iraq War|War in Iraq]] in 2003. The first such "Town Meeting", in 1987, was an extended edition (running for four hours and 12 minutes, until 3:47&nbsp;a.m. Eastern Time, on the night of its broadcast) discussing the [[AIDS]] epidemic of that period in the U.S. A major portion of the episode was devoted to interviews where important people were asked tough questions on the spot. Another series of town hall meetings featured public discussions and appearances by Japanese officials on the poor performance of American business during the 1980s, contrasted with the success of Japanese businesses. These town hall meetings coincided with the [[Japanese asset price bubble|corporate takeovers of U.S. companies by Japanese corporations]] during the early 1990s (such as [[MCA Inc.|MCA]] by [[Panasonic|Matsushita]], and [[Sony Music|CBS Records]] and [[Columbia Pictures]] by [[Sony|Sony Corporation]]).

What had been intended to be a benign episode dedicated to the 40th anniversary of [[Jackie Robinson]] breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier ended up being remembered for one of the show's controversial moments. The April 6, [[1987 in television|1987]] broadcast included longtime [[Los Angeles Dodgers]] executive [[Al Campanis]], who had been with the franchise since before Robinson's debut. When Ted Koppel asked Campanis about why there were so few [[African Americans|black]] [[Manager (baseball)|field managers]] or [[General manager (baseball)|general managers]] in the sport, Campanis responded awkwardly, saying that blacks may lack the "necessities" to succeed in those positions. Despite Koppel offering Campanis numerous chances to clarify or retract his remark (asking Campanis several times "Do you really believe that?"), Campanis' subsequent responses only worsened his position.  Koppel ultimately scolded Campanis on-air for proposing the "same kind of garbage" that Robinson's critics and skeptics had peddled in 1947.  Shortly after the interview, the [[1987 Los Angeles Dodgers season|Dodgers]] fired Campanis.

Later in 1987, the program broadcast an exclusive interview with televangelists [[Jim Bakker|Jim]] and [[Tammy Faye Bakker]], following the former's sex scandal that brought down their PTL ministry. On December 3, 1990, ''Nightline'' played [[Madonna]]'s controversial [[music video]] "[[Justify My Love (video)|Justify My Love]]" in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video's sexual content and censorship. The video contained imagery of [[sadomasochism]], [[voyeurism]] and [[bisexuality]]. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on [[MTV]], she shrugged and answered, "Yeah, so? Lucky me." She also mentioned that the banning was hypocritical, as male artists were able to show music videos on the channel which contained sexist and violent imagery. She also mentioned that in her "[[Vogue (Madonna song)|Vogue]]" music video she had worn a see-through lace top which exposed her breasts, but this was passed by the channel.<ref>{{cite episode|title=Nightline|episode-link=Nightline (US news program)|credits=Interviewer: [[Forrest Sawyer]]|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|airdate=December 3, 1990}} {{youTube|Xgfw0l-Rn5A}}. Retrieved on 2008-12-26.</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite magazine|title=Madonna Banned|url=https://ew.com/article/1998/11/20/justify-my-love-was-too-raunchy-1990/|author=Joshua Rich|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=EW.com|date=November 20, 1998|access-date=August 31, 2010|archive-date=May 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521191755/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,285759,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1997, ''Nightline'' aired "ABC Exclusive" footage of the trial of former [[Cambodia]]n dictator [[Pol Pot]], in [[Nate Thayer#Nightline controversy|violation of a verbal agreement]] between ABC News and [[freelancer|freelance journalist]] [[Nate Thayer]] to use the footage of Pot's trial.<ref>{{cite news|title=Your scoop? Nah. It's ours if we want it.|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/your-scoop-nah-its-ours-if-we-want-it-1157187.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/your-scoop-nah-its-ours-if-we-want-it-1157187.html |archive-date=2022-06-21 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|author=Paul McCann|work=[[The Independent]]|date=May 25, 1998}}</ref> Thayer later sued Koppel and ABC News for $30 million in [[punitive damages]] and unspecified [[compensatory damages]].

==== Reading of the names ====<!-- This section is linked from [[Corporate censorship]] -->
[[File:ABC_Nightline.png|thumb|right|225px|Former logo, used from January 1998 to December 2017. This variant (which was displayed upright until November 2002) is based on the program's original 1980–97 logo.]]
On April 30, [[2004 in television|2004]], Koppel read the names of members of the [[United States Armed Forces]] who were killed in the [[Iraq War]] since it began in March 2003. This prompted controversy from [[American conservatism|conservatives]] who believed that Koppel was making a political statement, and from management at [[Hunt Valley, Maryland|Hunt Valley]], [[Maryland]]-based television station owner [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]], which felt that ABC was undermining the war effort in Iraq; in protest, ordered forced its ABC-[[network affiliate|affiliated]] stations not to air that night's edition, and instead had the stations air a special in which the "merits" of the war would be debated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-04-30 |title=War Dead Names Read On 'Nightline' |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/war-dead-names-read-on-nightline/ |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=CBS News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=seattletimes-sinclair>{{cite web|title=Sinclair known for conservative political tilt|url=http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020756844_fishersinclairxml.html|publisher=[[Seattle Times]]|access-date=April 12, 2013}}</ref><ref name="ap-nightline">{{cite web|title=Names of U.S. war dead read on 'Nightline'|url=http://www.today.com/id/4864247/ns/today-entertainment/#.UWeoKNzrz-U|work=NBCNews.com|date=29 April 2004 |publisher=Associated Press|access-date=April 12, 2013}}</ref> Sinclair invited Koppel to participate in the replacement program, but he declined.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-04-30 |title=Sinclair Stations Pull Nightline Iraq Casualties Report |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/media-jan-june04-abc_04-30 |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=PBS News |language=en-us}}</ref>

Others, most notably the television columnist for ''[[The Washington Post]]'',{{Who|date=May 2025}} thought it was a [[Nielsen ratings|ratings]] stunt for [[Nielsen ratings|sweeps]]; indeed ''Nightline'' was the highest-rated program during that time period, and had about 30% more viewers than other editions of the program which aired that week. ABC responded to the controversy, saying that the program was meant to be "an expression of respect which seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country."<ref name="ap-nightline" />

Koppel repeated the format on May 28, 2004, reading the names of service members killed in [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|the war in Afghanistan]], and on May 30, 2005, reading the names of all service members killed in Afghanistan or Iraq between the last program and the preparation of the program. This time, all of Sinclair's ABC stations aired the program as scheduled.

==== Ratings and threats of cancellation ====
For many years, rumors had been spread about the show's possible cancellation. However, during the so-called "late night wars" of 1993, when the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' began competing with ''[[The Tonight Show with Jay Leno]]'', some in the industry believed that ''Nightline'' would wind up in first place. On occasion, when a significant news story occurred, ''Nightline'' would top its entertainment rivals in the ratings.{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

In 2002, ABC attempted to hire [[David Letterman]] away from [[CBS]], a move that would likely have forced the network to cancel ''Nightline''. However, Letterman opted to sign a renewed contract with CBS to remain host of the ''Late Show''. An unverified story suggested that Letterman would have made the move had a Letterman talk show on ABC started at 12:05&nbsp;a.m. Eastern Time in order to preserve ''Nightline''. When ABC debuted ''[[Jimmy Kimmel Live!]]'' as a [[late-night talk show|late-night talk]] competitor to ''Tonight'' and the ''Late Show'' in January 2003, it was placed at the 12:06&nbsp;a.m. Eastern timeslot instead of the 11:35&nbsp;p.m. slot occupied at the time by ''Nightline'', again preventing its cancellation.

==== Koppel's final broadcast and "Closing Thought" ====
In March 2005, Ted Koppel announced that he would be leaving the show at the end of his contract. On November 22, 2005, Koppel retired from ''Nightline'' after 25 years as anchor of the program, and left ABC News after 42 years with the network, although it was an early departure from both as his contract was not set to expire until December.

Koppel's final broadcast of ''Nightline'' did not feature clips, memorable interviews or famous moments from his tenure as host, as would be typical when an anchor retires. Instead, it featured Koppel's 1995 interview with college professor [[Morrie Schwartz]], who was suffering with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]]. For this broadcast, Koppel interviewed sports journalist [[Mitch Albom]], who had been a student of Schwartz. Albom talked about how the ''Nightline'' interviews led and inspired him into contacting Schwartz personally, and then visiting him weekly. These visits became the basis of the book ''[[Tuesdays with Morrie]]'', chronicling lessons about life learned from Schwartz.  The interview was significant because Morrie was actually interviewed 3 times including the 1995 interview which took place a couple weeks before Morrie's death.<ref>''Tuesdays with Morrie'' includes three chapters called Audiovisuals which chronicle Ted Koppel's visits with Morrie.</ref>

Every so often, Koppel ended the program with a "Closing Thought", in which Koppel usually expressed his opinion on the subject of the night's broadcast. On his final night, urging viewers to continue watching the program, Koppel concluded his final ''Nightline'' broadcast with the following "Closing Thought":<ref>ABC News, "Nightline", November 22, 2005</ref>
{{blockquote|There's this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at ''Nightline''. I didn't do it with the last batch; it's a little too close to home. "How many of you", I'll ask, "can tell me anything about [[Eric Sevareid]]?" Blank stares. "How about [[Howard K. Smith]] or [[Frank Reynolds]]?" Not a twitch of recognition. "[[Chet Huntley]]? [[John Chancellor]]?" Still nothing. "[[David Brinkley]]" sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised, and [[Walter Cronkite]] may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news.<br>
What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early twenties appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everyone in the country knew their names. Everybody.<br> Trust me, the transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite begat [[Dan Rather|Rather]], Chancellor begat [[Tom Brokaw|Brokaw]], Reynolds begat [[Peter Jennings|Jennings]]. And each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right. You've always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for ''Nightline'' a fair break. If you don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. And then you'll be sorry. That's our report for tonight, I'm Ted Koppel in Washington, [and] from all of us here at ABC News, good night.}}