NBC Nightside
(also known as
NBC News Nightside
) is an American
overnight
rolling newscast
on
NBC
, that aired from 1991 to 1998. The program was produced in three half-hour segments. It usually aired live seven nights a week, and was fed to NBC stations beginning at 2:00 a.m.
ET
Sunday through Friday (immediately following
Later
) and 2:30 a.m. ET on Saturdays (after
Friday Night Videos
), and looped until the next morning, with
NBC News at Sunrise
following it out
on weekdays.
The program premiered on November 4, 1991, and was NBC's second attempt at a late night news program after
NBC News Overnight
, which ran for seventeen months from 1982 to 1983.
[1]
Nightside
differed from its two competitors ?
CBS
'
Up to the Minute
and
ABC
's
World News Now
, which are both based in
New York City
? in that rather than being broadcast from the headquarters of
NBC News
itself in New York, it was instead based out of the
Charlotte, North Carolina
facilities of NBC News Channel,
[1]
the network's newsfeed service providing customized reports and video of national news to NBC's
owned-and-operated stations
and
network affiliates
, and which was based in studios connected to those of Charlotte's NBC affiliate
WCNC-TV
.
Nightside
also aired Saturday and Sunday mornings, whereas ABC and CBS's shows did not.
Some of
Nightside
'
s many anchors went on to national success, including
Antonio Mora
and
Campbell Brown
. Former NBC News president
Steve Capus
once served as a senior producer for the program.
Despite financial profitability of the show and decent ratings, it was canceled by the network in 1998 and aired its last telecast on September 20 of that year, with NBC filling the overnight timeslot beginning two days later with
NBC All Night
, a block consisting of repeats of the network's late night and daytime talk shows.
Currently, the timeslot is the home to
syndicated
and
paid programming
on NBC's affiliates outside network contributions; NBC currently provides its affiliates a replay of that evening's
Top Story with
Tom Llamas
(itself a contribution from
NBC News Now
, an Internet spin-off of NBC News
a la
the NBC News Channel, which itself remains in operation), along with a late night replay of
The Kelly Clarkson Show
to NBC affiliates carrying that syndicated talk show, with weekend featuring
LX
programming after
Saturday Night Live
and a
Meet the Press
replay late Sunday night/Monday morning. Conversely,
Early Today
, which formerly started two hours before
Today
during
Nightside
, now first records at 3:30 a.m. Eastern, as local morning newscasts have encroached early morning to start at 4 a.m. local time.
The program's anchors included: