Nightline

Weeknights at 11:35 p.m., ET

ABC News' "Nightline" is television's most esteemed Late-Night news program. The half-hour program provides viewers with in-depth reporting on the major stories in the news and airs weeknights from 11:35 p.m.--12:05 a.m., ET/PT, on the ABC Television Network. In 2002, the George Foster Peabody Awards for Broadcast Excellence recognized "Nightline" with a Lifetime Achievement Award, citing outstanding long-form news presentations for more than 20 years.

"Nightline" evolved from the ABC News special broadcasts, "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage," which began November 8, 1979, four days after the American hostages were seized at the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Iran. It premiered as "Nightline on March 24, 1980, with anchor Ted Koppel. On November 28, 2005 following Mr. Koppel's departure from ABC News, "Nightline" re-launched with anchors Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran, and Martin Bashir. The program's correspondents are John Donvan and Vicki Mabrey.

"Nightline" is the place where people turn for the last word in live network news. "Nightline's" multi-anchor, multi-format allows the program to travel more readily, and report breaking news on the scene as it happens. In recent years, the new program has covered breaking news on every front from the Amish school shootings, the tragedy at Virginia Tech, immigration reform and rallies, and the detainee suicides at the U.S. Detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Nightline's" regular series on real estate, fertility, obesity, and autism make it an important venue to its audience.

"Nightline's" anchors, correspondents, producers, and editors have won every major award in broadcast journalism, including eleven Peabody Awards, over twelve duPont-Columbia Awards, over a dozen Overseas Press Club Awards, scores of Emmys and many others.

"Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden joined ABC News in February 1994 as the network's legal correspondent and, two years later, was named a correspondent for "Prime Time Live," for which she had also been a co-anchor since September 2004. Since 1999, "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran served as ABC News' Chief White House Correspondent and was also the anchor of "World News Tonight Sunday." Co-anchor Martin Bashir joined ABC in September 2004 as a correspondent for the newsmagazine "20/20," for which he reported on international news-breaking stories, including the investigation of BALCO founder Victor Conte. He is also well known for the landmark documentary "Living with Michael Jackson" and other investigative reports for the BBC and ITV in Britain.

Considered one of the most innovative programs in broadcast news, "Nightline" is known for its probing interviews, its coverage of global news events, and broadcast innovations like live town meetings -- which have been held in South Africa, the Middle East and across the United States. For 27 years "Nightline" has been committed to providing extensive coverage of events around the globe. Specials from the Philippines, the Middle East, Beijing, Baghdad, Moscow, Bosnia, Sudan, and the Congo have featured in-depth interviews with world leaders and exclusive reports. "Nightline" first broadcast from abroad in Johannesburg, South Africa, in March, 1985 -- a critically acclaimed and highly provocative week-long series. It won the first Gold Baton ever presented in the history of the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, and was cited as the "the most extraordinary television of the year."

"Nightline's" many notable interviews past and present have included Nelson Mandela; Boris Yeltsin; former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in his first one-on-one interview after his exile; an exclusive interview with Libyan Colonel Muammar Qaddafi; former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Warren E. Burger's first live television interview; former President of South Africa P.W. Botha and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu in their first appearance together; and President Clinton and former Presidents Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon, among many others. Recently, "Nightline" scored the first network interview with Chief Justice John Roberts and the first television interview ever with Justice John Paul Stevens. "Nightline" continues to cover presidential politics with its "Day in the Life" series, with interviews with Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John McCain--as well as exclusives with former Vice President Al Gore on global warming, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on being the first woman Speaker, Ambassador John Bolton on North Korea, President Kazai on the Taliban, and Pakistani President Musharraf on terrorism.

"Nightline's" coverage of the Iraq War has been widely praised for its depth and insight. Nearly three years into the conflict, co-anchor Terry Moran reported from Iraq on the U.S.'s continued presence there and whether troops should stay or pull out. In March 2003, Ted Koppel, then executive producer Leroy Sievers, and a team from "Nightline" were embedded with the Army's Third Infantry Division for nearly two months, reporting first from Kuwait, and then moving with the Army across the border into Iraq, and finally into Baghdad, chronicling the fall of the city. In 2004, "Nightline" won an Emmy award for its profile of the Marine's Fox 2/5 Company, which is part of the 5th Marine Regimental Task Force, as the company battled its way into Baghdad in the first days of the war.

"Nightline" continues to build its audience through expanding their presence on the web. In 2007 "Nightline" began offering a daily webcast of broadcast highlights on ABCNEWS.com. The webcast can also be downloaded as a video podcast through the site at http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Podcasting/ The full edition of "Nightline" is also available each day through ABC News premium video service, ABC News Now.

Prior to his departure in November 2005, Mr. Koppel was a 42-year veteran of ABC News. Before joining "Nightline," he served for nine years as ABC's chief diplomatic correspondent. Previously he was ABC News' bureau chief in both the Hong Kong and Miami bureaus.