11. News programs increased throughout the 1950s and 1960s
With all three major networks featuring a half hour nightly news broadcast (though ABC didn’t expand to a half hour until 1967) other shows produced by their respective news divisions appeared steadily. The first network morning news program, NBC’s Today, first broadcast in 1952 blending news headlines with entertainment and interviews. In its early days Today was seen only in the Eastern half of the country, the Mountain and Pacific time zones did not receive the program until 1958. Beginning that same year the program was taped in the afternoon for broadcast the following day, which continued until 1961, when it resumed live broadcasts.
Today had little competition for many years, other than local news broadcasts. Not until 1975 would ABC launch a morning news show, AM America, which focused on the news of the day and did not find an audience. ABC revamped the format to focus more on entertainment and changed the name to Good Morning America in November of that year. The new show gradually grew to challenge the venerable Today, and finally to beat it in the ratings in the 1980s. CBS tried several formats and changes for a morning news program, all of which followed the lead of Today. The morning programs gave short news presentations and focused on lighter topics, though several later evening news anchors served stints as hosts of the morning programs.