USA Today Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===''USA Today: The Television Show''=== In 1987, Gannett and producer/former [[NBC]] CEO [[Grant Tinker]] began developing a [[news magazine]] series for [[broadcast syndication]] that attempted to bring the breezy style of ''USA Today'' to television.<ref>{{cite news | title=And Now, Folks... Here's Tomorrow's News New Show, New Concept β A Newspaper on TV | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8040929.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117083101/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8040929.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 17, 2013 | newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] | date=December 15, 1987}}</ref> The result was ''USA Today: The Television Show'' (later ''USA Today on TV'',<ref>{{YouTube | id=YUo3Feeno2Q | title=USA Today On TV 1989 Intro And Outro}}</ref> then shortened to simply ''USA Today''), which premiered on September 12, 1988.<ref>{{cite news | title=Now, Here's the Good News...;USA Today's TV Spinoff, Focusing on 'the Journalism of Hope' | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1278475.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117083108/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1278475.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 17, 2013 | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=September 12, 1988}}</ref> Correspondents on the program included Edie Magnus, [[Robin Young]], [[Boyd Matson]], Kenneth Walker, Dale Harimoto, Ann Abernathy, [[Bill Macatee]] and Beth Ruyak. As with the newspaper, the show was divided into four "sections" corresponding to the respective parts of the paper: News (the major headlines), Money (financial news and consumer reports), Sports (sports news and scores) and Life (entertainment and lifestyle stories). The series was syndicated by GTG Marketing, a subsidiary of GTG Entertainment, which promoted it as a prime access magazine show, hoping that stations would air it in a prime time slot.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 28, 1987 |title=GTG Signs 'Three' To Clear 'Today'; Checkerboard Out? |page=44 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> The series was plagued by low ratings and negative reviews throughout its run. The program also suffered from being scheduled in poor timeslots in certain markets like [[New York City]], the country's largest [[media market]], where CBS [[owned-and-operated station|O&O station]] [[WCBS-TV]] (channel 2) aired the program in a pre-dawn slot, before the program was picked up by NBC O&O [[WNBC]] five months into its run. After airing in the equally weak 5:30 a.m. slot, the series was moved to the more clear-eyed 9:30 a.m., but fared no better <ref>{{cite news | title='USA Today on TV' Remains a Secret in NYC | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-156070337.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117083115/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-156070337.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 17, 2013 | newspaper=[[Albany Times Union]] | date=August 21, 1988}}</ref> (in contrast, [[CITY-DT]] in [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]] [which became the [[flagship (broadcasting)|flagship]] of the [[Citytv]] television network], ran it at 5:00 p.m.).<ref>{{cite news | title=TV's USA Today served to viewers as a 'side dish' to network news | first=Christopher | last=Michaud | agency=[[Reuters]] | newspaper=[[Toronto Star]] | page=C6 | date=September 12, 1988}}</ref> The series was renewed for a second season, but the setbacks led to the mid-season cancellation of the TV version of ''USA Today'' in November 1989, after one-and-a-half seasons. The final edition aired on January 7, 1990.<ref>{{cite news | title='USA Today on TV' Axed; Low Ratings Lead Gannett, Tinker to Cancel | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1224653.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117083054/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1224653.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 17, 2013 | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=November 23, 1989}}</ref> Gannett announced plans to develop a ''USA Today''-branded weekly half-hour television program titled ''Sports Page'', as part of a renewed initiative to extend the brand into television but this program, planned for fall 2004, never launched.<ref name=timeline/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page