America Tonight

America Tonight is Al Jazeera America's flagship news show, airing at 10:00pm EST. It is a showcase for thought-provoking and insightful in-depth reporting and programming with a focus on investigative reporting. Its mission is to tell urgent, important and underreported stories with the quality, depth and time they deserve. The newsmagazine program is hosted by former CNN International anchor and former CBS News correspondent Joie Chen, and is produced from Al Jazeera America's Newseum studio in Washington D.C. It features correspondents Adam May, Lori Jane Gliha, Sheila MacVicar, Christof Putzel, Chris Bury, Michael Okwu, Azmat Khan and Sarah Hoye, .^[1][2]

History

Al Jazeera America hired Kim Bondy, a former executive producer with CNN to produce America Tonight from the ground up.^[3] The program presents in-depth segments each night on the economy, government, education, healthcare and the environment, and include breaking news stories. The program also features work by the Al Jazeera America investigative unit and covers stories in depth from across America, revealing new insights on the news of the day and breaking stories with its own original reporting. America Tonight also incorporates social media interaction on screen and off to reflect the views of its American audience. On July 1, 2013, longtime CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien was hired to be a special correspondent for America Tonight, as well as a deal with her production company Starfish Media Group to produce long-form documentaries for Al Jazeera America.^[4]

The show, originally an hour long at 9pm eastern was shortened to 30 minutes and moved to 10 eastern on February, 2nd, 2015.

Focus

The show focus is on the average American person and their connection with a particular story. The show also does and shows investigative work as part of Al Jazeera Investigates. When Al Jazeera America was formed out of the former Current TV what remained of Current's long time investigative program Vanguard most notably Christof Putzel was integrated into the program and Al Jazeera's investigative team.

Awards

In 2014 Al Jazeera America and producer Reed Lindsay won a Gracie Award in the “Outstanding Hard News Feature” category from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for the story “Fists of Fury,” which aired on America Tonight.^[5] The award was the first award ever for the channel.

References