GMA Network News

GMA Network News is the former late-night English newscast of GMA Network from January 6, 1992 to October 30, 1998 and became the first Filipino-language late-night television newscast from November 2, 1998 until July 30, 1999 on weeknights and June 30, 2002 on weekends.

Background

Early years

The weekday edition first aired on January 6, 1992 as a replacement for GMA Headline News with Tina Monzon-Palma (who then moved to ABC as the Chief Operating Officer) and Leslie Espino (who replaced Jose Mari Velez on the newscast after his death). The first team of anchors was composed of Espino, Vicky Morales (who also had a brief stint as the third anchor on Headline News), Marga Ortigas, GMA reporter Jessica Soho and two new recruits from rival stations-- Mari Kaimo (from PTV) and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel (from IBC). Espino & Soho would bow out of the newscast after a year, leaving the four of them being the main anchors.

On July 7, 1997, the newscast was given a new set, new theme music, and a sleeker opening ident and graphics package. In the opening ident, Kaimo gave a sneak peek of the night's headlines with clips from the specific news items, after which, Mike Enriquez (and later, GMA continuity announcer Al Torres) provided the voice-over, "From the award-winning GMA News and Public Affairs team, this is GMA Network News..." to introduce the newscast and its anchorpersons. Rachel del Mar became the program's new weather girl, who would always end the segment (then retitled "GMA Weather Center") with her signature close, "This is Rachel del Mar, your all-weather friend." However, Kaimo, Hontiveros and Ortigas eventually left the newscast as well in the second quarter of 1998. The former would move to ABS-CBN (to host The Correspondents and the Studio 23 newscast News Central), while Hontiveros ran for party-list representative in Congress and Ortigas at the other hand, currently as a Al Jazerra correspondent.

Enriquez-Morales era

On June 1, 1998, Saksi anchor Enriquez joined Morales as co-anchor, replacing Kaimo as the main male anchor and female anchors Hontiveros and Ortigas. Network News became the first Filipino newscast to do stand-up news delivery (inspired by US TV network newscasts). GMA marked a history on making an idea of putting Filipino language on late-night newscast. Morales, in a interview of "Limang Dekada" in 2009, said the concept was "super radical", during that time, most TV station newscast used English language on late-night newscast from 10-10:30pm. The news department decided to try it in order how to get the response of the viewers, first was "Taglish" (a mixture of Tagalog and English) the latter said and eventually, Filipino on November 2, 1998. It became the first Filipino-language late-night television newscast. Due to this, GMA Network News ratings fasten to higher than its rival English-language newscasts, The Big News of ABC, NewsWatch of RPN and The World Tonight of ABS-CBN, later in 1999, all stations started to follow including rival network ABS-CBN's Pulso: Aksyon Balita which replaced The World Tonight which is now broadcast on the ABS-CBN News Channel and ABC's Big News, one of the last television newscasts to broadcast in English, switching to Filipino in 2004, and this was the start of a new era of airing all-Tagalog newscast on late-night.

Enriquez used his signature close, "Thank you for trusting GMA", which became "Marami pong salamat sa inyong pagtitiwala sa GMA" (when the newscast switched to Filipino) to end the newscast. The latter closing line was also used by himself in Saksi (when he returned and Morales transferred to the said newscast in 1999 after the premiere of Frontpage: Ulat ni Mel Tiangco on the late-night slot) and on his DZBB radio program. Mel Tiangco would later use the same closing line until 2014 when Morales became the third anchor and used the same closing line as Enriquez and Tiangco on 24 Oras.

Weekend edition and final years

Meanwhile, the newscast's weekend edition aired from July 6, 1996 until June 30, 2002, first, with Raffy Marcelo and Georgette Tengco, then Gin de Mesa, Martin Andanar, and finally, Bernadette Sembrano. The weekend edition also switched to news delivery in Filipino at the same time the weekday edition did. "GMA Network News" continued to be the weekend newscast's title until 2002, even as the weekday edition gave way to "Frontpage" in 1999.

Anchors

• Leslie Espino (1992–1993)
• Jessica Soho (1992-1993)
• Mari Kaimo (1992–1998)
• Vicky Morales (1992–1999)
• Marga Ortigas (1992–1998)
• Mike Enriquez (1998–1999)
• Risa Hontiveros (1992–1998)
• Raffy Marcelo (weekend anchor from 1996–1999)
• Rachel Del Mar (weather woman from 1997–1998)
• Georgette Tengco (weekend anchor from 1996–1999)
• Bernadette Sembrano (weekend anchor from 1999–2002)
• Gin De Mesa (weekend anchor from 1996–1999)
• Martin Andanar (weekend anchor from 1999–2002)

Awards

• Nominated, Best News Program - PMPC Star Awards for Television (1995)

See also

• GMA News and Public Affairs
• List of shows previously aired by GMA Network