Lateline

This article is about the Australian current affairs television program. For the short-lived US sitcom, see LateLine (sitcom).

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Lateline is a late night current affairs television program on ABC TV in Australia, similar in format to the BBC's Newsnight program in the United Kingdom.

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The show usually is hosted by Tony Jones, with Maxine McKew assuming the role on Friday nights. Maxine McKew received a Walkley Award in 1998, and Tony Jones in 2004 for broadcast interviewing. Lateline is widely recognised for its even-handed overview of local and international politics, its head-to-head debates on current issues and its political interviews, often featuring leading experts in a setting that is user-friendly to the audience.

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When Lateline launched in the mid-nineties, it was a thirty-minute single-topic debate forum. It opened with a five-minute in-house video piece that attempted to examine the case in a balanced manner. This was followed by twenty-five minutes of the host moderating and prompting discussion between two to four guests. Most guests appeared via satellite.

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In 2000, an ABC managerial shakeup resulted in the implementation of new cost-cutting measures. Lateline was merged with the ABC Late News program, which was a ten-minute rundown of the day's top stories and important events that occurred during the evening. This ran immediately before Lateline.

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The new Lateline format (now five minutes longer) includes such news, plus approximately twenty minutes of interview. The pre-interview video segment has been eliminated.

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