Sports Tonight

This article is about a sports show in Australia. For the CNN show (1980-2001) in the United States, see Sports Tonight (CNN). For The TV3 show (1998-2009) in Ireland, see Sports Tonight (Ireland). For the TV channel in the UK, see Sports Tonight Live.

Sports Tonight
Format	Sports Program
Starring	Brad McEwan (Monday - Thursday) Rob Canning (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
Country of origin	Australia
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	19
Production
Producer(s)	Ten News
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials) & approx. 20min during Ten Late News (Mon-Thur).
Broadcast
Original channel	Network Ten (1993 - 2011) One HD (2009 - 2011)
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	30 August 1993 – 30 September 2011

Sports Tonight was an Australian sports information program broadcast on Network Ten (and on its sister digital channel One HD). The program was broadcast on Weeknights (on One) at 10.30 pm; at 11.00pm (on Ten combined with Ten Late News), Fridays at 12.00am (on Ten after the Late News), and on Sunday from 7:30pm AEDT (on One, though this sometimes varied due to live sports coverage or other programming). The program provided up-to-date sports scores and team and player information for all codes of football and different sports across Australia.

The show ran from 1993 to 2011. From 1993 until 2005, the show ran for half an hour on each weeknight after Ten Late News. The two shows merged in 2006, but there was some criticism by viewers that Sports Tonight was not long enough and that it should have remained the same.

In 2011 the weekend 5:30pm editions of Sports Tonight normally seen on Network Ten were removed from those timeslots, due to the weekend news bulletins moving to 6pm. To compensate for this, a Sports Tonight-branded sports report were incorporated into these bulletins. This edition of Sports Tonight had been airing in the 5:30pm weekend slot since 2000. Thus, the only time Sports Tonight is aired on Network Ten is in the traditional late-night time slot with Ten Late News.

The show is currently branded as Toyota Sports Tonight. In late 2006, the show was sponsored by Toyota and its upcoming Toyota Aurion, although only minor modifications were done to the on-air graphics to match those of the Aurion colours. In early 2007, the graphics were updated with a heavily sponsored on-air look.

Sports Tonight was aired on Fridays as a separate program.

Since March 2009, a weeknightly 9.30 pm edition (started out at 7pm) of Sports Tonight aired on One with a weekend wrap edition on Sundays. Since 8 May 2011 with the relaunch of One, it aired at around 10.30pm weeknights (varies if other programming is on) and at 11.00pm on Fridays.

In December 2010 Sports Tonight updated their on-air graphics. On 5 July 2011, it was announced that the show would be axed; the show continued to air until just before the conclusion of the football seasons.

Hosts

At the time of Sports Tonight's axing, the presenters were:

• Brad McEwan (Mondays - Thursdays)
• Rob Canning (Fridays - Sundays)
• Neil Cordy (fill-in)
• Scott Mackinnon (fill-in)
• Adam Hawse (fill-in)
• Victoria Murphy (fill-in)

Previous Hosts included:

• Tim Webster (first host. 1993 - 2004)
• Matthew White (last appeared on Sunday 20 June 2004. Now presents the east coast edition of Today Tonight on the Seven Network)
• Bill Woods (alternative host, 1993-2005. Now presents Ten News Sydney alongside Deborah Knight)
• Leigh Diffey (weekend host during 2005 and 2006. Last appeared on Sunday 3 December 2006)
• Ryan Phelan (last appeared on Thursday, 21 December 2006, now on Fox Sports)
• Mark Aiston (presented on 8 September 2007 due to Brad McEwan, Rob Canning and Neil Cordy being all unavailable, also presented during the 2007-2008 summer period)

Reporters

Sports Tonight had many around the ground reporters across Australia. Reporters included:

• Jeremy Arnold: Junior reporter based in Melbourne
• Andrew Brown: All sports reporter, cycling and horse racing
• Paul Cochrane: All sports senior reporter - mainly cricket, synchronized swimming, Netball, badminton & NFL
• Ian Cohen: AFL and Australian Open (tennis) senior reporter
• Neil Cordy: AFL & Socceroos senior reporter based in Sydney
• Liam Cox : Sydney based reporter
• Adam Hawse: NRL senior reporter based in Sydney
• Scott Mackinnon: Senior Surfing correspondent & winter sports specialist
• Victoria Murphy: NRL reporter
• Roger Oldridge: All sports reporter based in Melbourne
• Luke Schneider: All sports reporter and producer based in Melbourne
• Matt Suleau: All sports reporter
• Nathan Templeton: All sports reporter based in Melbourne
• Adam Thompson: Ordinary junior sports and wii boxing reporter
• Kelli Underwood: AFL and all sports reporter based in Melbourne
• Leanne West: NRL senior reporter
• Luke Elvy: Golf reporter in the US
• Jacqui Reed: AFL reporter in Melbourne

Awards

Sports Tonight had been nominated for the Most Popular Sports Program for the Logies a total of 11 times. The show was nominated in every year since 1997, with the exception of 1999 and 2001.

External links

• Sports Tonight at the National Film and Sound Archive