Big News
Big News was the first ever newscast on Philippine television. It was the primetime news broadcast of ABC 5 in the Philippines. Aired from 1962 to 1972, and again from 1992 to 2008, it was last anchored by Cherie Mercado.
| The Big News | |
|---|---|
 Final titlecard of Big News in 2008 | |
| Also known as | The Big News (1962–1972, 1992–2004 - ABC-5) Big News (2004–2008) |
| Genre | News program Live action |
| Created by | Associated Broadcasting Company |
| Directed by | Rosario Andres |
| Presented by | Cherie Mercado various contributors |
| Country of origin | Philippines |
| Original language(s) | English (1962–1972, 1992–2004 - ABC-5) Filipino (2004–2008) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Sonny Fernandez Jackie Sierda |
| Running time | 30 minutes (1962–1972, 1992–2008 - ABC-5) |
| Production company(s) | ABC News and Public Affairs |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC 5 |
| Picture format | 480i SDTV |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release |
|
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Live on 5 (1992–2004) (as hourly news-bulletin newscast) Sentro (as evening newscast) |
| Followed by | ABC News Alert (2004–2008) (as hourly news-bulletin newscast) TEN: The Evening News (2008–2010) (as evening newscast) |
History
The Big News, first era (1962–1972)
It was originally anchored by Duds Rivera and Bong Lapira with Antonio Tecson as head of the newsroom. Lapira later left the newscast in 1967 to transfer to ABS-CBN to anchor Newsbreak aired on DZXL-TV Channel 9. He was replaced by Jose Mari Velez. The show was originally first aired in 1962, and went off the air in 1972 due to martial law, and re-aired again in 1992 (six years of post-EDSA People Power Revolution) as a revival and also as an English language newscast.
The Big News, second era (1992–2004)
On February 21, 1992, as ABC returned to the airwaves, the program resumed its telecast, but this time, it was anchored by Eric Eloriaga and Tina Monzon-Palma. In 1993, they were joined in by Kathy Tanco-Ong. In 1997, they were replaced by Anthony Pangilinan, Thelma Dumpit-Murillo, who also anchors the network's early evening Filipino newscast Balitang Balita and Janice Pronstroller as its new anchors. Monzon-Palma went to become anchor of ABS-CBN's late night newscast The World Tonight while Eloriaga became anchor of RPN's NewsWatch, both newscast's main rivals during pre-Martial Law days.
On May 3, 1999, Amelyn Veloso became the new anchor of the newscast. On May 22, 2000, Veloso was joined by Rod Nepomuceno as her co-anchor. On June 3, 2002, Nepomuceno was replaced by Atty. Mike Toledo.
Big News (2004–2008)
On April 12, 2004, when the network reformatted most of its programs, former ABS-CBN anchor Cherie Mercado replaced Toledo and joined with Amelyn Veloso as a co-anchor and the newscast switched to Filipino in order to compete with the other networks' newscasts.
On October 2, 2006, the newscast exchanged timeslots with Sentro, the early-evening news program of the network. Mercado became the sole anchor of the program.
On August 8, 2008, the program, together with Sentro aired its final broadcast and on the next day (August 9), it rebranded as TV5.
Anchors
- Duds Rivera (1962–1972)
- Bong Lapira (1962–1967)
- Jose Mari Velez (1967–1972)
- Eric Eloriaga (1992–1997)
- Tina Monzon-Palma (1992–1997)
- Kathy Tanco-Ong (1993–1997)
- Anthony Pangilinan (1997–1999)
- Janice Pronstroller (1997–1999)
- Thelma Dumpit-Murillo (1997–1999)
- Amelyn Veloso (1999–2006)
- Rod Nepomuceno (2000–2002)
- Atty. Mike Toledo (2002–2004)
- Cherie Mercado (2004–2008)
Substitute anchors
- Jove Francisco
- Martin Andanar
Gallery
Big News logo used until early 2008