London Tonight began on 4 January 1993 after Carlton Television won the London weekday franchise from previous holder Thames. The programme was originally produced by London News Network in association with LWT and Carlton. LNN was established to provide a united, seven day, ITV (Channel 3) news service for London. Its creation established a continuity between the once different brands of weekend and weekday news, weather and sport in the region.
On screen, the only difference between the Weekday and Weekend programmes became the endcap. This continued after the onscreen identities of Carlton London and LWT were scrapped by owners Carlton and Granada in anticipation of a merger. Instead of being referred to as LWT and Carlton, ITV London (weekend) and ITV London (weekday) became the respective names and all onscreen idents referred to ITV London.
ITV London (weekday) and ITV London (weekend) owners Carlton and Granada merged, forming ITV plc and LNN was dissolved soon after this. Production for all ITV London News programming remained at The London Studios (formerly known as the LWT South Bank Centre) until 29 February 2004. Production is now conducted by the national Channel 3 news franchisee ITN at their headquarters in Central London, making the region unique as it holds the only franchise operation not to produce its own in-house news programmes.
London Tonight was unaffected by the ITV regional news cuts in February 2009. On 4 July 2012, ITV News editor Deborah Turness informed London Tonight employees a third of staff are to be made redundant, with ITV News and London Tonight both sharing newsgathering and studios from 1 October 2012.
Read more about London Tonight: Broadcast Times, Former On Air Team
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