Sports Tonight - Broadcast History

Broadcast History

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.

In recent years the program was 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.

The only legacy of the program is that the sports segment in Ten News at Five is branded as Ten News Sports Tonight.