A Current Affair (US TV series)
Encyclopedia
A Current Affair is an American television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 newsmagazine
Newsmagazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

 that aired in syndicated from July 1986 to 1996 before reappearing briefly in March 2005. The show was produced by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

, and long based at Fox's New York flagship WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...

.

Overview

Maury Povich
Maury Povich
Maurice Richard "Maury" Povich is an American TV talk show host who currently hosts his self-titled talk show Maury.-Personal background:...

 and WNYW news anchors Maureen O'Boyle
Maureen O'Boyle
Maureen O'Boyle is a female American news anchor. Currently, she is a lead anchor for WBTV News 3 in her hometown, Charlotte, North Carolina. Before anchoring the daily news in Charlotte, O'Boyle worked on national TV programs for 20th Television and Warner Bros.. She was the anchorwoman for the...

 and Jim Ryan
Jim Ryan (reporter)
-Biography:He was born in 1939 and graduated from Manhattan College in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He started his broadcast news career as a producer at WNBC in 1974, eventually becoming an anchor/reporter until he left for WNEW in 1985...

 both served as show hosts during its original run. One of its lead personalities was Steve Dunleavy
Steve Dunleavy
Stephen Francis Patrick Aloysius Dunleavy , is a journalist best known as a columnist for the New York Post...

, a columnist for the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

, which like WNYW and Fox Television is part of the News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

 empire.

Initially, the show broadcast as an irreverent, late-night New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 broadcast on WNYW, but as it expanded, the show began to cover stories throughout America that were overlooked or ignored by the then-dominant network news organizations.

The logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

 of the show is a distinctive pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...

 with a "zoom-like" sound effect (immortalized as the "ka-chung") for a theme. While showing some hard news
Hard News
Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media is a 2004 book by journalist Seth Mnookin about the reign of Howell Raines at The New York Times.Mr...

 stories, the focus of the show is often entertainment, scandals, gossip and exploitative tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...

. It was popular during the 1990s when magazine-type news shows were common during daytime television. Its main competitors were Hard Copy
Hard Copy
Hard Copy is an American tabloid news television show that ran in syndication from 1989 to 1999. Hard Copy was aggressive in its use of questionable material on television, including gratuitous violence....

and Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...

, along with the many talk shows that dominated daytime TV during the 1990s.

Waning popularity

When actor George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...

 launched a public campaign to boycott the show Hard Copy
Hard Copy
Hard Copy is an American tabloid news television show that ran in syndication from 1989 to 1999. Hard Copy was aggressive in its use of questionable material on television, including gratuitous violence....

, similar shows started gaining a negative reputation. By the time the first incarnation of A Current Affair ended in 1996
1996 in television
The year 1996 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1996.For the American TV schedule, see: 1996-97 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...

, the quality of the show degraded to the point that the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

made regular parodies of stories A Current Affair was reporting.

Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...

and the Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...

, both Fox productions, debuted the same year as A Current Affair was canceled, likely indicating a change of focus within the company.

Revival

On March 21, 2005, the series was revived after a nine-year hiatus. Former Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

 defensive end
Defensive end
Defensive end is the name of a defensive position in the sport of American and Canadian football.This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations have substantially changed how the position is played over the years...

 and lawyer Tim Green
Tim Green
Timothy John Green is a former American football player as well as a radio and television personality. He was a linebacker and defensive end with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, a commentator for National Public Radio, the former host of the 2005 revival of A Current Affair...

 hosted the new edition, known unofficially as ACA 2. In resurrecting the show, Fox gave the show a more serious tone by covering more news and crime, rather than entertainment-oriented stories. As with the original incarnation, overt politicizing was left out of the show. The series aired on all Fox owned and operated stations (O&O's). This resurrection would be short lived, however, as the departure from the Fox organization of Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Keith Murdoch is the eldest son of Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his second wife Anna Torv. He resigned from his executive positions at News Corporation on 29 July 2005...

 and his replacement by Fox News chief Roger Ailes
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes is president of Fox News Channel, chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W...

 led to Fox's announcement that Ailes would replace the show with Geraldo at Large
Geraldo at Large
Geraldo at Large is a United States television newsmagazine, hosted by Fox News correspondent-at-large and former talk show host Geraldo Rivera.-History:...

in November 2005, only seven months after ACA 2 premiered.

Suspicions that Ailes pulled the show because the ACA team was competing with, and sometimes besting his cable Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...

, were intensified in October 2005, when, after its cancellation was announced, ACA broadcast an exclusive interview with Natalee Holloway
Natalee Holloway
Natalee Ann Holloway disappeared on May 30, 2005, during a high school graduation trip to Aruba, a Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. An American student from Mountain Brook, Alabama, Holloway graduated from Mountain Brook High School on May 24, 2005, shortly before the trip...

 murder suspect Joran van der Sloot
Joran van der Sloot
Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot is a Dutch national who lived in Aruba. He has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the United States for wire fraud and extortion related to the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005, and is charged in Peru with the...

, and Rivera revealed to the press that Ailes planned to use the timeslot as a beachhead for the establishment of a Fox News nightly newscast.
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