Ten Late News and Sports Tonight was an Australian

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 late night television news program, broadcast on Network Ten

Network Ten

Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 for over 20 years.

History

Network Ten began airing national late night news bulletins as part of the network's coverage of the First Gulf War in January 1991, which made extensive use of its rights to carry CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 material. Originally called Ten Evening News: Crisis in the Gulf, the bulletin's first anchor was veteran newsreader Eric Walters

Eric Walters (newsreader)

Eric Walters was an Australian journalist, media trainer and former television presenter. He was best known for his long-running stint as early morning anchor for the Nine Network, both on the Today and National Nine Early Morning News.-Career:Walters joined Channel 7 Perth in 1961, aged 24, as a...

, who was also presenting the 6pm weeknight bulletin in Sydney at the time.

Walters presented the late news for four months, after which, Good Morning Australia (breakfast TV)

Good Morning Australia (breakfast TV)

Good Morning Australia from Network Ten was the name of two different programs. This article is for the breakfast TV show, not to be confused with Bert Newton's morning program....

newsreader Anne Fulwood

Anne Fulwood

Anne Fulwood is a former Australian newsreader and current affairs host who was born in South Australia's Riverland.-Career:Fulwood began her television career at ADS-7 in Adelaide in 1983 initally as a sports reporter...

 took over as anchor of what had now become Ten Second Edition News. The program's straight-forward style and format was a clear point of difference with competing programs on rival networks, Seven

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

's chat show Tonight Live with Steve Vizard

Tonight Live With Steve Vizard

Tonight Live with Steve Vizard was a nightly Australian comedy chat show broadcast on Seven Network in Australia. It was a one hour live studio based show broadcast nationally 5 nights a week from February 1990 to November 1993, usually commencing at 10.30 pm every week night...

(which included short news bulletins) and Nine

Nine Network

The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

's The World Tonight with Clive Robertson, quickly drawing attention and viewers. Ten's late night news would gradually introduce its own elements including business reports with Robert Gottliebsen

Robert Gottliebsen

Robert Gottliebsen is an Australian business commentator. He helped found Business Review Weekly, appears on Ten News and writes for ninemsn.-References:...

 and weather forecasts with Ray Wilkie.

Over the next few years, rival networks introduced their own late night news programs, such as the Nine Network's Nightline and Seven Nightly News: Late Edition, initially competing directly with Ten's bulletin. In November 1995, Anne Fulwood left Ten to present Seven's late national news - her replacement was 5pm Sydney co-presenter Sandra Sully

Sandra Sully

Sandra Sully may refer to:*Sandra Sully , Australian television presenter*Sandra Sully...

, would go onto anchor Ten Late News for most of the next 16 years.

Ten Late News also aired on weekend evenings at around 11pm until the axing of the Saturday edition in 2004 and the Sunday edition a year later. In 2006, the bulletin was merged with the late weeknight edition of Sports Tonight

Sports Tonight

Sports Tonight was an Australian sports information program broadcast on Network Ten . The program was broadcast on Weeknights at 10.30 pm; at 11.00pm , Fridays at 12.00am , and on Sunday from 7:30pm AEDT Sports Tonight was an Australian sports information program broadcast on Network Ten (and on...

on Monday - Thursday and presented by Brad McEwan

Brad McEwan

Brad McEwan is an Australian television personality and sports journalist.McEwan is currently sports presenter on Sydney's Ten News at Five and probably best known for his hosting duties on Network Ten's Sports Tonight....

. Charmaine Dragun

Charmaine Dragun

Charmaine Dragun was an Australian broadcast journalist and presenter. She was, with Tim Webster, the regular presenter of Ten News Perth's 5pm bulletin, which was broadcast at the time from the TEN-10 Sydney studios at Pyrmont...

 (co-anchor of the 5pm Perth bulletin) was a regular presenter of the Friday edition of the Late News from 2005 until her death in November 2007. Kathryn Robinson

Kathryn Robinson

Kathryn Robinson is an Australian journalist with Australia's Network Ten.Robinson is currently the Finance presenter on Ten Early News and a regular fill in presenter for Sydney's Ten News at Five, Ten Morning News and Ten News at Five: Weekend...

 took over presenting Friday bulletins.

In September 2011, the network announced that due to declining ratings and increased competition, the bulletin would be axed. The last edition of Ten Late News, presented by Tim Webster

Tim Webster

Tim Webster is a Australian television and radio personality. He currently is a fill-in presenter for Ten News....

, aired on Friday 30 September 2011. Main anchor Sandra Sully

Sandra Sully

Sandra Sully may refer to:*Sandra Sully , Australian television presenter*Sandra Sully...

 became co-anchor of Sydney's Ten News at Five, replacing Deborah Knight

Deborah Knight

Deborah Knight, is an Australian journalist and news presenter.Knight is currently news presenter on Weekend Today and Monday & Friday news presenter on Today.-Career:...

.

With the axing of Ten's late night news, none of Australia's three main commercial television networks provide a full-length late news program while ABC1

ABC1

ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

 provides a news bulletin during Lateline

Lateline

Lateline is an Australian television news and current affairs program produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, airing weeknights at on ABC1. The program has developed a reputation for head-to-head debates on current issues and political interviews. Lateline is followed by its sister...

and SBS

SBS

-Banking:* Swiss Bank Corporation, previously one of the major Swiss banks, now merged into UBS* SBS Bank, a building society in the Southland region of New Zealand that is now registered as a bank* Skipton Building Society* Scarborough Building Society...

airs a late evening edition of World News Australia at 9:30pm on weeknights.