ABC's Wide World of Entertainment

On the March 6, 1975, edition of Good Night America, Rivera had as his guests assassination of John F. Kennedy researchers Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory, who presented the first-ever network television showing of the Zapruder film. The public's response and outrage to that television showing quickly led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, and resulted in the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation.^[7]

ABC Late Night

The comedy and variety specials proved to be unpopular and, along with most of the talk shows, were dropped by the summer of 1974. They were replaced with reruns of television films and the programming block was re-titled ABC Late Night on January 12, 1976. In addition to movies (which were seen under the ABC Movie of the Week banner), the network aired a variety of prime-time series reruns including Police Woman, Mannix, Starsky & Hutch, Soap, Barney Miller, Charlie's Angels and Fantasy Island, with the only first-run programming a series of specials hosted by Geraldo Rivera and the sketch comedy series Fridays. However, not all programs were carried by all the affiliates. ABC Late Night ended on October 22, 1982, being replaced with talk show The Last Word on October 26. The Last Word last aired on April 22, 1983, leaving ABC without regular late-night network programming–aside from Nightline and a short-lived block in the fall of 1986 featuring a revival of the Dick Cavett Show alternating with an interview show hosted by Jimmy Breslin –until January 6, 1992, when World News Now was launched.

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