This is the current version of the World News theme by Edd Kalehoff that was used in a period during which the broadcast underwent significant changes. Longtime anchor Peter Jennings died and one of his replacements, Bob Woodruff, was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Eventually the other replacement for Jennings, Elizabeth Vargas, who was in effect sole anchor as Woodruff was out of the running, was replaced by Charles Gibson. He retired after three years as anchor of the program and was succeeded by Diane Sawyer. This theme is fifteen seconds shorter than the previous versions of the theme. This is because in 2000 ABC wanted a slightly different open. Kalehoff then compressed the front part giving it a more urgent sound.

This theme was used on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings until September 29, 2000 when they got brand new graphics. The theme was actually used on the weekend editions of World News Tonight until well into 2001 when that program got a graphics update as well. The music is essentially the same as the other versions with the exception that an extra “ta-dum” was added at the end. The primary difference is that this theme sounds louder. This is because the string instruments seem to have largely been replaced with more brass.

Here is the headline cue which is slightly different than the ’89 version. Updates of the World News Tonight theme have, since 1998, been composed by New York-based composer Edd Kalehoff.

For most of the early years, Nightline used the World News Tonight theme to open the broadcast. That changed in 1997 when they started using a theme that they would use through the rest of the Ted Koppel years. He retired in 2005, amidst a flurry of network anchor retirement parties. During the last few months of his run, they experimented slightly with the program. One of the things they tried was doing multiple topics. During their months of experiments, Nightline used cold opens, so this theme was used until a few months before the retirement of Koppel.

This theme is composed by Edd Kalehoff and used on 48 Hours for about a year. When they started to use this theme, 48 Hours dropped the big spinning TV camera (with the CBS News logo on it) that used to open the program. Dan Rather continued to anchor. While he is sometimes thought to be the first network evening news anchor to also anchor a news magazine, David Brinkley was actually the first. He hosted a monthly news magazine while also anchoring the Huntley-Brinkley report. In any case, it is not very rare anymore today.

This is the second theme composed by Edd Kalehoff for 48 Hours. The previous theme however wasn’t completely dropped when they started to use this. It was still used during the cold open when the show teased its main story. This cue was used for the opening credits, which introduced all the correspondents. Around this time, Kalehoff composed a lot of themes for CBS News. His music was also used for West 57th, Face to Face, Saturday Night and Nightwatch.

This 1989 program replaced West 57th and was anchored by Connie Chung. Like West 57th it tried to set itself apart from other news magazines by doing things differently. How? In order to enhance the story telling, they used actors to recreate actual events. Critics charged that this blurred the line between news and fiction. The program, at any rate, was not very successful and only had a short run.

In 1988 CBS News started a new kind of news magazine: 48 Hours. The show drew its name, inspiration and original format from a CBS News documentary that was titled 48 Hours on Crack Street. The documentary, which attracted high ratings, was about the drug crisis and how it affected neighborhoods. Like the original documentary, the show focussed on showing events that occurred within a timespan of 48 hours, hence the name. The format was phased out in the early 1990′s. The series was anchored by Dan Rather. This is the theme they used to open the show. After three years, new music was composed and this theme was used as secondary music.

This hip and slick news magazine was started in 1985 as the 60 Minutes for a younger generation. It was named after the address of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. The show was fast paced and visually flashy but had essentially the same format as 60 Minutes. The program had no main anchor; the correspondents (like Meredith Vieira and Steve Kroft) would introduce their own stories. Despite its popularity and profitability, West 57th faced a lot of internal criticism. Dan Rather was afraid it took away resources from the CBS Evening News and Don Hewitt saw it as a younger rival to 60 Minutes. The program was cancelled in 1989.

CBS News Nightwatch was an overnight newscast. It debuted in October of 1982 and was replaced with Up to the Minute in 1992. For most of its existence, Charlie Rose anchored the program. During his tenure, the program developed from being mostly a straightforward newscast to essentially a two-hour interview show. This theme was composed by Walt Levinsky, who also did other themes for CBS at the time such as the CBS Evening News, NFL Football and College Basketball coverage. It was replaced in 1988 by a theme from Edd Kalehoff.