America Tonight was a late-night news program on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. It aired on weeknights at 11:30pm ET (10:30pm CT) from October 1, 1990 to March 29, 1991. It was hosted by Charles Kuralt

Charles Kuralt

Charles Kuralt was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.Kuralt's "On the Road"...

 (in New York) and Lesley Stahl

Lesley Stahl

Lesley Rene Stahl is an American television journalist. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS on 60 Minutes.-Personal life:...

 (in Washington). On Friday nights, Robert Krulwich

Robert Krulwich

Robert Krulwich is an American radio and television journalist whose specialty is explaining complex topics in depth. He has worked as a full-time employee of ABC, CBS, National Public Radio, and Pacifica. He has done assignment pieces for ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, as well as PBS's...

 and Edie Magnus anchored the program instead.

History

Much like ABC's rival Nightline

Nightline

Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...

, which grew out of unexpectedly-popular late night reports on the Iran hostage crisis

Iran hostage crisis

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...

 a decade earlier, America Tonight was what replaced late-night news reports on the Gulf War (branded "Showdown in the Gulf") also hosted by Kuralt and Stahl. CBS, seeing good ratings for these programs, looked to solve its constant late-night ratings woes by putting a regular program with Kuralt and Stahl on the air. In addition, at the time, overnight news was making a comeback: at the time America Tonight was making its debut, the other networks were making plans for their own overnight newscasts (which would debut in 1991, specifically NBC Nightside

NBC Nightside

NBC Nightside was an overnight news program which aired from 1991 to 1998 on NBC. The show was produced in three half-hour long segments. It usually aired live nightly from 1:00-2:30 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by rebroadcasts until 4:30 or 5 a.m...

and ABC's World News Now

World News Now

World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...

).

The format of the program was much like a newsmagazine, with three main segments of more than five minutes plus other snippets of news.

Upon its debut, criticism was fast to come to the surface. Howard Rosenberg

Howard Rosenberg

Howard Rosenberg is a retired TV critic for the Los Angeles Times. He worked there for 25 years and won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In recent years he has written the book No Time to Think: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-Hour News Cycle with Charles S. Feldman and compiled an anthology of...

, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, called the pairing lacking in "chemistry and cohesion" and the format "musty". Walter Goodman of the New York Times called it "less venturesome [than Nightline]", but "better than nothing, which as late-night news goes, is something".

The program was cancelled early in 1991, and its last airing was March 29, 1991. At that time, Stahl, in addition to being CBS News' White House correspondent and then-moderator of Face the Nation

Face the Nation

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday-morning political interview show which premiered on the CBS television network on November 7, 1954. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television...

, became a correspondent for 60 Minutes

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

.