Current Affair Is Coming Back

By Paige Albiniak
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Twentieth Television confirmed Tuesday that it is developing a new version of news magazine A Current Affair, which aired in syndication from 1986-96. Peter Brennan will return to executive-produce.

The new Current Affair is slated to launch next fall on the Fox Television Station Group, which covers 45% of the country. Syndication insiders say the mandate to bring back A Current Affair comes all the way from the top of News Corp., which means Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch was intimately involved in starting A Current Affair in 1986, recruiting Maury Povich from Murdoch’s Fox-owned station in Washington to anchor the program.

This time around, Povich won’t be involved with the show since he is hosting his own program, NBC Universal’s Maury.
No anchor for the new show has been chosen, says a Twentieth spokesman. A Current Affair made a big splash when it debuted, averaging a 6.4 household rating during the 10 years it was on the air.
Its series high was an 8.3 and it won an Emmy in 1989 for Outstanding Informational Series.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.