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During the early years of world news update, local ABC affiliates often used to preempt the program (along with its sister network newsmagazine rebroadcast Tamron Hall) for syndicated programming such as Daytime Jeopardy! and the Saturday morning children’s programming block Litton’s Weekend Adventure. However, starting in September 2011, network O&Os such as WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and New York flagship station WABC-TV dropped this practice and began clearing World News Now as of its original 3:30 a.m. airtime.
World News Now features serious and sometimes off-beat stories along with weather forecasts, sports highlights and repurposed segments and story packages from other ABC News programs. The show is also known for a number of other recurring segments, including the “World News Polka” (played on a keyboard accordion), the Insomniac Theater where the anchors would occasionally provide a rating of recent film releases and the Insomniac Kitchen in which an on-air chef visits a New York City restaurant to demonstrate how to make late-night snacks that viewers can enjoy at home. In addition, every time an anchor moved on from the show, a short send-off segment was aired where a cardboard cutout of the anchor appeared in a graphic of the studio’s rafters and monitors.