Network News Music: Recent Episodes
None
After Ted Koppel’s retirement in 2005, Nightline underwent a major transformation that ultimately led to a ratings boost. The show shifted away from its traditional focus on daily news interviews—an area that cable news networks and later podcasts began to dominate—and embraced a more magazine-style format. Koppel was replaced by a team of three anchors, and production moved from Washington, D.C., to New York. As part of this reinvention, Nightline’s theme music was completely reworked by Joe Saba and Stew Winter of VideoHelper. The new, percussion-driven score helped the program stand out from other news broadcasts. The theme made a return when Nightline celebrated its 45th anniversary, which also saw the return of the classic logo.
VideoHelper – Nightline themehttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/11/abcntl05.mp3
In February of 2025 ABC News Live was relaunched with new graphics and music, the first rebranding in five years. This theme is urgent, dark, and full of energy, grabbing your attention from the start. It incorporates pumping synths often associated with EDM music, adding to its intensity. The music is rich and colorful, achieved by combining various electronic and acoustic instruments, making it difficult to isolate any one individual sound. It’s a track that couldn’t possibly be performed live, featuring a staggering 165 instruments. Composer Matthew Kajcienski explains, “If something needs more depth, I’ll combine five or six different instruments to achieve exactly that.”
Matthew Kajcienski – ABC News Live primetime themehttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/abcnlpt.mp3After the primetime version was completed, Kajcienski created a daytime adaptation that is lighter in tone. The key was raised, altering the timbres of the instruments, and the percussion was reworked. Kajcienski explains, “I stripped out a lot of the punchy, lower-end sounds, replacing them with alternate instruments and textures.”
Matthew Kajcienski – ABC News Live daytime themehttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/abcnldt.mp3
The 1987 theme for CBS Evening News marked the first time the program used an orchestral composition. Prior to this, CBS News adhered to a policy, imposed by CBS-TV President Frank Stanton, that prohibited the use of music. This policy had its roots in the early days of television news when many newscasts relied on syndicated footage accompanied by inexpensive production music. To distinguish itself and demonstrate that it used original footage, CBS chose to forgo music entirely. At the time, their music library consisted largely of tracks used for old radio soap operas, which were deemed inappropriate for news programming. For several years, CBS used a simple ticker sound for the opening, bumper, and closing of Evening News, and from 1984 to 1987, the program featured no music at all.
However, as CBS’s ratings began to decline and NBC’s Nightly News theme, composed by John Williams, gained popularity with viewers, CBS executives decided to revisit their policy. They commissioned composers John Trivers, Elizabeth Myers, and Alan James Pasqua to create a new theme. The music was recorded at 20th Century Fox’s soundstage and took six hours to record.
This theme was retired in 1991, but made two comebacks. When Scott Pelley became anchor of the CBS Evening News in 2011, CBS executives wanted to “reach back into the DNA of CBS News” and decided to bring the theme back. The original recordings were used, though they were slightly remastered. In 2025 when Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson took over as co-anchors, the theme once again returned.
Trivers Myers Music – CBS Evening News closehttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cbsen87.mp3In the late ’80s they used different openings, but here you can find the one they used quite often. The opening that they have been using since 2011 is a bit different. It’s actually a remixed version of the last part of the long credit close above.
Trivers Myers Music – CBS Evening News open (2011 version)https://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cbsen11o.mp3Trivers Myers Music – CBS Evening News open (1987 version)https://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cbsen87o.mp3Trivers Myers Music – CBS Evening News headlineshttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cbsen87hl.mp3This is an especially beautiful version, called the pastoral bumper. It has been used for funerals and broadcasts with particular gravitas.
Trivers Myers Music – CBS Evening News pastoral bumperhttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/cbsen87pb.mp3
Stay Tuned Now with Gadi Schwartz is the rare national primetime news show based in Los Angeles, airing daily on NBC News Now. Gadi Schwartz is an unconventional journalist and reaches a younger audience in a way that’s most authentic to that generation. As such, the theme needed to be very modern, fast-paced and upbeat. One of the things Gadi added to the mix was the suggestion to incorporate breakbeats, an idea which Current Music had been exploring just the day before they got his note. “It was very exciting to feel like we were on the same page with his vision and that validation was amazing,” said Current Music CEO Maddie Madsen.
Current Music – Stay Tuned Now themehttps://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/nbc23stn.mp3
NBC News Daily is a daytime newscast that replaced the long-running soap opera Days Of Our Lives on the NBC schedule. The theme is produced by Current Music and composed by SIKORA, a pop/rock record producing and songwriting duo consisting of Matthew Sikora and Liz Forde. SIKORA also created the “Top Story w/Tom Llamas” nighttime […]
“Top Story w/Tom Llamas” is the primetime news show on the NBC News Now platform. The theme is produced by Current Music, with composers Matthew Sikora and Elizabeth Forde. Current Music, a boutique custom music and licensing house, has created 25 news, sports and talk show theme packages as of September 2021. The founders, Christian Salyer and more »
For its election night coverage, CBS News used a theme composed by Nick Murray on behalf of MIBE Music. The music has lots of movement and creates a sense of anticipation, a befitting conclusion to a highly charged election between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump. There’s not a lot of melody because when more »
With the start of the fall 2020 TV season, ABC’s World News Tonight went back to its roots. The top rated newscast picked up its classic theme again. It’s not the same version as was used before 2012, when it was replaced by a totally new theme. Though it is not exactly new either. It’s more »
ABC News Live is a 24/7 streaming news service that launched in 2018. For their theme music, they turned to Matthew Kajcienski. In terms of creative direction, ABC had asked for something forward-thinking, a sound that felt large/important, and did not use traditional instrumentation. Kajcienski explains his approach: “I decided to approach the theme’s foundation more »
When Norah O’Donnell took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News, the program debuted a new look and sound. The new theme is a remixed version of the previous one with lots of EDM elements. After a few months, the program relocated to Washington, D.C. That made it the first network evening news program more »
To highlight the “news first” focus through the new show open, Good Morning America wanted its theme to carry a weight of importance and power. However, executives wanted to completely steer away from anything orchestral to set it apart from the competition. So composer Matthew Kajcienski of DreamArtists Music was asked to write a theme more »
For the 2018 midterm election, NBC went back to the theme that is since 2004 most closely associated with its election coverage. Composer Michael Karp did some additional versions of the election theme for NBC and MSNBC that were used in addition to the 2016 versions. The longevity of the theme is amazing. NBC did, however, replace more »
The ABC election theme for the 2018 midterms takes advantage of a full orchestra, electronics, and massive percussion section to convey a renewed sense of importance and urgency. Trumpet fanfares, snare drums, and soaring string melodies more in tune with an olympic event, are replaced with a more serious drive and balance the line between urgency more »
WCBS Newsradio 880 is a news and talk radio station in the New York metropolitan area. When they needed a new theme package, they turned to Man Made Music. The station wanted something that did not sound too self-important. The result is something that blends in well with the greater CBS News sonic brand for more »
A few months after Margaret Brennan took over as moderator, Face the Nation was given a makeover that brought it more in line with the look and feel of other CBS News programs. The theme was recorded a month before its debut in the studios of Man Made Music in New York. Each section of more »
It is not so common these days for news themes to last more than 3 or 4 years, but Nightline was the exception in ABC’s news line-up. Several challenges arose, including how to approach the new sound with such a long-lasting previous identity. As the show took on an updated/current look, composers Matthew Kajcienski and Adam Schoenberg more »
Stay Tuned is NBC News’ twice-a-day show on Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram. The theme was composed by The Perch, a new L.A. based boutique studio. Lead composer Matthew Kajcienski explained to us that it took quite a different approach when compared to writing for network or cable news shows. Because it airs on a social media platform, more »
This is quite a departure from the past. The theme to This Week has always been a particularly harmonic and melodic driven work. This time, ABC execs wanted a track in which the backbone was completely percussive-driven. Though this might sound straight-forward, over 45 individual percussive instruments were used to create the new sound for This more »
After just a little more than a year, and with the addition of Michael Strahan to the GMA anchor desk, ABC wanted to give the show a “bigger, bolder” sound to replace the more pop-centered theme of 2015. ABC turned to their friends at DreamArtists Music and composer Matthew Kajcienski to write the show’s main more »
For the 2016 election, composer Michael Karp revised his legendary NBC election theme that has been on the air since 2004. It includes an entirely new thematic section, a new vamp section and other minor updates. In addition to MSNBC and CNBC, NBC also uses it for various election events such as “The Commander-in-Chief Forum”. Michael Karp more »