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Chicago Tonight
Genre	Television news magazine
Format	news television program
Starring	Phil Ponce Carol Marin Elizabeth Brackett Rich Samuels Eddie Arruza Christian Farr Joel Weisman John Callaway
Theme music composer	Nick Tremulis Herbie Hancock[1]
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	N/A (airs daily)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mary Field
Location(s)	Chicago, IL
Camera setup	multi-camera
Running time	57 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	WTTW
Picture format	NTSC (480i)
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	– present
External links
Official website

Chicago Tonight is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on WTTW in Chicago. Chicago Tonight reports primarily on local news and presents features showcasing local artists and events.

Monday through Thursday night the program is hosted primarily by Phil Ponce. On Friday, Joel Weisman hosts the 30 minute Friday Night segment, a panel discussion with four or five journalists on the topics of politics, business, and sports. This is followed by a 30-minute segment with an in-depth interview, conducted by John Callaway until his death June 23, 2009.

Features

Regular Weekly Features

• Every Night
  • News Analysis: discussion and analysis of news of the day with Carol Marin (Monday and Wednesday), Elizabeth Brackett (Tuesday) and Eddie Arruza (Thursday)
• Mondays
  • Movie review by a critic-for-a-day (a local personality whose profession or experience is connected to the reviewed movie)
  • Viewer Mail
  • Bears Alumni Club (after Sunday Chicago Bears games)
• Tuesdays
  • Local theater reviews by Hedy Weiss (often airs on Wednesday instead, doesn't necessarily air every week)
  • Tuesday Commentary - a short, topical editorial (with by Judy Baar Topinka, Mancow Muller, or Dawn Trice)
• Wednesdays
  • Live Music Wednesday - conversation with a musician followed by a performance at the end of the show
• Thursdays
  • Weekend activities and events with an editor from Time Out Chicago (usually Laura Baginski)
  • Ask... alternating segments with Ask Alpana (Alpana Singh) on viewer questions about wine and Ask Geoffrey (Geoffrey Baer) on viewer questions about Chicago people, places and Trivia.
  • Viewer Mail (expanded from a Monday-only segment in October 2007)
• Fridays
  • The week in Review with Joel Weisman - round table with four local journalists
  • Friday Night with John Callaway - in-depth interview

Semi-regular Features

• Artbeat Chicago - a profile of a local artist/performer, or a group of artists/performers, usually focusing on a recent work
• Chicago Matters - an annual public information series made possible by The Chicago Community Trust (In 2007, the Beyond Borders theme explored immigration in America. The 2008 theme is Growing Forward.)

Former Features

• Government InAction - a short segment that aired from October to November 2007 to showcase inefficiencies and corruption in city, county and state government
• Check Please! Supper Club (on Thursday nights) with Alpana Singh suspended in early 2008 in favor of "Ask..." segments (showcasing recipes from Check, Please!)

External links

• Official website (now with recent videos)
• Chicago Tonight: Who's Who
• Hedy Weiss reviews at the Sun Times