News operation
KLAS-TV presently broadcasts 38 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 1/2 hours each weekday, two hours on Saturdays and 3 1/2 hours on Sundays); in addition, the station formerly produced an additional five hours of local newscasts for its second subchannel (with one hour each weekday). Although channel 8 does not produce a Saturday edition of its morning newscast, 8 News Now: Good Day, the station does produce a newscast which airs for 3 hours weekday mornings from 4 to 7 a.m. and on Sunday mornings for an hour at 5:30 a.m. and a half-hour at 8 a.m., since channel 8 airs CBS Saturday Morning. The evening news runs at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
KLAS previously branded its newscasts as Eyewitness News, taking over the name from 1982 after KVBC discontinued using the branding, and used it until late 2009, when its newscasts adopted the 8 News Now title from KOLO-TV in Reno. In the early 1980s, the station's newscasts were branded as Newscenter 8, and used the opening Phenix Horns music of Earth, Wind & Fire's 1979 single "In the Stone" for two years. On September 21, 1981, KLAS-TV became the first station in the state of Nevada to provide hour-long newscasts. For years, KLAS produced a daily interview show, which aired on sister channel Las Vegas One; the program moved to NBC affiliate KVBC (channel 3, now KSNV) in January 2010.
Beginning in the fall of 2002, KLAS produced a 10 p.m. newscast for KTUD-CA called Eyewitness News at 10 on UPN. In the fall of 2006, when KTUD became an independent station, that station was rebranded on-air as "Vegas TV" and the newscasts was renamed to suit the new identity. Shortly after the merger, however, the station dropped the 10 p.m. newscast. KTUD later revived its 10 p.m. newscast, this time produced by KSNV, from October 2009 to August 2010.
In March 2006, KLAS revamped the station's morning newscast, which was branded as Eyewitness News This Morning at the time.
On September 17, 2006, KLAS became the first station in the Las Vegas market and the state of Nevada, and the eleventh station in the United States, to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.
Just after Nexstar purchased the station, it was announced that Nexstar might discontinue the 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. half-hours of the station's weekday morning newscast. Starting on February 25, 2015, Nexstar would lay off at least 18 of the station's employees, mainly in the news department's business and traffic divisions; some jobs related to the station's Internet operations were also removed as the station's web operations moved onto Nexstar's Lakana platform. The station's news helicopter was also discontinued.[13][14][15][16]
On October 10, 2018, channel 8 began producing an hour-long weeknight 9 p.m. newscast for its second digital subchannel, making it the only television station in Las Vegas to air a local newscast in that timeslot. The newscast was later canceled.
Awards
KLAS has won more than 100 awards for its news coverage, including investigative documentaries about the American Mafia and UFOs.[2] In 1986, United Press International awarded it "Best Newscast in America". As of 1992, it frequently dominated ratings in local newscasts.[17] In 2011, KLAS received 19 nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, eclipsing its rival news stations.[18]
