This Day Tonight

This Day Tonight (commonly abbreviated as "TDT") was an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) evening current affairs program of the years 1967 to 1978.

When TDT premiered in 1967 it was the first regular nightly current affairs program on Australian TV, and it extended ABC's award-winning coverage of current affairs, which had begun in the early 1960s with its flagship weekly program Four Corners.

TDT was hosted for the first eight years by journalist Bill Peach. The original on-air team was Peach and reporters Peter Luck, Paul Murphy, Tony Joyce and June Heffernan. Noted Australian journalist, author and filmmaker Tim Bowden also worked on the show as a producer. Other producers included Stuart Littlemore and John Crew.

It was a training ground for a generation of leading Australian TV journalists, including Gerald Stone (later the producer of the Australian 60 Minutes), Richard Carleton, Caroline Jones, Sonia Humphrey,Mike Willesee, George Negus, Mike Carlton, Allan Hogan and Peter Couchman.

TDT was renowned for its hard-hitting interviews, a craft brought to a high degree of perfection by Carlton and Negus; the program subjected Australian politicians to a novel degree of questioning and raised the hackles of politicians on both sides who were unused to being placed under such scrutiny. It also broke new ground with its famous "empty chair" tactic, naming politicians who had declined to appear on the show and showing the empty chair where an absent invitee was supposed to be seated.

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