3 National News - 15 sec promo (1989)
Channel: Patrick Te Pou
Date: 2022-12-03

At 6pm on the evening of Monday 27 November 1989, the first ever 3 National News bulletin was broadcast on New Zealand's first private television network, TV3 (now Three).

The first bulletin was read by the late Philip Sherry, with Greg Clark on sport and Belinda Todd on weather. 3 National News was followed at 6.30pm by TV3's short-lived nightly current affairs programme, A Current Affair, fronted by the late Genevieve Westcott.

The network began transmission with a two-hour grand preview the night before (26 November) and regular programming commenced at 7am the next morning with the Early Bird Show - introduced by Russell Rooster, Kiri Kea and friends, and featuring such cartoons as Garfield, DuckTales, The Wuzzles and Dennis the Menace. The Early Bird Show had news updates on the half hour all morning, with Joanna Paul reading the morning news.

Here's a 15 second trailer promoting 3 National News and the welcome return of "Mr Credibility", Philip Sherry, to New Zealand television since November 1986 when Judy Bailey and Neil Billington (later Richard Long from 1988 to 2003) took over as co-anchors of TVNZ's newly rebranded "Network News" (now 1 NEWS).

Philip Sherry, to me, was deservedly one of New Zealand television's legendary newscasters - just like the late Bill Toft and Dougal Stevenson during the NZBC era. Sadly, he passed away on 18 July 2021.

Special thanks to YouTube channel @sleek822 for the use of this clip.

Subtitles available (in English and Māori).