SBS Eight O'Clock News explained

SBS Eight O'Clock News (also known as SBS 8 News (SBS 8 뉴스 in Korean)) is a South Korean television news broadcasting show broadcast by SBS.

Originally anchored by Maeng Hyung-kyu on weekdays and Jung Sung-hwan on weekends. It has been aired since December 9, 1991. The newscast is aired from 7:50 pm to 9 pm KST on weekdays since September 21, 2020 and from 8 pm to 8:45 pm KST on weekends. Kim Hyun-woo and Kim Yong-tae serve as the current anchors for weekday and weekend editions respectively.

History

On 19 September 1991, SBS defined that it would air its main news bulletin at 8pm, an attempt to compete against the "frontal confrontation" between KBS News 9 and MBC Newsdesk, which occupied the 9pm timeslot.^[1] On 23 March 1992, SBS News Show at 10pm became the weekend edition of SBS News 8 due to low ratings.^[2] By 2003, it had won several awards, among them its coverage of the scandal of Vice-President Yang Gil-Seul, usage of Agent Orange in the DMZ, corruption at the Korean Navy in 1993, among others.^[3]

MBC Newsdesk suffered a crisis in viewers in the first half of 2020, causing SBS News 8 to gain more viewers.^[4]

Segments

Current segments

Since 21 September 2020, most of the segments (except the sports news and weather) has been placed on the second part, nicknamed S-Pick.

• Mobile Coverage - this seems to be a segment similar to MBC Newsdesk's Camera Launch, KBS News 9's Tracing 1234 and JTBC Newsroom's Close Camera where reporters cover stories in-depth based on reports from citizens.
• What is The Truth? - this is a segment where Lee Kyung-won appears in-studio to fact-check statements given by politicians or important events that happened within the country. Towards the end of the segment, they decide if the statement is true through 5 categories: Facts (사실), Almost True (거의 사실), True & False (사실 & 거짓), Almost Untrue (거의 거짓) and Lies (거짓). A mascot named Factkio (팩트키오) also appears during the broadcast.
• Panda to The End - a segment similar to Newsroom's Exploration Plus, it's a recurring segment where Kim Jong-won cover a certain story in-depth. The segment uses a panda as its mascot.
• Healthy Life - a segment where medical reporter Cho Dong-chan analyzes issues related to health.
• Cultural Line - a Friday-only segment where reporters do stories related to entertainment, education and other aspects of culture.
• SBS Sports News - this is a segment where Kim Yoon-sang (on weekdays) and Lee Yoon-ah (on weekends) present sports news. On 30 March 2020, Lee Seung-gi made an appearance towards the end of the segment as a part of their SBS intern special episode of Master in the House. This episode also showed Cha Eun-woo hosting the radio broadcast, while Yang Se-hyung served as Lee's backup in case of unexpected circumstances. Shin Sung-rok and Kim Dong-hyun helped out in the production side.
• SBS Weather - the weather segment presented by Nam Yoo-jin on weekdays and Saturdays, and Yang Tae-bin on Sundays.

Former segments

• Inside the Stock Market - it was a compilation of eight economy-related stories where reporters from the economy and securities team also show the stock market trades through computer graphics.
• Economic Indicators - it is similar with Inside the Stock Market above, only aired on weekdays.
• Today in History - it shows a significant historical event that happened that day.
• Issue Report: An In-depth Look/Field Report: Going Without Reservations/We Have a Tip! - established on 23 March 2019, these three segments seem to be similar to Mobile Coverage and Panda to the End.

Anchors

Kim Hyeon-woo and Kim Ga-hyeon currently anchor the weekday edition, while Jeong Yu-mi helm the weekend edition. Kim Da-young does the sports news on weekdays, and Joo Young-min does it on weekends. The weather forecast is presented by Nam Yu-jin on weekday and Saturday, while Yang Tae-bin does it on Sunday.

Main presenters

Role	Name	Duration	Notes
Main anchor (weekday)	9 December 1991—18 September 1995
	As weekend main anchor:28 October 1994—24 September 1995 As weekday main anchor: 19 September 1995—11 October 199619 October 1998—7 August 2000
	14 October 1996—27 June 1997	This was during SBS 9 O'Clock News.
	30 June 1997—16 October 1998
	As weekend main anchor:24 October 1994—16 April 2000 As weekday main anchor: 8 August 2000—27 February 2004 As one-time weekend main anchor: 29 February 2004	He also served as the director of SBS' Suwon bureau.
	1 March 2004—28 October 2005	He's currently the director for Channel A's news bureau.
	31 October 2005—18 March 20111 January 2015—16 December 2016	He was the longest-serving main anchor of the newscast and currently the director for TV Chosun's news bureau and main anchor for its flagship newscast News 9.
	21 March 2011—31 December 201419 December 2016—19 May 2017	He was convicted of illegally filming a woman, and is currently serving a six-month prison sentence.
	As weekend main anchor:24 December 2016—21 May 2017 As weekday main anchor: 22 May 2017—present
Sub-anchor (weekday)	23 March 1992—15 April 1994
	As weekend sub-anchor:5 June 1993—17 April 1994 As weekday sub-anchor: 18 April 1994—29 March 2002	She also served as anchor during SBS 9:00 News.
	As weekday sub-anchor:1 April 2002—27 February 2004 As one-time weekend sub-anchor: 29 February 2004	She is currently SBS News' policy and culture team leader.
	As weekend sub-anchor:6 April 2002—28 February 2004 As weekday sub-anchor: 1 March 2004—18 March 2011	She was the longest-serving sub-anchor of the newscast.
	As weekend sub-anchor:10 May 2008—20 March 2011 As weekday sub-anchor: 21 March 2011—18 July 2014
	As weekend sub-anchor:23 July 2011—15 January 2012 7 July 2012—14 September 2014 As weekday sub-anchor: 19 December 2016—present
Main anchor (weekend)	14 December 1991—22 March 1992
	7 July 1995—25 April 19937 October 2000—31 March 2002
	1 May 1993—22 October 1994
	26 October 1996—29 June 1997
	22 April 2000—1 October 2000
	6 March 2002—28 February 2004
	6 March 2004—20 March 2011
	26 March 2011—17 July 2011
	23 July 2011—21 February 2016	He is currently the anchor of SBS Nightline.
	27 February 2016—18 December 2016	He is currently the weekday anchor for the first two parts of Morning Wide.
	27 May 2017—1 July 2018 7 November 2020—present
	7 July 2018—1 November 2020	He filled in for Kim Hyun-woo upon his marriage to Lee Yeo-jin and leave from 16 to 20 December 2019.
Sub-anchor (weekend)	5 July 1992—29 November 1992
	6 December 1992—25 April 1993
	23, April 1994—23 October 1994
	29 October 1994—29 June 1997
	6 July 1997—28 June 1998
	4 July 1998—16 April 2000
	22 April 2000—29 April 2001
	5 May 2001—31 March 2002
	6 March 2004—4 May 2008
	26 March 2011—17 July 2011
	As weekday sub-anchor: 21 July 2014—16 December 2016As weekend sub-anchor: 21 January 2012—1 July 2012 27 May 2017—17 March 2019	She is currently a co-anchor on the first two parts of Morning Wide.
	20 September 2014—18 December 2016
	24 December 2016—21 May 2017
	23 March 2019—1 November 2020
	8 November 2020—present

Broadcast times

Year	Date	Time	Airing	Title	Notes
1991	9 December	20:00-20:30	Every day	SBS 8 News	first broadcast under the current title; SBS' first flagship newscast
1992	30 March	20:00-20:45	Weekdays		runtime extension
	5 July		Every day		absorbed SBS News Show
1993	26 April	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45			runtime extension on weekends
		Weekends: 20:00-20:20
	31 May	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45
		Weekends: 20:00-20:30
	18 October	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45
		Weekends: 20:00-20:35
1994	18 April	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45
		Weekends: 20:00-20:40
	24 October	20:00-20:45	Weekdays		separated with weekend newscast SBS News 2000
1997	3 March	21:00-21:45		SBS 9:00 News	title and weekday timeslot change
	19 May	21:00-21:50			runtime extension
	30 June	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45	Every day	SBS 8 News	integration with News Q; return to the current title
		Weekends: 20:00-20:30			timeslot variations
	27 October	Weekdays: 20:00-20:50
		Weekends: 20:00-20:35
1998	2 March	Weekdays: 20:00-20:40
		Weekends: 20:00-20:35
	19 October	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45
		Weekends: 20:00-20:35
1999	5 April	Weekdays: 20:00-20:40
		Weekends: 20:00:20:35
2004	1 March	Weekdays: 20:00-20:40
		Weekends: 20:00-20:35
2008	28 April	Weekdays: 20:00-20:45			absorbed SBS Sports News on weekends
		Weekends: 20:00-20:40
2012	5 November	Weekdays: 20:00-20:50			absorbed SBS Sports News on weekdays
		Weekends: 20:00-20:35
2013	11 March	Weekdays: 20:00-20:55			timeslot variations
		Weekends: 20:00-20:50
	1 July	Weekdays: 20:00-20:55
		Weekends: 20:00-20:45
2019	15 April	Weekdays: 19:55-20:55
		Weekends: 20:00-20:45
	13 May	Weekdays: 20:00-20:55
		Weekends: 20:00-20:45
2020	21 September	Weekdays: 19:50-21:00
		Weekends: 20:00-20:45

Regional newscasts outside Seoul

Local SBS affiliates outside Seoul cutaway from the national 8 NEWS during the second half of the program, to broadcast their respective flagship regional newscasts. A typical evening newscast in these areas runs for 20 minutes on weekdays and 10 minutes on weekends. Local newscasts have the option to self-produce sports and weather segments, but others chose to opt back in to SBS for such segments; regardless, after the weather segment, the newscast always ends by the local affiliate's newscast title and anchors.

Station	Local Newscast	Hosts
KNN	KNN NEWS eye	Kim Je-hyun and Kim Da-rom
TBC	TBC 8 NEWS	Kwon Joon-bum and Kim Myung-mi (weekdays), Lee Hyang-won and Kim Da-eun (weekends)
UBC	UBC PRIME NEWS	Yeon Jung-taek and Jang Soo-jung
TJB	TJB 8 NEWS	Roh Dong-hyun and Kim Hyun-ji
G1	G1 8 NEWS	Kim Woo-jin and Park Sun-young
CJB	CJB 8 NEWS	Hwang Soo-dong and Yeon Kyu-ok
JTV	JTV 8 NEWS	Lee Seung-hwan and Seo Joo-young
KBC	KBC 8 NEWS	Lee In-soo and Kang Min-kyung (weekdays), Go Eun-cheon (weekends)
JIBS	JIBS 8 NEWS	Lee Yong-tak and Kim Ji-hyun (weekdays), Kim Min-hyung and Lee Jung-min (Saturdays)

See also

• KBS News 9
• MBC Newsdesk
• JTBC Newsroom

Notes and References

1. News: 12월개국 SBS TV 종합뉴스 밤8시 편성 . . September 19, 1991 . ko.
2. News: SBS-TV 23일부터 프로개편 . Maeil Business Daily . March 9, 1992 . ko.
3. News: SBS, 시청자와 함께 13년 . Naver News . SBS . November 14, 2003 . ko.
4. News: 정 . 철운 . 2020년 메인뉴스 시청자수 JTBC 제친 TV조선 . Media Today . December 29, 2020 . ko.