West 57th

West 57th was a CBS network news magazine television program which aired from August 13, 1985, through September 9, 1989.

The show's original correspondents were Jane Wallace, Bob Sirott, Meredith Vieira and John Ferrugia. Later contributors included Steve Kroft, Selina Scott, Karen Burnes and Stephen Schiff.

Reaction
Despite serious reporting on issues like the Iran-Contra affair, the Challenger explosion, and the dangers of grey market drugs, "West 57th" was criticized for its slickness and superficiality; this may have been because "60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt campaigned against the program both internally at CBS and through media contacts outside the company.

The Christian Science Monitor called it "a ditsy, disco-beat docu-mag for viewers with a short attention span".

In The New York Times, John Corry wrote that the program "isn't really television, and it certainly isn't journalism; it's video, and it's a mess. Nothing works well except the synthesizer music. It's as if news and entertainment fell into combat and neither side won.

However, Washington Post critic Tom Shales seemed to speak for the younger generation when he wrote about West 57th's investigative reporting: "What's again impressive is the quality of footage obtained, especially unusual on an investigative piece like this. "West 57th" is raising the standards of broadcast journalism as far as video photography and editing are concerned."