“It’s late at night, you’re wide awake, and you’re not wearing pants.
So, grab your World News Now mug and everybody dance!”
Oh, sure, Kimmel, Colbert, and Fallon rule late-night television. Seth Meyers does the same for late-late night.
But a subset of the nation’s insomniacs finds comfort and community in late-late-late-night TV—specifically, the irreverent news program with its own polka, ABC World News Now.
And 2025 was a banner year for “The World News Polka,” the show’s self-satirizing, tongue-in-cheek closing theme.
I originally wrote and performed “The World News Polka” 33 years ago as a one-off gag to irritate polka-hating anchor Lisa McRee. Surprisingly, the 90-second song ribbing overnight news and its bleary-eyed viewers caught on and, with very few exceptions, has closed the Friday show ever since.
The Polka has been covered by countless bands across genres—except heavy metal (“Too jarring for a 3 a.m. audience,” says senior producer Greig Todd). Over the decades, Kermit the Frog, “Weird Al” Yankovic, The Dixie Chicks, William Shatner, and a Las Vegas Elvis impersonator have gleefully belted out our tune.
When the pandemic shut down the live entertainment industry, brilliant musician-arrangers were happy to produce homemade “World News Polka” videos just to keep busy. Today, Gen Z artists who make their living primarily through online content are eager to tackle our tune. They say their social media followers are excited to see them on the news.
And thanks to Instagram and YouTube algorithms, in recent years we’ve featured “World News Polka” videos from Australia, Belgium, England, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, and Portugal.
World News Now is an acknowledged incubator of up-and-coming anchor talent. Anderson Cooper, David Muir, and The View’s Sunny Hostin are among the familiar faces who began their national television careers in the wee hours. Current anchors Sophie Flay and Hanna Battah began their upward trajectory in 2025.
Here are the performers we welcomed to our musical family in 2025:
- Isaak Klaus & The Lederhosen Junkies
- Emily Day & Cosmo Alleycats
- Sunny & The Black Pack
- Mary Lee & Caesar’s Cowboys
- Ponpon Chen Quintet
- Chris Bandy & His Clones
- Camille “The Mole King” Charlier & The Velvet Dirtmunchers
- Paige Herschel & San Lyon
- King of Otamatones Sully G
Yes, it’s late, late LATE-night TV—where you, too, can be an “overnight” success.
Watch “The World News Polka: Best of 2025 Edition” at the top of this post.
ABC World News Now is broadcast live from New York to approximately 200 ABC affiliates nationwide from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. ET. The show is also livestreamed on abcnews.com, Hulu, Disney+, and other streaming platforms.
