The Insider

The Insider is an American syndicated newsmagazine television program that was distributed by CBS Television Distribution. The program premiered in first-run syndication on September 13, 2004 and ended on September 9, 2017, as a spin-off of Entertainment Tonight, which originated the concept as a segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information on stories and topics of interest from throughout the entertainment industry. When it became a separate program, it shifted toward a tabloid direction, and had several format changes throughout its thirteen seasons on the air before settling on a final format at the start of the 2011–12 season, when shed many of the tabloid elements and became more of a straight rundown of entertainment news, providing coverage of events and celebrities, interviews and inside looks at upcoming film and television projects. The program's weekday broadcasts were anchored by Louis Aguirre and Debbie Matenopoulos; its weekend editions were anchored by Michael Yo and Keltie Knight, who also served as correspondents for the weekday editions. History Starting out with a bi-coastal format, the program was originally hosted by Pat O'Brien – who was based in Hollywood at Paramount Studios Stage 28, where Entertainment Tonights set was also housed at the time – and Lara Spencer – who was based at MTV's One Astor Plaza studio in New York City, overlooking Times Square. In its first season, The Insider originally maintained a news-heavy format, making way for a direction where subjects such as a pair of anorexic nervosa twin sisters from Australia (who died in an April 2012 house fire) were regularly featured in sweeps periods, along with other fringe stories such as true crime stories and the Nadya Suleman story, which had little or nothing to do with the entertainment industry.