Oftentimes, the newscast features serious as well as offbeat stories. Also featured are weather predictions for obscure places and locations around the world — for example, Cicely, Alaska and Twin Peaks, Washington. In addition, the show occasionally features odd or quirky segments such as “InsomniACTS” (a music performance segment — sometimes featuring local jazz musicians) and a “World News Polka” (usually played on accordion by comedian Barry Mitchell). Another feature is Insomniac Theater, which airs on Friday nights and showcases a quick film review or trivia fact presented by one of the WNN anchors. Several segments are repurposed from ABC News program archives.
The show’s original set was modeled after the set of ABC World News Tonight and ABC’s nightly newscasts, and when a full-time anchor leaves the program, a ceremony is held with cardboard cutouts of the anchor standing in front of a graphic of the original set’s rafters and monitors. In a similar ceremony, e-mails sent to the program by viewers are read aloud by an ABC News announcer, and the anchors sometimes respond humorously.
World News Update is aired on network-owned ABC stations across the country; however, some local affiliates opt to preempt it in favor of their own late-night newscasts or other programming. Until September 2011, three ABC stations owned by Citadel Communications – KCAU-TV in Sioux City, Iowa; KLKN-TV in Lincoln, Nebraska; and WOI-DT in Ames, Iowa – preempted the newscast to air a simulcast of the cable home shopping network Jewelry Television.