The program was created by John Tomlin and Bob Young, whose concept was picked up by King World Productions (which CBS Corporation – itself having acquired King World through its December 2005 split from Viacom – folded into CBS Television Distribution in September 2007; both CBS and Viacom would re-merge as ViacomCBS in 2019) in the winter of early 1988, for a debut during the 1988–89 television season. When "Inside Edition" first premiered in January 1989, the program's format originally took on a high-brow approach, focusing on general news and investigative journalism. The first anchor of the program was David Frost, who was demoted to a correspondent role after approximately three weeks, due to poor ratings under the original concept.