the station made extensive changes to its news schedule: the 10 p.m. newscast moved back to 11 p.m., and newscasts were added in various other timeslots: besides the 11 p.m. news, it initially only ran one other half-hour newscast, at 6 p.m. On July 31, 1995, the station debuted an hour-long 6 a.m. newscast; in early August, the 6 p.m. newscast was dropped due to low ratings in favor of an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast (the CBS Evening News, which originally aired at 5:30, then moved to the 6 p.m. timeslot Seattle stations have traditionally scheduled the network newscasts). Both newscasts were removed on March 11, 1996, in favor of newscasts at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. emphasizing health and consumer features. During this time, KSTW was among the first stations to use the 11 at 11 branding on its 11 p.m. newscast (as did Gaylord's station in Dallas–Fort Worth, KTVT, using a modified 11 on 11 branding on its 10 p.m. newscast); this format included the top stories and a weather forecast in an 11-minute first segment, with the next segment serving as an in-depth "Northwest News Extra" report. After being sold to Paramount Stations Group, the station's 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. newscasts were immediately cut, and on June 9, 1997, the 11 p.m. newscast (the only newscast to have remained largely unchanged from March 1995) expanded to an hour (pushing the Late Show with David Letterman to midnight) in preparation for its return to the 10 p.m. timeslot. The late evening newscast reverted to the 10 p.m. timeslot after the switch to UPN on June 30. KSTW's news department was shut down on December 4, 1998, as a result of cost-cutting measures mandated by then-parent company Viacom; the move came after the company cancelled newscasts on its UPN stations in Tampa–St. Petersburg and Boston. News returned to the station in March 2003, as it began to carry a 10 p.m. newscast produced by KIRO-TV under a news share agreement. The newscast was dropped on December 19, 2003, but returned on June 28, 2004, before being cancelled again, this time permanently, in June 2005; from then on until July 2022, the time slot was filled with syndicated programming. After dropping traditional newscasts, KSTW aired two specially focused news programs on Sunday mornings: the business-focused program, South Sound Business Report (produced by Business Examiner and also broadcast by Tacoma