The 5:30 Report. Originally co-anchored by KNVA principal owner and general manager Ron Oliveira (who, following his departure from a similar role at ABC affiliate KVUE, became lead weeknight co-anchor at KXAN that spring) and Leslie Cook (who joined KXAN that fall, after serving as an anchor/reporter at ABC affiliate KHBS/KHOG in Fort Smith–Fayetteville, Arkansas) alongside field anchor Robert Hadlock (who was reassigned to that position with Oliveira's hiring, before resuming in-studio anchor duties on KXAN's 10:00 p.m. newscast that fall), KXAN chief meteorologist Jim Spencer and sports director Roger Wallace, the weeknight-only program was produced out of a dedicated set within a secondary soundstage at KXAN's Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard studios. It directly competed against KTBC's existing 5:00 p.m. newscast, which had expanded to one hour to become the Austin market's first local newscast to be offered in the 5:30 time slot on July 3, as a byproduct of the affiliation switch from CBS to Fox that occurred the day prior. The program experienced low viewership throughout its two-year run, unable to compete with national network newscasts on KVUE, KXAN and KEYE and syndicated entertainment programs on independent station K13VC in the timeslot; The 5:30 Report was cancelled and discontinued after the edition of June 8, 1997, to be replaced on June 11 by syndicated reruns of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. (Oliveira would remain at KXAN until March 1999, when he left to become chief operating officer at upstart Telemundo affiliate KTLM in McAllen.) Locally produced newscasts returned to channel 54 after an eleven-year absence on September 21, 2009, when KXAN debuted a nightly prime time newscast at 9:00 p.m. for Channel 54, titled KXAN News at 9:00 on The CW Austin. Originally debuting as a half-hour program, it became the competitor to KTBC's in-house 9:00 p.m. newscast, a one-hour program which has been the leader in the time period since it launched in August 2000. The weeknight editions of the newscast would eventually be expanded to 45 minutes on September 21, 2015, although the weekend editions remain a half-hour in length. Filling the remainder of the timeslot on weeknights following the expansion was ), a local news satire show hosted by Austin-based comedian Brian Gaar (a half-hour "best of" edition aired on Saturdays following the 9:00 p.m. newscast). The program was discontinued on July 1, 2016, citing low viewership; reruns of ) continued to air until September