ABC News streamer launches ‘Searched,’ a different take on Internet-driven news

ABC News Live launched “Searched,” a trend-driven daily news program that relies heavily on search data to deliver news summaries. 

The show launched April 13, 2026.

Anchored by various ABC News personalities, including Gio Benitez and Ashan Singh, the show is described as “a fast-paced news show on ABC News Live that analyzes top trending search trends, queries and stories.”

The show airs weekdays at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. 

Produced from a single portion of an LED volume installed inside ABC News headquarters, the show uses a simulated gray brick motif on the floor tiles and on select wall elements. The rest of the wall space is filled with large graphics, including a brightly colored tech-themed design overlaid with boxed icons.

An element of this look is the use of a visual trick to make some instances of these icons and the show logo appear in a more extreme perspective, especially when compared to other elements that show up on the video walls.

In addition to segment logos, the most common graphics depict smart phone frames in both vertical and horizontal format. 

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The “Searched” insert graphics eschew the look used by most ABC News Live content in favor of rectangles with rounded corners with a dark gray background and magnifying glass icon inspired by the show’s logo, which uses a similar search box-inspired look.

‘The Spiral’ segment uses a pixelated look reminiscent of 8-bit graphics.

‘Vibe Check’ features a bold crosswalk pattern with colored accents and nighttime street imagery.

The show’s style, format and visuals are clearly meant to appeal to younger audiences and, in many ways, feels like another iteration of the internet-inspired shows that began appearing in the 1990s before riding the trend cycle for a few more lives since then. 

Ultimately, the format often ended up feeling gimmicky and largely failed to attract viewers. ABC News Live, however, wisely opted out of pushing too many interactive features. Even the lists of headlines and other segments, which are driven by search trends, are used alongside context that makes segments serve as mini news updates. 

ABC has also included on-camera appearances from SEO managers, a role that didn’t exist in newsrooms during earlier web-themed newscasts. 

“Searched” notably appears to use less on-screen topical imagery than a typical newscast, instead relying on headline scrapes, talent and visuals tied to a specific discussion point. These elements are often displayed on the LED volume and then captured by a camera in the studio alongside other graphics being fed to the screens.

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The launch of “Searched” comes as ABC News Live and other streamers, including rival NBC News Now, continue to expand and enhance their live programming offerings as linear news audiences continue to erode in favor of streaming.