The news department recovered, expanding the number of local newscasts it produced, and has since received three George Foster Peabody Awards.

The CW affiliation briefly moved to a subchannel of KNXV-TV to allow channel 61 to air Arizona Coyotes hockey games.

The two stations share studios on 44th Street on Phoenix's east side; KNXV-TV's transmitter is located atop South Mountain.

[4] New Television Corporation expected to begin broadcasting within a year and was intended to place a heavy emphasis on news programming, airing three 90-minute newscasts at different times between 4 p.m. and midnight.

[5] The lone legacy of this intended format was the station's call sign, KNXV-TV, standing for "Newswatch 15" (the "XV" stood for 15 in Roman numerals).

[8] Lasky would end up launching or purchasing three other stations: WTTO in Birmingham, Alabama; WCGV-TV in Milwaukee; and WQTV in Boston.

[18] ON TV sued KNXV over its refusal to cede early evening hours, which generated 60 percent of the station's revenue.

In mid-1985, KNXV began producing Friday Night at the Frights starring "Edmus Scarey" (portrayed by Ed Muscare), a series of hosted B-movies.

Muscare resigned in September 1986, shortly before being arrested on charges of sexual battery with a minor stemming from an incident in Florida.

[23] The station also became the over-the-air broadcaster of the Suns again;[24] it lost the rights to televise the team's games to KUTP (channel 45) in 1988[25] with the figure increasing to 30 beginning in the 1990–91 season.

[39] KTVK's loss of the ABC affiliation was attributed to it being a standalone, family-run operation, while Scripps held substantial clout as a major broadcast chain.

[40] Over the second half of 1994, ABC programming migrated from KTVK to KNXV in stages as the outgoing affiliate shed a variety of its soon-to-be former network's offerings.

[42][43][a] In 1999, the station moved to a new $31 million studio facility that included two studios and a helipad;[45] KDRX-LP, the low-power Telemundo affiliate, then acquired KNXV's former building in 2001, allowing it to start producing its own local newscasts;[46] KNXV-TV had previously produced KDRX's first local news program in 1997.

[48] On July 27, 2007, two news helicopters leased to KNXV and KTVK collided while covering a police pursuit in downtown Phoenix.

This would create a new duopoly between KNXV and KASW, the third in the Phoenix market after Fox Television Stations's KSAZ-TV/KUTP and Meredith Corporation's KPHO-TV/KTVK.

The subchannel continued to carry programming from Antenna TV in all other time periods and assumed KASW's former cable channel 6 allotment on Cox Communications in the Phoenix metro area.

[58][59] The affiliation lasted less than three months on KNXV 15.2; effective February 1, 2024, the network moved to KAZT-TV (channel 7) after CW owner Nexstar Media Group entered into a time brokerage agreement with KAZT-TV's owner, Londen Media Group, to program that station.

[63] The founding news director, Mary Cox, soon exited; she was replaced by Susan Sullivan, who created an environment focused on enterprise and investigative reporting that employees described as "utopian".

[64] Bob Rowe, a station manager "excommunicated" by Scripps to Phoenix, was just as influential in the early years of KNXV's news operation, laying the groundwork for a "no chit-chat" approach.

It also led to critical acclaim: in 1995, channel 15 won the most regional Emmy Award nominations for a Phoenix station.

[66] Under Jeff Klotzman, channel 15's fourth news director,[64] ratings generally fell for the station's newscasts; he resigned in 1998 and was replaced by Bob Morford,[67] whose format tended to deemphasize reporters.

[71] On April 1, 2009, Scripps joined with Fox Television Stations, owner of KSAZ-TV, to form Local News Service, a model for pooling newsgathering efforts for local news events in which each station provided employees to the pool service in exchange for the sharing of video.

[95] The Antenna TV subchannel, beginning with the 2024–25 NHL season, airs select Utah Hockey Club and Vegas Golden Knights games during conflicts with sister station KASW.