When Inside Edition first premiered in January 1989,[3] the program's format originally took on a high-brow approach, focusing on general news and investigative journalism.

In point of fact, Inside Edition was one of the original "Big Three" tabloid journalism-style newsmagazines of the early 1990s on American television—alongside Fox's A Current Affair and Paramount's Hard Copy – which fiercely competed with each other in syndication during that period (and is the only one that remains on the air).

In addition to being one of the first American broadcasters to cover the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, O'Reilly obtained the first exclusive interview with murderer Joel Steinberg and was the first television host from a national current affairs program on the scene of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In September 1992, the program launched a spin-off newsmagazine, Inside Edition Extra, which was co-produced by King World and then CBS affiliate WHDH (channel 7, now an independent station), which broadcast its parent series in the Boston market.

Unlike its parent show, Inside Edition Extra was not able to attain high ratings and was canceled at the end of the 1992–93 season; it would be replaced by American Journal, which went on to a longer five-year run.

In the 1990s, Inside Edition was classified by the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism as "tabloid press"[6] and a "pseudo news program.