Previously, former ITV franchise holder for Wales and the West of England TWW had provided short evening bulletins known as TWW Reports, presented jointly from studios in Cardiff and Bristol, where the station ran a joint news operation covering the two areas.

Up until the early 1980s, the first half of the programme also aired on HTV's 'General Service', followed by a full edition of Report Wales.

The opening of a digital broadcast centre at HTV's Bristol studios in 1997 led to the relaunch of the main evening programme as The West Tonight.

On 4 December 2006, ITV Central disbanded its South Midlands sub-region and the parts of Gloucestershire served by Central News South joined the majority of the county already covered by ITV West and began receiving The West Tonight.

The Westcountry Tonight was launched on Monday 16 February 2009, although a full regional news service for the West was restored in September 2013.