[3] Following the cancellation of Real Life, presented by Stan Grant late in 1994, Today Tonight was launched in January 1995 to replace it, with separate editions for each main metropolitan market (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).

Over summer, it was usual for Today Tonight to present a single edition broadcast across the entire east coast of Australia (that is, combining Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane).

The South Australian edition didn't air on the Seven Network's affiliated station, Southern Cross Television, in the Spencer Gulf or Broken Hill, which used its 6:30pm timeslot for its now defunct local bulletin.

[25] Kylie Gillies and Nick Etchells were the fill-in hosts for the show, until it was announced on 3 February 2014 that the east coast edition of Today Tonight would be axed in favour of a one-hour Seven News bulletin.

[3] Today Tonight was notorious for its sensationalist reporting, and was an example of tabloid television where stories rotated around controversial issues such as diet fads, miracle cures, demonization of welfare recipients, shonky builders, negligent doctors, poorly run businesses and corrupt government officials.

The program was found to be in breach of the Australian Communications and Media Authority's (ACMA) policies multiple times, specifically with regard to invasions of privacy and not presenting factual material accurately.

[28] In November 1996, Media Watch revealed that Today Tonight had fabricated a report about disgraced Australian businessman and former Seven Network owner Christopher Skase.

Today Tonight sent producer Chris Adams and reporter David Richardson, along with a camera crew, to pursue Skase, who was claiming his health prevented him from being tried.

Richardson alleged that because the crew's videotapes showed Skase was in good health, he used his connections to the Majorcan authorities in order to establish police roadblocks to seize the tapes.

The "police" Richardson was passing were in fact the Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona setting up roadblocks to control traffic flow in the city centre.

[29] On 4 February 2002, both Today Tonight and A Current Affair broadcast stories about a so-called "Dole Army" operating from Melbourne's subterranean stormwater drains, and recruiting for an organised effort to defraud the Australian government of unemployment benefits.

The next day, an anarchist group claimed they had pretended to be the Dole Army as a hoax, and due to lack of research and a desire to vilify the unemployed, both Today Tonight and ACA fell for the elaborate prank.

The following year, journalists, editors and producers from all three media outlets were taken to the Sydney Magistrates Court for breaching the Children and Young Persons Act 1989 by naming the child in question.

[33] On 13 September 2006, Robson and a Today Tonight crew were detained by Indonesian authorities in Papua for working as journalists despite entering the country on tourist visas.

"[35] On 2 November 2006, the Supreme Court of New South Wales awarded A$385,000 to former Gladiator and rugby league star Mark McGaw for a defamatory story Today Tonight broadcast in June 2003.

The Supreme Court jury found the story conveyed two defamatory imputations: that McGaw was "a man of dangerous domestic violence", and that he "bashed his lover so severely she was hospitalised with horrific injuries".

[36] On 20 February 2007, the east coast edition of Today Tonight led with a story about Shirley Frey, an 84-year-old resident of a nursing home in Willoughby who was fighting attempts to evict her.

[37][38] In response to this incident, presenter Anna Coren was forced to read an apology to viewers on the next night's broadcast, and announced Seven had launched an internal investigation.

[39] On 8 May 2007, Today Tonight reported about an alleged Vietnamese-Australian welfare cheat named Dat Van Vu; though using the generalised title "Vietnamese Sting".

[44] On 11 March 2013, Today Tonight aired a longer than usual eight-minute exposé on supposed cyberbully Tristan Barker, labelling him "the world's nastiest man."