"pm"s first presenters were lawrence bryant and john highfield, who hosted on alternate nights. many distinguished names have worked on the show, including presenters iain finlay, paul murphy, monica attard, ellen fanning and mark colvin – who hosted from 1997 to 2017 – and reporters ray martin, bob carr, kate baillieu, maxine mckew, and many more. initially 25 minutes long, "pm" was expanded to 50 minutes in 1987, before resuming the half-hour format in 2018, matching "am".