the program was created by john tomlin and bob young, whose concept was picked up by king world productions (which cbs corporation – itself having acquired king world through its december 2005 split from viacom – folded into cbs television distribution in september 2007) in the winter of early 1988, for a debut during the 1988–89 television season. when "inside edition" first premiered in january 1989, the program's format originally took on a high-brow approach, focusing on general news and investigative reporting. the first anchor of the program was david frost, who was demoted to a correspondent role after approximately three weeks, due to poor ratings under the original concept.