A survey was conducted to examine the instructional potential of six educational television programs designed to teach world history to high school students. Each of the six programs encapsulates the events of a given century as if it were a 15-minute evening newscast, providing interviews with famous figures, dramatic moments in history captured on tape, human interest stories, and debates on significant issues. The survey was distributed to 363 students from four high schools in the Midwest. Participants were supplied with a series of statements about the show and asked to respond to each on a Likert scale; scores were then averaged for each item. Results indicate that students felt the series was entertaining (1.01), interesting (1.24), and amusing (.99). In addition, students agreed that the programs could be used along with their current world history text (1.19), and they preferred seeing the programs to reading about the same events in a book (1.22). Findings suggest that a newscast style program has instructional potential in the classroom as it may create a context that seems more "real" to the viewer than the average docudrama. It is pointed out that the global perspective allowed by the "Newscast" series may be an especially valuable aspect as its use can contribute to a greater understanding of historically significant global trends. A list of references is provided. (JB)