J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
This article by Myrna Blyth on the National Review website, although I consider it to be gossip, claims that in the event that Katie Couric jumps to CBS to take over their "Evening News" (which seems likely later this year), that ABC's Diane Sawyer wants to anchor "World News Tonight", despite the fact that "WNT" is currently co-anchored by Elizabeth Vargas (who will be going on maternbity leave late this Summer) and Bob Woodruff (who's been recovering from serious injuries suffered in Iraq; it's anybody's guess as to when he will return although I suspect ABC hopes it will be around or even before Vargas goes on maternity leave).
Blyth's article compares that the Couric/Sawyer competition to two high-school girls both hoping to be named "Most Popular".
Unless Woodruff's condition ends up precluding his returning to "WNT" (and at this point, I think it's too soon to tell when he'd be back, based on published reports on his condition), the speculated demands of Sawyer, as told in the article, would leave at least one, maybe two disgruntled anchors at ABC News. And Sawyer's longtime cohost on "Good Morning America", Charles Gibson, might also get quite upset for it would be the second time in less than a year that he gets denied the big chair.
Although, as stated above, I think the piece is for the most part gossip, let's assume for a moment that Sawyer does displace the Vargas/Woodruff team, and Couric (as widely expected) does go to CBS.
Under Sawyer, I actually think the "World News Tonight" format would be pretty much the same as it is now, except that she'd have occassional live newsmaker interviews, but they'd be brief, and few and far between.
On the other hand, to best use Couric's talents, the "CBS Evening News" would have to be radically reformatted. She would be miscast as anchor of a CBS newscast in the Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather traditions. Assuming Couric gets the CBS anchor chair, I can see the "Evening News" format be changed to one where the broadcast opens with about ten minutes of "hard" news, and after the first commercial (except on busy news days or when there's late-breaking news), interviews (some with newsmakers, others with showbiz types), "soft" feature segments, and even showbiz stuff. After the first ten minutes, you might think that you were watching "Entertainment Tonight" or "Access Hollywood" instead of the "CBS Evening News". News "purists" would cry foul, but there probably is an audience for such a radical new format for a network evening newscast, a viewing audience substantially younger than the demographics that currently dominate network evening newscast viewership.
Blyth's article compares that the Couric/Sawyer competition to two high-school girls both hoping to be named "Most Popular".
Unless Woodruff's condition ends up precluding his returning to "WNT" (and at this point, I think it's too soon to tell when he'd be back, based on published reports on his condition), the speculated demands of Sawyer, as told in the article, would leave at least one, maybe two disgruntled anchors at ABC News. And Sawyer's longtime cohost on "Good Morning America", Charles Gibson, might also get quite upset for it would be the second time in less than a year that he gets denied the big chair.
Although, as stated above, I think the piece is for the most part gossip, let's assume for a moment that Sawyer does displace the Vargas/Woodruff team, and Couric (as widely expected) does go to CBS.
Under Sawyer, I actually think the "World News Tonight" format would be pretty much the same as it is now, except that she'd have occassional live newsmaker interviews, but they'd be brief, and few and far between.
On the other hand, to best use Couric's talents, the "CBS Evening News" would have to be radically reformatted. She would be miscast as anchor of a CBS newscast in the Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather traditions. Assuming Couric gets the CBS anchor chair, I can see the "Evening News" format be changed to one where the broadcast opens with about ten minutes of "hard" news, and after the first commercial (except on busy news days or when there's late-breaking news), interviews (some with newsmakers, others with showbiz types), "soft" feature segments, and even showbiz stuff. After the first ten minutes, you might think that you were watching "Entertainment Tonight" or "Access Hollywood" instead of the "CBS Evening News". News "purists" would cry foul, but there probably is an audience for such a radical new format for a network evening newscast, a viewing audience substantially younger than the demographics that currently dominate network evening newscast viewership.