The McGee/Walters pairing on "Today" never really jelled;
after McGee's death Jim Hartz (who?) replaced him, the
ratings went down even more, and paved the way for ABC
to introduce what would become "Good Morning America"
(NBC had to pair Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley to get "Today"'s
ratings back up).
But Brokaw's one of the rare people who can go fluff ("Today")
or straight ("Nightly News"). Stephanopoulos, IMHO, is not.
He has substitute-anchored "World News" many times and I think
he would have been a credible choice (I also thought John Roberts
should have had Dan Rather's job), but I agree with those of you
who think he's not capable of doing fluff.
However, the deed is done. My opinion is that Diane can make the
transition from morning-fluff to evening-substance better than Katie
did (Diane, too, has substitute-anchored ABC's newscast) but I'm not
crazy about either one of them, and something about Brian Williams rubs
me the wrong way, although I'm not sure what.
Charlie Gibson will be missed in my house.
Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather were probably the last great anchor triad,
but boy, I miss the days of Cronkite, Chancellor, and Smith/Reasoner.
Wolf Blitzer may be about to gain a new viewer out of desperation.
