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The Chicago Tribune Phil Rosenthal Media Column: `Good Morning America' Co-Host Didn't Want Interim Job Last Year, but He's Full Time Now

Posted on: Saturday, 3 June 2006, 00:00 CDT

By Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune

May 24--It's take two for ABC's "World News Tonight" in its bid to replace the late Peter Jennings , which means this time taking just one.

That one is anchorman Charles Gibson, who on Monday officially becomes solo anchor of ABC's snakebitten second-place weeknight newscast.

"This will calm everybody down," said Gibson, a 31-year ABC News veteran. "I'm the creature of the organization. I'm the guy who's been around forever and I think there's a certain utility in getting to work with somebody they know and have known for years and years and years. I think it's going to have a settling influence."

Gibson--who will end his second tour of duty on "Good Morning America," the network's morning moneymaker, at the end of June--rejected ABC News President David Westin's offer in December to temporarily bridge the Jennings era to a new two-anchor format he saw as the network's future.

But Westin's pairing of Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas, "a noble experiment" according to Gibson, remained intact less than a month. First Woodruff, 45, was sidelined in January when seriously wounded while on assignment in Iraq. Then Vargas, 43, announced she was expecting a second child and would vacate the anchor desk for maternity leave.

"His experiment got derailed by the damn bombers in Baghdad and by Elizabeth's pregnancy, so he looked around and still over there next to the candy machine was me," Gibson said Thursday.

In naming Gibson, 63, youth has been served. Perhaps ABC is taking a page from rival CBS, which has gained an average of 280,000 viewers with Bob Schieffer, 69, as interim anchor while ABC has dropped 940,000, or 10 percent of its audience.

"The main thing for me," Westin said, "is that after 14 months of uncertainty and turmoil really imposed on us by forces outside our control, this is a step to bring some permanence and continuity back to 'World News Tonight.'"

When Vargas returns from leave, she will resume her co-hosting duties on the prime-time newsmagazine "20/20," as she concedes she cannot give as much time and attention as the anchor job required. Just a few months earlier on getting the post, the former WBBM-Ch. 2 newscaster said she wanted "to succeed for every working mother in America who juggles all these demands and issues."

Woodruff, still recuperating from his considerable injuries, has been assured he will always have a place at ABC News whenever he is ready to return. In a statement issued by the network, Woodruff called Gibson "a mentor and a friend" and said he looked "forward to contributing to his broadcast as soon as I'm able."

Westin, who last year forbade any discussion of "World News Tonight" succession from Jennings' April announcement that he had lung cancer until after his death in August, said he still believes in a two-anchor format.

"It's important to look for ways to expand the evening newscast out from just 30 minutes on the broadcast network every night, whether it's special West Coast editions or the Web versions. Also, I believe in having anchors in the field reporting as much as possible," Westin said.

"But a two-anchor format only works if you've got the right two people with the right complementary skills and interests," he said. "When you lose one of those people, it really sets off the team. I really didn't have the right person to fit with Elizabeth. Obviously, if we're going to go with a single anchor, there's just no question about it. Charlie is the right person."

The announcement of Gibson's new assignment comes as "World News Tonight" rebounded from a week earlier this month in which Schieffer's "CBS Evening News" briefly surpassed it in viewership, dropping it to third place for the first time since 2001.

Both shows are chasing NBC's "The Nightly News With Brian Williams."

NBC "Today" co-host Katie Couric's imminent departure for CBS poses both a threat and an opportunity for ABC in that she will cause upheaval both at night and in the morning. Gibson and Diane Sawyer's "Good Morning America" last year briefly came within a few thousand viewers of Couric and Matt Lauer's "Today" in the lucrative morning news sweepstakes before "Today" stretched out its lead again.

The morning shows bring the networks more revenue than the nightly newscasts, though they have fewer viewers because they run longer. Westin said the half-hour "World News Tonight," for example, has twice the viewers of "Good Morning America" but "GMA" brings in two to three times as much money. "But the prestige and importance of the evening news is enormous," he said.

Robin Roberts was promoted to co-anchor of "GMA" last year to buck it up in case either Gibson or Sawyer departed. Roberts now will co-host with Sawyer, whose public stance has been that if Gibson wanted the "World News Tonight" job, she wasn't interested in it. Weekend "GMA" co-host Bill Weir, a former WGN-Ch. 9 sportscaster, will get added air time, Westin said.

For Gibson, who was born in Evanston and attended Willard Elementary School before his family moved to Washington, the recent turn of events is "sobering" and his priority is to fulfill Jennings' legacy.

"A lot of people will want to cast this as Katie vs. Brian vs. Charlie," he said. "I guess it's inevitable that the anchors personify the network news shows, but it's really not about the three of us. It's really about the news departments and which does the best in gathering news."

Gibson, who has gone by Charles officially but is known in the casual environment of morning TV as Charlie, isn't sure what ABC will call him now. But Katherine Couric goes by Katie, so either way it should be all right.

"I guess so," Gibson said. "Long as it's not Chuck."

Phil Rosenthal's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

philrosenthal@tribune.com

- - -

Charles Gibson

- Came to ABC News in 1975 from Television News Inc., which he joined in 1974.

- Native of Evanston and grew up in Washington.

- He and his wife, Arlene, live in New York and have two daughters.

- Graduate of Princeton University, where he was news director for the university's radio station.

- From 1970 to 1973, was an anchor and reporter for WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington. His first job in broadcasting was Washington producer for RKO Network in 1966.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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