Woodruff and Vargas to replace Jennings...

[AXO Alum]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
ABC Announced that the new anchors for World News Tonight will be Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas...

I also heard that in another "news" first, they will be airing WNT live in the different time zones.

I don't watch morning shows (so sue me - my 3 year old sleeps till 10:45am!) and I don't watch evening news (never home & if I am, we are watching something for said 3 year old) -- but I when I think of Katie Couric. I wouldn't watch her either way, but leave her on in the morning where I don't have to accidentally see her

Also - from what I have heard and read in the paper, Elizabeth Vargas was very popular with fans of the show when she was filling in for Peter. That could really help the show out with ratings.

And to whomever asked if the publicity was always like this - like DA said "YES!" -- I remember when Joan Lunden left GMA - it was a huge media circus over her replacement & what she was doing for a career after leaving the show.

[Xylochick216]

They already do two versions of WNT, one at 6:30 and one at 7. The station I work at used to carry the 6:30 and now carries the 7 since we added another half hour of news.

I think it makes sense to run it live in each time zone. They have so many pre-produced packages that it would be easy to do it every hour.

[33girl]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
33 -- Do you remember her as a reporter?

Yes, but it's been completely eclipsed by the silliness of the past few years. That's my point. I don't think she CAN do "hard" news anymore.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by 33girl
Yes, but it's been completely eclipsed by the silliness of the past few years. That's my point. I don't think she CAN do "hard" news anymore.

For $20 Million or so per year, I'll bet she can.

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
For $20 Million or so per year, I'll bet she can.

For that much, I'd take my five years of newspaper experience and try doing hard news for the network.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by AXO Alum
I also heard that in another "news" first, they will be airing WNT live in the different time zones.

What I've heard about that is that they will do a nightly "live" update for the Pacific Time Zone.

I'm not sure how ABC works, but NBC will "update" the "Pac Feed" if there is a breaking news story or a significant change.

As it is now, there are two feeds, one at 6:30 PM EST and one at 7:00 PM. The second is a recorded re-feed of the first (unless there is an update as mentioned above.

The Central, Mountain and Pacific stations can take either live or delay them. Most delay.

Anyway, the news can be reasonably "stale" by the time the Pac stations air it. That's even true sometimes with the Mountain stations, but since there are more viewers in the Los Angeles TV market than the entire Mountain Time Zone, there's no surprize that they aren't talking about a live Mountain Feed.

I imagine when ABC does it, the others will follow.

BTW, I'm talking about the evening newscast. The AM shows can be even more bizarre in terms of delay patterns, etc.

[DeltAlum]

Couric said this week that she will stay with NBC.