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Who will anchor ABC News?
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall in ABC News president David Westin’s office?
Apparently it’s a world where egos collide, as “World News Tonight” once again ponders what to do with its anchor position — or positions, depending what finally happens.
Bob Woodruff, you’ll recall, was injured Jan. 29 on assignment in Iraq. He was released from the hospital Thursday and is said to be walking and talking. But Westin cautioned staffers in a memo that “we should expect months of further recuperation.”
ABC’s co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas, soldiers on for now, but she’s pregnant and due to deliver her second child in late summer.
Rumors have been flying for a couple of weeks that Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson are clawing each other’s eyes out over a possible solo anchor spot.
As CBS inches closer to nabbing NBC “Today” host Katie Couric for its evening anchor gig (thus replacing Bob Schieffer, who replaced Dan Rather), Sawyer was said to be increasingly anxious to make history as the first female full-time solo weeknight anchor.
As Sawyer’s well-manicured fangs protruded, her “Good Morning America” partner Gibson became, according to the New York tabs, “very unhappy.”
But then, perhaps smelling bad karma on the horizon (not to mention bad press), Sawyer supposedly dropped her campaign and backed Gibson for the job.
Gibson was in the running after Peter Jennings’ death last August, but Westin passed over him because (a) the strength of “GMA” is hugely important to ABC and (b) he wanted a younger, hipper anchor. Instead of one, however, Westin named two, Vargas and Woodruff — ostensibly so one anchor could be out in the field reporting but really because he wanted two attractive hipsters.
After Woodruff was injured, ABC announced that Sawyer and Gibson would take turns anchoring with Vargas. That set off a flurry of rumors that Vargas was miffed that the network felt it had to “baby-sit” her with a veteran. Recently, she’s been flying solo.
So, who will finally win Jennings’ crown? Smart money is on Gibson, a veteran reporter and anchor who is a reassuring, comfortable presence at the helm.
But if that happens, Sawyer, despite her proclamations of support, might be ticked off, and Westin will have to find an acceptable partner for her at “GMA.”
And what of Vargas? Hard to say, but she has neither the longevity nor the muscle to put up much of a fight. She’ll go down as a footnote in ABC News history, not unlike Connie Chung who was a short-timer as Rather’s co-anchor at CBS.
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