NEW YORK — Forced to choose between its profitable morning show and flagship evening broadcast, ABC News moved to shore up "World News Tonight" on Tuesday by appointing veteran newsman Charles Gibson to helm the program, which has been buffeted by misfortune in the last year.
After extensive anticipation, ABC News President David Westin announced that Gibson will be leaving his post on "Good Morning America" to take over for co-anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff -- just five months after they began their short-lived tenure as successors to the late Peter Jennings.
The decision triggers another round of musical chairs as Gibson -- who was passed over for the job last fall -- will replace two anchors touted as the next generation of ABC News.
Tom Brokaw: A chart about newscasters in Wednesday's Calendar said that Tom Brokaw became a nighttime anchor in the 1970s. Brokaw joined the "NBC Nightly News" team in 1982.
By tapping the 63-year-old broadcaster, known for his sure-handed and genial manner, network officials are seeking to restore stability to the broadcast after it was rocked by two back-to-back blows: Jennings' death from lung cancer last August and Woodruff's wounding during a trip to Iraq in January. Less than two weeks later, Vargas announced that she was pregnant with her second child, further unsettling plans for the newscast.
In an interview, Westin called Gibson "an extremely experienced, extremely able news broadcaster" who had "the authority and relationship with the audience that I think that will stand us in good stead."
For his part, Gibson said he had one simple goal for his tenure: "Just to be steady."
A frequent substitute anchor on "World News Tonight," especially when Jennings was ill, Gibson will be taking over at a time of substantial change for network news. Despite a continuing decline in evening news viewership, attention will be sharply focused on the programs this fall, when longtime morning show anchor Katie Couric makes the jump to the "CBS Evening News," facing off against Gibson and NBC's Brian Williams, who assumed his post in December 2004. ABC had hoped to take advantage of the shifting lineup by making a strong run in the morning at top-ranked "Today" once Couric left, but that prospect appears more uncertain with Gibson leaving "Good Morning America."
While shifting him to the evening newscast may solve that program's dilemma, it removes a pillar from ABC's profitable morning show, which Gibson has co-anchored for nearly 19 years. During an often tearful staff meeting Tuesday morning, he was cheered with a standing ovation as he emotionally thanked his co-hosts and the crew for their work.
