20 20 Television Program

Taking a page from NBC's playbook, ABC will combine its "20/20" and "PrimeTime Live" newsmagazines into one new program next fall that will have three editions each week, all called "20/20." ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge and ABC News President David Westin made the announcement Tuesday during the network's unveiling of its fall prime-time schedule before advertisers and media representatives in New York.

After 25 years in which she became synonymous with ABC's newsmagazine "20/20," Barbara Walters will leave the show in September, the network announced Sunday. In a statement on its website, ABC stressed that, while Walters is stepping down from the platform for which she is best known, she will remain at ABC and continue to produce "Barbara Walters Specials," including her annual Oscar-night show.

Dueling Monicas. Each was attractive. Each had experience with a higher power. Each was renowned for touching others. Each was on television Wednesday night. So much for the striking parallels between Monica S. Lewinsky and the Irish-bred angelic Monica of the hit series "Touched by an Angel," which CBS counter-programmed against the second half of Barbara Walters' two-hour interview with Lewinsky in hopes of putting a dent in ABC's expected huge audience.

Hugh Downs simply drew the line at Marv Albert. In an exceedingly rare public protest by a top television personality, the veteran "20/20" anchor refused to appear on the ABC program Friday, disassociating himself from the interview with the fallen sportscaster by co-anchor Barbara Walters. Downs had declared on "Larry King Live" last month that he would not interview Albert and, what's more, that "Barbara wouldn't do it."

A savings and loan executive who claimed "20/20" portrayed him as a crook won $10 million in a libel suit Wednesday against ABC. The seven-member federal jury concluded that the gist of the 1991 broadcast about BankAtlantic chairman and chief executive Alan Levan was false and that ABC knew it was untrue or had serious doubts about its accuracy.

In an interview with Barbara Walters airing tonight, O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark defends her work in the Simpson criminal case, saying that the racial makeup of the jury and the power of Simpson's celebrity made it impossible for the prosecution to win a murder conviction. "I still feel terribly pained" by the verdict, Clark tells Walters in an interview on ABC's "20/20."

Although ABC is still a few weeks away from setting next season's prime-time lineup, the top-rated network finds itself with plenty of questions to answer and political fires to douse, many of them raised by the show that thrust it onto that perch, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." One question that could have particularly significant ramifications: Will Barbara Walters stay at "20/20"?

'It was a real foul-up in research," a spokeswoman for "20/20" acknowledged Monday, referring to the ABC program's story last Friday about a grocery clerk in Tempe, Ariz., who it said used to star as Buckwheat in the "Our Gang" comedies. The actor who actually played the role, William Thomas, died in 1980.

ABC News apologized for an error in John Stossel's Feb. 4 "20/20" report, rerun on July 7, on the safety of organic food. Stossel had reported that produce tested at the request of ABC News found no pesticide residue, but in fact, ABC said, the produce hadn't been tested for pesticides.

ABC News star Barbara Walters apologized on the air Wednesday after the network billed Friday's "20/20" special about adoption as "the ultimate reality show." The newsmagazine is devoted to the story of a 16-year-old Ohio mother choosing among five sets of prospective adoptive parents who want to raise her baby. Walters, the show's host, is herself an adoptive parent who has frequently covered adoption issues.