Newscasters

It's double-duty for NBC's Lester Holt. The co-anchor of the weekend edition of "Today" will also now anchor the Saturday and Sunday editions of "NBC Nightly News," the network announced Wednesday. Holt replaces former weekend anchor John Seigenthaler, who left NBC last month after his contract was not renewed amid newsroom belt-tightening. Holt will continue filling in on the weekday editions of the morning and evening news programs and do work for MSNBC.

"CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric isn't going anywhere, despite her difficulty in building a bigger audience for the show eight months into her tenure, former CBS News President Andrew Heyward said. CBS took a big but necessary gamble by bringing on Couric to replace Bob Schieffer in the chair previously held by Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite, Heyward said at a media conference in Manhattan on Wednesday.

At 4 p.m. on June 8, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued a terse statement announcing that he and his wife, Corina, were separating after 20 years of marriage. Two hours later, Telemundo television anchor Mirthala Salinas delivered the story to her Spanish-language viewers on the Friday evening news. "The rumors were true," she declared of the split after an introduction that described the story as a "political scandal" that had left "many people with their mouth open."

If the events of the last two years had unfolded differently, Charles Gibson would already be three weeks into retirement, readying for a trip this fall with his wife to Australia and New Zealand. Instead, the 64-year-old newsman is helming the year's top-rated network evening broadcast, whose steady audience gains have drawn attention from some unexpected quarters. Perhaps the most startling came from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S.

Hundreds of messages from viewers poured in Friday wishing KTLA-TV Channel 5 anchor Hal Fishman a speedy recovery and return to his 10 p.m. newscast. Fishman, 75, was hospitalized earlier this week after collapsing at his home and has since been diagnosed with colon cancer, station officials said Friday. Doctors were treating Fishman for an infection he suffered after the collapse when they discovered the cancer, which has spread to his liver, said interim news director Rich Goldner.

The Mirthala Salinas affair isn't going away -- at least not as quickly as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or the Telemundo television network would like. On Friday, a day after NBC Universal's Spanish-language Telemundo division suspended Salinas for two months without pay for a conflict of interest because of her romantic relationship with the mayor, questions about the company's internal probe persisted. But NBC Universal and Telemundo declined to address them.

NEWS anchors just don't hang around for more than four decades anymore -- if they last a contract term or two these days, they're lucky -- which is one reason Hal Fishman's tenure at KTLA-TV was remarkable. Fishman, who died Tuesday at age 75, was the iron horse of Los Angeles broadcasting, the anchor who kept his voice steady and his mien serious even when the television station he called home lapsed into on-air silliness.

Robin Roberts is expected back on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday, only 10 days after undergoing surgery for breast cancer. "She is still awaiting her test results but is feeling great and looking forward to getting back to work," show spokeswoman Bridgette Maney said Thursday. Roberts, 46, told viewers last week she had been diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump in a self-examination. She had surgery last Friday and has been resting at home since.

NEW YORK -- While it's hard to think of positives to come out of a severe brain injury, here's one: It helped ABC News' Bob Woodruff score a scoop. South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson turned to Woodruff for a "Nightline" report on his recovery and return to public life this week after a brain hemorrhage. The Democrat probably figured no other reporter would better understand what he went through.

Veteran CBS anchor Dan Rather filed a $70-million lawsuit Wednesday against his former employer of 44 years, alleging that executives at the network damaged his reputation and broke the terms of his contract by sidelining him during his final months at CBS News and then forcing him out.