Two for the Show ABC World News Tonight re-creates the two-anchor formula
Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff, ABC News
This week
Elizabeth Vargas and
Bob Woodruff made their debut as coanchors of
ABC World News Tonight, becoming the permanent successors to the late
Peter Jennings. The pairing has some longtime TV writers recalling the rough road of past evening-news-anchor twosomes, such as
Harry Reasoner and
Barbara Walters, and
Dan Rather and
Connie Chung. But executive producer
Jonathan Banner told the Biz that his duo won't just be equally dividing 22 minutes of news every night. Here he shares his thoughts about the past year and what's ahead for
WNT.
TVGuide.com: Are you tired of the comparisons to other news-anchor duos?
Jonathan Banner: I don't think they're appropriate. In almost every other occurrence, the coanchor was brought in under very different circumstances. The idea of taking two people and having them anchor a broadcast and do the work of two people on that broadcast is something different than what has been tried before.
TVGuide.com: So how are the roles of Woodruff and Vargas being defined?
Banner: The roles are similar, but there are a lot more things on their to-do lists every day. We have a webcast, which we're anchoring every day at 3 pm, [and we have] three broadcasts of World News Tonight to do every day (including a live version for the West Coast).... We have a real desire to get out in the country and out in the world and find a way to bring stories to people in a more effective way. One of [the two anchors] will be on the road a lot.
TVGuide.com: So we already have an example this week of how it's going to work.
Banner: You'll notice over the next couple of days some top-notch, first-class reporting from Bob Woodruff in Iran — and the idea of having an anchor in Iran while there is another big domestic story, the coal miners' story in West Virginia — we're happy to have the tools to cover both of those stories in depth. But the mission of World News Tonight is the mission we've had for the last 20 years: to provide as clearly and with as much context as possible what happened today.
TVGuide.com: How much of a difference is it really going to make to have a live edition for the West Coast?
Banner: We're doing it because it's the right thing to do. I would like to think that having people on the West Coast know that there's a live broadcast might give them incentive to watch. But the reason it was done was that for far too long we've provided a significant portion of the population with three-hour-old news. We hope that over time, people will find us as a fresh alternative.
TVGuide.com: Your competitive position in the ratings seems to have deteriorated a bit in the last few months. CBS has gained some viewers. It's still a tight race with viewers ages 25 to 54, but there is a perception that you're slipping and that CBS is gaining on you.
Banner: The progress that this broadcast has made over the last nine or 10 months is extraordinary. [That] we could do what we have done [while] our anchor Peter Jennings, who was a colleague and a close friend, was sick, and we were able to perform and keep the broadcast the way it was is extraordinary. I think we're coming out of a mourning period and are looking forward to a fresh start. The fact of the matter is, we are extremely competitive in the 25-to-54 demo, which is how this broadcast and all the news broadcasts are sold to advertisers. That's our bottom line and is of primary importance. Do we have work to do? A ton of it. I think we now finally have the tools — after 10 months of being at a distinct disadvantage — to get back into the game, and that's what we intend to do.
TVGuide.com: Emotionally, this was very hard for you to get through.
Banner: Sure. A lot of the people here worked with Peter for 20 years and were extremely close to him. Our job during his illness was to keep the broadcast on the air, because that's what he wanted us to do. He cared deeply about it. But it was a difficult time for all of us. We kept it in the game as long as we could. But now we have a new beginning.
TVGuide.com: With all the changes to the evening news, people have done a lot of chin pondering about its future. Isn't part of the problem for you guys that you're on too early in the evening for a lot of young people to watch?
Banner: If you look at our demo, over three million 25-to-54-year-olds watch each night. I think that's pretty significant. There has been a fractionalization of the evening-news audience, but find me some other place where 30 million people sit and watch the news. I think that speaks to the power of the three broadcasts. But there is a realization that we need to do a better job of owning the real estate outside of 6:30 pm. What we've announced with Bob and Elizabeth is that this is the first step in that direction. There's a webcast on in the afternoon, and it's available through the evening. You can watch parts of it on your cell phone through our cell-phone partners. There is a desire on my (and all of my bosses') part to be everywhere, all the time.
TVGuide.com: What about a podcast?
Banner: We're working on it.... We'll have some other things to announce soon.
