Charles Gibson to step down as anchor, Diane Sawyer to take over

Diane Sawyer was on stage Tuesday with Whitney Houston before a crowd in New York's Central Park. On Wednesday, she was crowned the leader of ABC's network-news division.

Sawyer, the longtime — some would say long-suffering — co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America," was named the successor to Charles Gibson, who is stepping down as the anchor of ABC's "World News." ABC announced the moves Wednesday; they will be effective in January.

With Katie Couric, who took the CBS anchor position in 2006, the arrival of Sawyer will mean two of the three main network-news voices will be female, a role that has punished others, such as Barbara Walters and Connie Chung, in the past.

"You're going to have, for the first time ever, two women competing as solo anchors in a television framework that just — within living memory — sort of destroyed every woman who tried to do it," said Richard Wald, a former news executive at ABC and NBC.

Gibson announced his departure Wednesday via an e-mail to the staff, which read, in part: "I have always been taught you should never bury the lead — so I write to tell you that I have told David Westin I want to step down as anchor of World News, and retire from full-time employment at ABC News."

A limited role

Gibson added that he wanted to remain "in some capacity" at the news division, noting "we will be discussing what that role might be."

For Sawyer, the promotion is the culmination of years of waiting. She took the morning job on a temporary basis and stayed for 10 years, reviving ABC's morning franchise, but was passed over twice for the evening anchor job.

Her wait came to an abrupt end when Gibson announced his intention to step down. Westin, the president of ABC News, characterized the decision Wednesday as entirely Gibson's.

Executive disappointed

Westin said in an interview that if he had had his way, none of this would be happening. He said he had tried to talk Gibson out of the decision and to give him some time to think it over.

"This was not a result I wanted," Westin said.

Other senior ABC News executives, including Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News," said Gibson, 66, wanted to pull back from daily television work.

The decision was sudden enough that ABC does not have a plan in place to replace Sawyer, 63, on "Good Morning America," by far the most profitable program in the news division and where she is by far the biggest attraction for viewers. One executive estimated the show brings in about $50 million a year for ABC.

But "Good Morning America" has been second in its time slot, behind NBC's "Today" show, for more than a decade, and it has fallen further behind in recent months. All along, Sawyer has remained its strongest on-camera presence.

In the face of 24-hour news on cable and on the Web, the ratings for all three evening newscasts continue to erode. The combined newscasts struggle to reach 20 million viewers some nights. During the last week of August, the "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" averaged 7.9 million viewers, about 800,000 more than Gibson's "World News." Couric's "CBS Evening News" remained a distant third with 5.4 million viewers.

Neither Gibson nor Sawyer would give interviews about the moves Wednesday, an unusual decision that one ABC News executive said reflected how surprised many in the news division were to hear of the development. Both issued statements instead.

But ABC News executives said the choice was inevitable, because Sawyer had expressed interest in succeeding Gibson whenever he stepped down and because she was the most prominent name in the news division.

Sawyer recently signed a new contract with ABC.

Sawyer started her career in journalism in her native Kentucky, but her big break came through politics when in 1970 she was offered a job at the White House by Ron Ziegler, press secretary to President Nixon. She joined CBS in 1978 as a correspondent, became co-anchor of the morning news and later a correspondent on "60 Minutes." She moved to ABC in 1989, co-anchoring the news programs "Primetime Live" and "20/20."

Despite her hard-news experience and interviews with world leaders, Sawyer, as Couric did, comes to the evening anchor job better known for soft news and celebrity interviews.

"A great day"

Walters, the ABC host who was the first woman to co-anchor a network newscast, in 1976, said Wednesday, "I think it's just a great day."

Gibson, who had his own long run as a co-host (with Sawyer) of "Good Morning America," took over the anchor job after a series of unexpected events: the sudden death of the longtime anchor Peter Jennings and the serious injuries suffered in Iraq by Bob Woodruff, one of the co-anchors Westin chose to replace Jennings.

Gibson was almost immediately successful. He ascended briefly to first place in the evening-news ratings in spring 2007 and has since been somewhat competitive with the current leader, Williams at NBC.

But he lost the most recent contest: On his Wednesday night newscast, Williams reported the changeover at ABC, assuring viewers that he would kept them posted on the competition. Gibson, however, didn't mention it.

Material from Newsday is included in this report.