Charles Gibson to retire from ABC News

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I must say it came as a bit of a shock to me. Charles is a superb newsreader and will be missed by ABC News, although I think Diane Sawyer is the best replacement for him.

It's nice to see a mature woman being given the top job. How different the TV industry in America is to here...

Not knowing much about GMA, who's likely to replace her? I know her and Robin were a female team ~ is it likely they'll get another woman in or revert to a 'standard' format?

GMA has been a bit of a team effort for a while as Diane and Robin don't tend to do the whole week all the time. Chris Cuomo is the main fill in with Bill Weir and the other weekend anchors fill in.

Not that different, there's just as many young female news presenters there as here and the older man/younger women combination is still pretty much the norm.

Also it's worth remembering that she is only the second female network 'anchor' whereas the main national news programmes here have had female presenters since the mid 70's

Are you sure she's just the second?

Katie Couric is currently anchoring, but didn't Konnie Chung anchor (or co-anchor) as well? Also Elizabeth Vargas stood in for a lengthy period before Charlie Gibson moved from GMA to the evening bulletin?

Diane Swayer is only the second to anchor solo a network evening news broadcast in the States (Katie Couric being the first when she took over the anchor chair at CBS). What you're referring to is a brief period in the 1990s when CBS decided to move to a dual anchor broadcast of the CBS Evening News and Connie Chung joined Dan Rather (albeit for a short period of time - viewers switched off in droves because of a lack of 'chemistry' between the two). Equally, Elizabeth Vargas was co-anchor alongside Bob Woodruff at ABC World News Tonight following the death of Peter Jennings. However, Woodruff sustained massive injuries from an IED in Iraq and it was decided to move to a single anchor broadcast once again with Charlie Gibson (Vargas returned to anchoring ABC 20/20 and Primetime Live).

The key point to remember is that this refers to a 'solo' anchor; until Couric moved to CBS, the network newscasts were all anchored by men. Couric's name as the sole anchor was a significant departure. If you were to argue that Couric wasn't the first (and that Sawyer isn't the second) then you'd have to look back to the 1970s when Barbara Walters jumped ship from NBC Today to join Harry Reasoner as co-anchor on the (then) ABC Evening News.

Yep - but Inspector Sands wasn't saying "solo" in his post, hence my confusion. I realise Konnie and Dan co-presented (and it bombed!)

After Bob Woodruff sustained his severe injuries didn't Elizabeth Vargas solo anchor (albeit as a long-term temporary basis whilst decisions were taken over the future of the show, after a respectable time to consider Bob's possible return?) for a number of weeks (months?) before Charlie Gibson moved from GMA to formally take over?

I'm told that at one point Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson alternated as co-anchors with Elizabeth, and at one point Elizabeth was alone, making her the first unofficial solo female anchor. Because she was pregnant the network saw it as an opportunity to revamp the presenting team and she resigned (officially due to health complications in her pregnancy and her wanting to spend time with her newborn, unofficially she had every intention of returning to World News but the network forced her out (though not out of the network itself)). Worth noting of course that Elizabeth and Diane have both filled in for Charlie countless times in his absence!

Altogether a very rocky time for World News until Charlie's arrival. Rumour has it he had planned to retire from the network but saw World News as the golden finish to his career, and ABC gave him it because they couldn't afford to loose him and so he got the job, not Diane.


If I'm wrong about any of the above I'm sure you'll let me know

You are wrong in one aspect. Diane and Charlie were never officially co-anchors with Elizabeth. If Elizabeth was off or on assignment for her other show, 20/20, then Diane or Charlie would substitute for her on World News.

By this time, World News, as it was now known, was a single anchor show, rather than dual anchored as it had been under both Woodward & Vargas.

I was under the impression that Elizabeth co-anchored, unofficially, with Diane and Charlie alternately for about a month, followed afterwards with her anchoring alone. You're probably right though.