Vargas and Woodruff to become permanent co-anchors of "World News Tonight"

[Ronn Harmon]

ABC Picks Pair to Replace Jennings

Monday, December 05, 2005

10:39 AM PT
ABC has chosen two anchors to take over its nightly newscast following the death of Peter Jennings earlier this year.

Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff, who have been part of a rotation of fill-in anchors since Jennings' death in August, will become the permanent co-anchors of "World News Tonight" starting Tuesday, Jan. 3. They'll be the first multiple-anchor team on a network newscast since Dan Rather and Connie Chung's time together on CBS in the mid-1990s.

"Elizabeth and Bob together will be the anchors for this new broadcast and digital age of 'World News Tonight,'" ABC News president David Westin says. "Their experience as journalists, their familiarity to our audiences, and their commitment to gathering and delivering the news anywhere, anytime and in every way make them the right team to take us forward for the next generation."
ABC also plans to offer a live broadcast of "World News Tonight" to West Coast viewers each night when Vargas and Woodruff take over. The anchors and ABC correspondents will deliver updated news to the Pacific time zone, which the network says will be a first among the Big Three evening newscasts.

The team will also produce a daily webcast that will make some of the news team's reporting available prior to its TV broadcast and include longer versions of some reports, along with a daily blog about the news-gathering process.

Vargas will also stay on as a co-anchor of "20/20."