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Diane Sawyer To Replace Charlie Gibson In January

Ben Frumin | September 2, 2009, 11:12AM

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ABC anchors Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson

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ABC World News anchor Charlie Gibson announced to his colleagues today that he'll step down at the end of the year. ABC has announced that Diane Sawyer will replace him.

In Gibson's letter to World News staff, he said he's retiring from full time employment at ABC News -- his professional home for nearly 35 years -- but may still contribute occasionally. "I love this news department, and all who work in it, to the depths of my soul," Gibson wrote.

In 2006, Gibson took over the anchor chair that the late Peter Jennings had kept stable for more than two decades. Gibson got the job after Jennings' briefly-tenured co-anchor replacements, Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas, were sidelined by an unusual confluence of events: his brain injury suffered covering the war in Iraq, and her pregnancy.

Sawyer, a veteran of 60 Minutes, Primetime Live and Good Morning America, will take over in January.

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Rich in NJ

September 2, 2009 11:43 AM

Sawyer's individual talent aside, this is a positive development for women. There was a time, a decade or two ago, when women over 40 or 45 were considered to be too old for TV. I'm glad to see that sexist stereotype melt away.

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LFC

September 2, 2009 11:48 AM

After the debacle that was the ABC Presidential "debate", Gibson leaves with his tail between his legs and his reputation in tatters. It was his time to shine, and he fell flat on his face.

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exregis

September 2, 2009 12:17 PM

I'm disappointed. I would have preferred the return of the Vargas/Woodruff team. (Vargas will be 47 in a few days.) They had some interesting ideas on make the evening news more timely on the west coast, they seemed like straight shooters (not bent like Gibson who worried too much about his own finances and taxes), and they would bring some empathetic life experiences to the evening news -- especially Woodruff and his war injury. If empathy is good enough for the Supreme Court, then it's good enough for ABC.

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