ABC Announces Convention Plans

By SteveK 

ABC News announced it’s plans for the 2008 DNC and GOP conventions. Leading the coverage will be Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, with four hours of primetime coverage at each convention.

Some notes:

• Good Morning America, World News and Nightline will all report from each convention site, including Thursday at Invesco Field in Denver.

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• The primetime coverage will be broadcast in HD for the first time.

• Sam Donaldson and Rick Klein will report on the behind-the-scenes action for ABC News NOW.

Click continued to see the full plans…


As the historic race for the White House enters its final months, ABC News will provide comprehensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Led by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, along with ABC News’ team of political correspondents and analysts, the coverage will span ABC’s broadcasts and platforms, including four hours of primetime network coverage of each convention, all daily newscasts originating from the convention cities, extensive reporting and analysis on ABC News Radio, gavel-to-gavel coverage on ABC News NOW and live streaming video on ABCNEWS.com.

During the back-to-back conventions, the anchor team of Gibson, Sawyer and Stephanopoulos will be joined by ABC News’ political team, including Jake Tapper and John Berman with the Obama campaign, David Wright and Ron Claiborne with the McCain campaign, Kate Snow reporting from the convention floor, plus Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, John Donvan, David Chalian, Rick Klein, and ABC News’ off-air reporters traveling with the campaigns. George Will, Donna Brazile and Matthew Dowd will also contribute political analysis.

Convention coverage kicks off Sunday, August 24 with a special edition of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” originating from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Beginning Monday, August 25 and continuing through the week, all of ABC’s daily broadcasts – “Good Morning America,” “World News with Charles Gibson” and “Nightline — will originate from Denver. “GMA” co-anchors Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts will report from the convention sites – the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field — as will Charles Gibson for “World News” and Terry Moran for “Nightline.”

The following Sunday, August 31, “This Week” travels to St. Paul to preview the Republican National Convention and the week ahead. George Stephanopoulos will anchor a special edition of the program from the Xcel Energy Center. “Good Morning America,” “World News” and “Nightline” — led by co-anchor Cynthia McFadden — will all originate from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul beginning Monday, September 1 and continuing through the week.

This year, for the first time, ABC’s primetime convention coverage will be broadcast in HD. Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor live network coverage of the Democratic Convention in Denver on the ABC Television Network on:

Monday, August 25 from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET
Tuesday, August 26 from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET
Wednesday, August 27 from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET
Thursday, August 28 from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET
Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, and George Stephanopoulos will anchor live broadcast coverage of the Republican Convention in St. Paul on the ABC Television Network on:

Monday, September 1 from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET
Tuesday, September 2, from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET
Wednesday, September 3, from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET
Thursday, September 4, from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET

ABC News NOW, ABC’s 24-hour digital network currently available to 44 million users across cable, broadband and mobile platforms, will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the conventions. Coverage will also be available live on ABCNEWS.com’s homepage, as well as the Politics section and the ABC News NOW section online (http://www.abcnewsnow.com). ABC’s Sam Donaldson and Rick Klein, senior political reporter and author of “The Note,” will co-host the coverage from Denver and St. Paul – reporting on the latest news and behind-the-scenes action, along with ABC News’ political team covering events and key speeches throughout the day. Live coverage of the Democratic convention from Denver will begin on Monday, August 25 at 6:00 p.m., ET and continue until 11:00 p.m., ET on Thursday, August 28. Republican convention coverage will air live from St. Paul beginning Monday, September 1 at 6:00 p.m., ET and continue through Thursday, September 4 at 11:00 p.m., ET. A special edition of “Politics Live,” ABC News NOW’s daily political newscast, will air at 1:00 p.m., ET from the convention sites.

ABC News Radio will provide extensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention beginning Monday, August 25 through Thursday, August 28, and the Republican National Convention from Monday, September 1 through Thursday, September 4. ABC News Radio correspondent Aaron Katersky will anchor live each evening from 8:00-11:00 p.m., ET from both Denver and St. Paul. ABC News Radio’s team of correspondents — Vic Ratner, Ann Compton, Steven Portnoy and Alex Stone – will contribute reporting and analysis, as will Sam Donaldson, political analysts Torie Clarke and Steve Roberts, and contributors Gil Gross, Roe Conn and Mark Davis. Specially designed studio facilities will host ABC Talk Radio Row for more than 25 ABC News Radio affiliates from across the country.

ABCNEWS.com will provide live streaming coverage of the conventions, behind-the-scenes video and expert news and analysis. Led by Rick Klein, senior political reporter and author of “The Note” (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1), a team of ABC News reporters will cover the conventions live from Denver and St. Paul. Klein will blog live on the latest news and action, and “The Note” will originate on location from the conventions. ABCNEWS.com will also roll out a number of new and updated interactive features for users, including: “Match-o-Matic II,” where users select quotes from either Senator McCain or Senator Obama from more than a dozen topics on a range of critical issues – the economy, taxes, Iraq, health care, immigration, abortion and experience – to discover which candidate is their ideal match; “See How They Run: National Poll Tracker,” which allows users to search and sort data tracking the presidential race from the beginning of the year to date; and ABC’s “Electoral College Calculator,” where users can game out their own state-by-state scenarios and view past results. ABCNEWS.com also features interactive timelines for each candidate, rich with articles, video and images of Senator Obama and Senator McCain, allowing ABCNEWS.com users to read and explore more about the candidates’ lives behind the headlines.

ABC NewsOne correspondents Diana Alvear and Linsey Davis will report live from the DNC in Denver starting on Saturday, August 23, continuing through Friday, August 29. Correspondents Christianne Klein and T.J. Winick will report from the RNC in St. Paul starting on Friday, August 29 and continuing through Friday, September 5. ABC NewsOne, the network’s affiliate news service, will service more than 20 stations and clients, including the ABC Owned Television Stations and affiliates, BBC, Fuji TV, Associated Press Television and Univision.

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