2006: Nightline’s Last Year?

How will ABC execs define “success” for the New Nightline? “Somehow I suspect this change isn’t going to revive its popularity,” this blogger says.

“You do realize that the McFadden/Moran/Bashir set-up is designed to cause Nightline to fail and the time slot to revert to Entertainment, don’t you?,” an e-mailer says.

Another person writes: “This entire edifice is being set up to fail by executives who don’t have the cojones to cancel the program now, and pass the airtime over to the Entertainment division. By this time next year, the ratings will be in the tank (Bashir? McFadden? As Mr. Stossel might say, “Give me a Break”). The suits at Disney will then move in to kill off a program that no one will lift a finger to save.”

> Update: 4:03pm: “Management wants it to appear like they’re making a concerted, sincere effort to save the program by modernizing it, but ultimately the effort will fail and programming will get the timeslot,” a TVSpyer adds. “Odds are it’s a place-holder for maybe two years, until Jon Stewart or Ellen can be brought over for a late-night variety show.”