New Nightline: “We Should Be Patient”

“The best thing to be said about this nouveau Nightline is that it’s substantive — no minor achievement, given the state of network news,” the Boston Globe’s Joanna Weiss writes today. “The first few episodes, at least, have managed to tread free of celebrity fluff and overblown true crime. The subjects have largely been serious: Iraq, the Catholic Church, the abortion debate.

The trouble is, substance and depth are not the same thing. And what’s missing most from the new Nightline is the thing that’s most irreplaceable: a familiar voice that can be trusted implicitly.”

She concludes: “It’s a start, and again, we should be patient. New talent must be groomed, and new chemistry needs time to develop. But it’s hard not to wonder if ABC will let it all unfold; it’s harder to identify a serious, breakthrough talent than it is to tinker with sets, graphics, and formats.”