V&W: A Whole New ‘World’ Tonight

“Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff take the helm at ABC’s World News Tuesday night, the first network evening news anchor team since CBS paired Dan Rather and Connie Chung in the ’90s,” USAT’s Peter Johnson writes.

Vargas says “this is not a cosmetic dual-anchor role. This is two people doing two people’s work. This isn’t going to be us sitting on a set tossing back and forth and splitting 22 minutes of news.”

> (Spelling corrected at 2:46pm; USAT spelled his name wrong.) NBC Nightly News producer John Reiss says he doesn’t feel threatened: “The double anchor format has not worked,” he says, “adding that Williams’ focus on Katrina helped solidify his bond with viewers…”

> Also: “When the new World News Tonight debuts Tuesday, it won’t be everything ABC News wants it to be right out of the box. Many parts of the country won’t be able to see the first official pairing of co-anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff because of the network’s coverage of college football bowl games,” THR says (via WP)