Vargas and Woodruff to anchor World News Tonight

Saw this at TVNewser: ABC has finally found a permanent successor to the late Peter Jennings. Well, actually, two successors: Starting January 3, World News Tonight will be co-anchored by Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. According to the ABC press release, other changes are also in the works, namely a live feed to the west coast at 9:30 ET, making WNT the first evening network newscast to go live to the Pacific time zone. A daily webcast, also anchored by the duo, will be created, with content that is different than the nightly network broadcast. Vargas will continue to anchor 20/20, which she has done since Barbara Walters left a year or so ago.

Both anchors are younger than the other major candidate for the post, Charlie Gibson of Good Morning America, so it makes one wonder if ABC decided to go for a younger audience with the good-looking pair. Don't get me wrong, Vargas and Woodruff are standout journalists. But with the state of the evening news in disrepair, the thought of going younger isn't such an outlandish one.

[via TVNewser]