It was the bet heard around the world on Saturday's 'Republican Debate' (Sat., 9PM ET on ABC). After Rick Perry again brought up the claim that in the first printing of Mitt Romney's book 'No Apology,' he was for individual mandates nationwide, Romney again refuted the claim. Finally, he decided to put his considerable wealth where his mouth is.

"10,000 bucks?" he said, offering a wager with a handshake.

"I'm not in the betting business," Perry countered, but the offer of it alone set up a storm of responses on Twitter and from both sides of the political spectrum.

Tonight ABC will air the first TV interview with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head at a Tuscon grocery store back in January. In 'ABC News Special: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords,' Diane Sawyer sits down with Giffords and her husband, astronaut Commander Mark Kelly, to talk about the ordeal and her painful road to recovery. Amazingly, when Sawyer asks how she feels, Giffords replies "Pretty good!"

The special also includes some of the many hours of footage recorded by Kelly in hospital during his wife's long ordeal and rehabilitation. The footage documents landmark highs, such as her first words, and lows, like the discovery of what happened that fateful day in Tuscon. It also includes interviews with Giffords' closest confidants, including her mother, who says "I think Gabby now has a message that exceeds the political one."

Watch a preview of tonight's special after the jump.

For 18 years, Jaycee Dugard was held captive after having been kidnapped at a bus stop within sight of her home in California when she was 11 years old. She was rescued in August 2009 along with two daughters fathered by her abductor.

She sat with her mother, Terry Probyn, by her side to talk with Diane Sawyer on a 'A Special Edition of Primetime' (Sun., 9PM ET on ABC).

The women recalled the emotional moment over the phone when the authorities called Probyn at work to tell her that Dugard had been recovered.

Probyn said her response was that it was "absolutely unbelievable. And then it was disbelief. I said, 'No, you're joking. Don't do this to me. This is not funny.'"

Two seconds may not seem like much in the real world (in fact, there's two seconds you'll never get back right there). In TV, however, it can mean an eternity (there goes another two seconds).

ABC News has admitted that footage from Brian Ross' report on recalled Toyota and their sudden acceleration problems contained a misleading shot of a speedometer.

Ross and Southern Illinois University professor David Gilbert went for a ride in a Toyota to recreate the supposed electrical failure that causes the sudden acceleration. Footage of the speedometer's needle spiking was actually taken when the car was idle and not while the car was in motion.

Do you live outside of the United States? Are you tired of not being able to access the never-ending pit of television goodies that is Hulu? If so, get ready to continue hating them just a little bit longer.

ABC News has announced they are streaming all of their news programs from 'Good Morning America' to 'World News with Diane Sawyer' on the popular free TV and movie site.

This means you can instantly access the latest news and views on everything around you and the world as long as you live in the US. Sorry rest of the world and known universe. Guess you can't enjoy this sit down with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen like the rest of us red blooded Americans!

Rest easy, shielders of the horrified eyes of America's children. There will be no more scandalous Adam Lambert-type live performances, at least not on ABC.

Reuters reports that, in response to Lambert's notorious number on Nov. 22's American Music Awards, ABC is reviewing its live performance policy and will force future live performers to sign contracts assuring the network that they won't spring any surprises during live broadcasts that ABC censors haven't vetted during rehearsals.

"We certainly don't want to suppress artistry at any level," Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney told Reuters on Monday, "but we also have to be very cognizant of who our audience is." Sweeney did not say what measures would be taken to enforce such no-spontaneity contracts. (Will they sue overly exuberant performers? Dock their pay? Hold their fees in escrow until the FCC decides whether or not to levy an indecency fine?)

Charlie Gibson may be leaving ABC News' top job, as nightly 'World News' anchor, voluntarily at the end of the year, but that doesn't mean he's making nice with his successor, Diane Sawyer.

A report in the New York Post cited anonymous sources at ABC News as saying Gibson is openly hostile toward his former 'Good Morning America' co-host. "Charlie has always given Diane the stink eye," an unnamed ABC insider told the Post. "He bad-mouths her openly and often."

In an ABC news exclusive, Janet Jackson will grant Robin Roberts and ABC News cameras admission to her Malibu home for the first time ever. The introverted Jackson sister will, no doubt, speak about the death of her brother, as she and Michael were said to be very close.

Though Roberts has snagged the first sit down televised interview with Jackson since her brother's tragic death, it will not be the star's first public comments on the subject. At the 2009 BET Awards, Jackson called her brother an icon and thanked the public for their support.

She also gave an exclusive print interview to Harper's Bazaar, in which she revealed that she had learned of her brother's death while on the set of 'Why I Got Married Too.' In addition, Miss Jackson anchored the MTV Video Music Awards with a performance of 'Scream,' a heartfelt tribute to Michael.

You might think it's surprising that 20/20 anchor John Stossel is leaving ABC for Fox, but it's not really much of shock. It seems to me that there have been other high profile names that were once considered liberal firebrands -- Geraldo Rivera and Dennis Miller come to mind -- who've grown older and changed their stripes, finding a home at Fox.

Stossel, whom I recall as a staunch consumer reporter and a man who liked to tear down hypocrisy at every turn, has been a regular at ABC News for nearly three decades. Now, he's moving on to Fox Business Network where he'll have a weekly show, and Fox News where he'll make frequent guest appearances.

It was big news this week about Charlie Gibson retiring. Later on, when the headline flashed that Charlie was "livid" that Diane Sawyer was chosen to succeed him at the ABC World News anchor desk, I have to admit I was stunned. Why on earth would Charlie Gibson be so vexed by his former Good Morning America partner taking on the job he had chosen to give up?

The Daily Beast story claimed that his reaction came from a unnamed source, and that's what Variety's BLTV was writing about today. He suggested that perhaps the reporter, Rebecca Dana, had relied too much on scuttlebutt and chose to believe that Gibson was ticked off and, thus, went with the story.

Wow. Busy day in celebrity deaths. First we hear that Farrah Fawcett finally lost her battle to cancer, then suddenly we hear that, after being rushed to a LA hospital in cardiac arrest, Michael Jackson also died. He was only 50, and he was about to embark on a comeback concert stint in London that he hoped would revive his career.

ABC News was already scrambling to move up the Farrah special they had planned to air on 20/20 this coming Friday. That special, where Barbara Walters interviews Ryan O'Neal, will be shown tonight at 10 PM ET. They also just announced that they will be airing an MJ retrospective at 9 PM ET.

Other networks are following suit with their own specials, according to THR.com.

It's interesting how most news outlets aside from Fox didn't confirm MJ's death even though our friends at TMZ had the news first. I guess it wasn't legitimate enough for them. Either way, it's a shockingly sad day in the entertainment biz, no matter what you may have thought of Farrah or Jackson.

On Tuesday night, ABC News aired a special: Earth 2100. It was to give us a speculative look at the next 90 years based on scientific analysis and scenarios. The idea was to "scare us straight" with the worst possible scenario, and it was certainly bleak. According to these experts the worst possible scenario has life as we know it eradicated, cities destroyed and the global population dwindling below 3.5 billion. The message is about the importance of taking care of our natural resources and doing something about our negative impact on the planet. Important stuff, yeah?

It took me a couple days to figure out how to write about it, because I really hated it and I wasn't even sure why. Maybe it was Lucy's fictional narrative, shown in static drawings instead of computer imagery or special effects. Telling us about the ocean levels rising and changing the map may have had more impact if you'd shown us that map? Hell, their image for the flooding of the subways was a photo of a subway tunnel with poorly layered running water where the tracks are. You're not going to scare people into changing with 1960s era effects.

The announcement of an ABC News branded channel on YouTube yesterday is a little puzzling. First, if you go to the site, the info bar indicates that "ABC News" joined YouTube August 7, 2006. So, maybe they've been working feverishly for nearly three years on this, and they were finally ready to tell people about it.

The site will feature news from several ABC programs, like Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline, ABC World News, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. And, as a bonus, we get the "Quick Fix" segment, which ABC called "a daily dose of wit and occasionally wisdom" from ABC correspondents.

One of the most recognizable figures in ABC News is saying goodbye to the daily grind. In his time with the network, Sam Donaldson has done it all, investigative reporter, anchor, host, talking head, and always with a distinctive, pugnacious style. After four decades at the job, ABC's Sam Donaldson is retiring.

He will be missed, especially at the network. Anchorman Charles Gibson acknowledged as much when he told the Washington Post that Donaldson's retirement "really is a loss of the bedrock" for ABC. These days, the big three have struggled to maintain their dominance in the news business with cable outlets offering so much blanket coverage compared to the nets. Sam Donaldson has been synonymous with ABC. He can't help but be missed. To this day, I think Ted Koppell is missed as well.