ABC News announced today that Charlie Gibson will be taking over as sole anchor of World News Tonight on May 29. He will be juggling the assignment with his duties as anchor on Good Morning America until the end of June, after which he will work only on the evening newscast. This news comes in the wake of Elizabeth Vargas' impending maternity leave; she will return in the fall to her duties on 20/20, and will do occasional news specials, but she will not return to WNT. The ABC announcement also mentioned that this move gives Bob Woodruff time to recover from the injuries he suffered in Iraq earlier this year; whether he'll make it back at all is still up in the air, though.

[via Mediabistro]

To the right is the first picture America has seen of Bob Woodruff, co-anchor of ABC's World News Tonight since he was severely injured in Iraq back in January. To accompany the picture, ABC released a message he sent to the news division president, David Westin, which was then relayed to his co-workers.

"Though I know there is still a long road ahead, it's nice to be feeling more like myself again laughing with family, reading bedtime stories and reminding my kids to do their homework," Woodruff wrote.

No indication was given as to when he'd return to WNT, who will be losing their other co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas, when she goes on maternity leave later this year.

[Photo: ABC News/Ida Mae Astute via AP]

According to the New York Post, ABC World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas is having a boy. The network news anchor is due in late summer.

The little boy will be her second son. She and husband, singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, have another son, Zachary, who is three.

Cameraman Doug Vogt is out of the hospital and headed to the home he shares with his wife in France. Vogt and ABC World News Tonight anchor Bob Woodruff were riding with a military convoy outside of Baghdad last month when the vehicle they were riding in hit a roadside bomb. Both men were treated by military personnel and flown to Germany and then America for treatment. Vogt was released from Bethesda Medical Center this week, but Woodruff remains sedated. Doctors say Woodruff may be able to move to a care facility near his home in New York in the next few weeks.

And in a related story, ABC World News Tonight will now be anchored by talking robots. Well not really, but ABC has to be worried about the future repercussions that will arise when Vargas has to take maternity leave. Still reeling from the absence of Bob Woodruff (who's condition has been improving), ABC has been pulling out all the stops to keep the evening news program on it's feet. Charles Gibson and Dianne Sawyer have helped out since Woodruff was injured in Iraq.

Vargas is married to songwriter Mark Cohn and this will be the couple's second child together. Cohn has children from a previous marriage. ABC News Prez David Westin was excited for the couple in the midst of what has been some rough times for the entire ABC News family. Vargas has been co-anchoring World News Tonight since January 3, but the baby is not due until the summer.

Doug Vogt, the ABC camerman who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq, is in an outpatient facility this morning. He was moved to Bethesda Medical Center to continue his recovery.

ABC World News Tonight anchor Bob Woodruff, who was injured in the same attack on Jan. 29, remains sedated. His injuries, to his upper torso, head, face, and brain, are much more serious than Vogt's. Doctors say that Woodruff is showing signs of improvement, but his road to recovery is going to be much longer and harder than Vogt's. In the meantime, ABC News chose to move Woodruff's co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas, off the anchor desk and replace her, at least temporarily, with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer.

World News Tonight anchorman Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt arrived in the United States last night and are being treated at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. ABC says it considered moving the men to a private hospital but decided against it since the military doctors have experience treating victims of bombings. The picture at the right is of soldiers loading Woodruff on transport that would take him to a C-17 military plane in Germany. You can see from all the medical instruments, his injuries are very serious. Woodruff's family reports that he was hit in the face and brain with shrapnel when the Iraqi military vehicle he and Vogt were riding in hit a roadside bomb just outside Baghdad, Iraq over the weekend. Vogt, on the other hand, is reportedly in much better condition. He was laughing and making jokes while at the hospital in Germany, whereas Woodruff could barely open his eyes.

Co-anchor of World News Tonight Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were injured when the vehicle they were riding in hit a roadside bomb early Sunday morning. The two apparently were standing up in a hatch, filming a story in the vehicle as it drove along.

The two are listed in stable but critical condition, after being flown to the "green zone" where military doctors operated on them. ABC is providing continuous updates on their conditions here.

Concidentally, today's Washington Post features an article about Woodruff and his co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas. In the article, Woodruff says his goal is "to be the best damn foreign correspondent I could be."

The new, young faces of World News Tonight debut this evening on ABC. Five months after Peter Jennings' death from lung cancer, Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff will co-host the nightly newscast. They are the first network anchor team since Dan Rather and Connie Chung shared the desk at CBS in the 1990s. But, don't expect to see them sharing the desk very often. Vargas says it's not going to be two anchors sharing 22 minutes of news, rather, one of them will most likely be reporting anchoring from the field while the other reads the rest of the news from the desk. In fact, tonight's debut of the new format has Vargas at the anchor desk and Woodruff off in Iran. I imagine this is what the anchoring-from-the-field schtick is going to be like: Vargas and Woodruff sharing different "in-depth" or "special" reports about issues rather than day-to-day news events. The purpose of Woodruff's visit to Iran tonight is to help bring better understanding to Americans about a very powerful country that has been on the Bush Administration's radar ever since it was included in the "axis of evil".

Vargas and Woodruff take over the #2-rated newscast in the nation, with Brian Williams and NBC still on top. CBS has yet to decide what it will do with its open anchor position and there are still whispers that Katie Couric is in contention.

Elizabeth Vargas, who in our estimation is muy bonita, laid out some details about the new two-anchor format of ABC's World News Tonight, which she and Bob Woodruff will start on January 3. In an article for Daily Variety (you may need to view a short ad to see the whole article), Vargas tells reporter Michael Learmonth that she and Woodruff will rarely be sitting at the same desk, throwing it back and forth to each other like it's a local news broadcast. "I don't anticipate a ping-pong thing back and forth," she tells Learmonth. Multiple standing and sitting positions being built into the new set will ensure this. But most of the time, one anchor will be in the field and one in the studio, each doing large chunks of the show on their own.

Indeed, their tenure will begin with Vargas in the New York studio and Woodruff reporting from Iran. If you've ever seen the nights when Brokaw, Rather, or Jennings was on the road and threw the second half of the broadcast to a studio anchor, you'll get the idea of what ABC is trying to do. This can only help, because the "ping-pong thing," as Vargas put it, doesn't work well on a 22-minute network broadcast. I mean, ABC must have learned something from the Barbara Walters/Harry Reasoner fiasco from thirty years ago. Right?

[via TVNewser]