TVSquad

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]