ABC News: Sawyer Out, Matinee Idols In

English: Diane Sawyer attending the premiere of Jesus Henry Christ at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's been almost ten years since ABC News anchor Peter Jennings passed away, leaving a vacuum at the top of their evening news broadcast.  Bob Woodruff, Elizabeth Vargas, Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer have tried to fill it, with varying degrees of success.

The anchor desk is changing once again, as Sawyer is leaving "ABC World News" after five years to become the network's de facto replacement for Barbara Walters.  Sawyer will be doing special reports and the prime time celebrity interviews Walters used to do.

Replacing Sawyer beginning in September is David Muir, who's been anchoring the weekend news and co-anchoring the newsmagazine "20/20" with Vargas.  This is great news for ABC's female-skewing audience, if the comments section on Facebook is any indication.  In their eyes, Muir is much younger (at 40) and handsomer than the other networks' anchors.

Muir is OK as an anchor, but we think the job should have gone to George Stephanopolous.  In a sign that ABC is not completely sold on Muir, they made Stephanopolous their chief anchor for breaking news and special events coverage (such as political conventions and elections).  He will continue to host "Good Morning America" and "This Week".

Once again, there will be three men anchoring the evening news on network TV:  Muir, Brian Williams at NBC and Scott Pelley at CBS.  Women have not lasted long in this job.  Not Sawyer, Vargas, Connie Chung or Katie Couric.  Anyone wonder why?

ABC is a solid number two behind NBC in the network news wars, which still attracts more viewers than cable, though their numbers are older and dwindling.  CBS, for all their promises of "real news" and "original reporting" that harken back to the days of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, is still stuck at number three.

Sawyer never looked comfortable as a news anchor, and "ABC World News" has been plagued with the same kind of gimmicks that makes local newscasts almost unwatchable:  Screaming graphics, pop culture reporting, features such as "America Strong" and "Made In America", and those bottom line "what's coming up" headlines during the first commercial break.  They certainly couldn't help promoting enough of Disney's product, since that's ABC's parent company.  To paraphrase Waylon Jennings, are you sure Peter Jennings would have done it this way?

At least Diane Sawyer is going to a place where she can do better work than reading a Teleprompter every night.  David Muir has the tough job of not only keeping ABC News relevant in a time of media change, but also to keep George Stephanopolous from breathing down his neck should the ratings go south.  Should be interesting to see how this all goes down.