Charlie Gibson Retires and Opens Door For Another Female Anchor, Diane Sawyer

If you haven't heard yet, this is Charlie Gibson's last week serving as anchor for ABC's flagship news broadcast "World News." After 35 years Gibson will fully retire from full-time employment at ABC this Friday, December 18th. Since his announcement to retire on September 2nd, ABC stated that co-anchor, Diane Sawyer will be his replacement.

This move for Sawyer seems to be very similar to Katie Couric who anchors "The CBS Evening News." Both started out on network news morning show and then was promoted to evening news anchor positions. But, I'm curious to know if ABC is promoting Sawyer in hopes of competing more against Couric and CBS? I think so, but am not exactly sure why. For quite awhile "The CBS Evening News" has ranked 3rd (last) against the other major network evening news broadcasts the entire time Couric has anchored. "NBC Nightly News" with Brian Williams has continued to rank first and the "CBS World News" with Charlie Gibson continues to rank second. Regardless of the rankings for Couric, CBS must believe the fact Couric is a woman is not the reason for her low rankings, since they're bringing in their own female anchor.

I am glad another woman is taking a leap into what was considered a man's job. I am interested to see what happens in the coming weeks and years as two strong female journalists compete against one another. I wonder if by adding Sawyer to the ring will actually help Couric, since then she won't be the only female evening news anchor. Or on the other hand, if NBC's first place lead will grow.

Right now, I tend to watch ABC for evening news and going to miss Gibson. I really like his anchoring style in many ways. I can't say that I'll stick with ABC forever after he leaves; it will give me an opportunity to 'shop around.' I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you for reading and "for all of us at (The Bright Bold Blonde Blog), have a good night."