Charles Gibson will sign off from World News Dec. 18.
Diane Sawyer will officially move into the anchor chair in
January, though ABC News has not made an announcement about her start date. But
according to sources at ABC News, Sawyer plans to give herself a soft launch at
World News by anchoring the broadcast on Dec. 21 and 22 before leaving for the
holidays.
An announcement about who will succeed Sawyer at Good
Morning America
is expected in the coming weeks.
Gibson has anchored World News since May 2006. Prior to
that, he co-anchored GMA with Sawyer.
Gibson came to ABC News in 1975 from Television News
Inc. (TVN), a syndicated news service. From 1970 to 1973 he was an anchor and
reporter for WJLA-TV (then WMAL-TV), the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining WJLA-TV, he had been news director for WLVA-TV and Radio in Lynchburg, Virginia.
His first job in broadcasting was Washington
producer for RKO Network in 1966.
In a post on the World Newser blog, Jon Banner, the
executive producer of World News, wrote that Gibson's last week would
include a walk down memory lane.
"We're going to spend a good deal of time during his
final week on the air looking back at the stories Charlie covered, hearing
again from some of the remarkable people he interviewed, and paying tribute to
our friend and colleague, and the enormous contribution he has made to ABC News
over the last three decades," wrote Banner.
