ABC World News Tonight will be replacing veteran anchor Charlie Gibson with a woman in January 2010. Taking over the helm will be 63-year-old television journalist Diane Sawyer.
The decision was a difficult one for Gibson, who reportedly had several long conversations with ABC News president David Westin before announcing his plan to leave the network at the end of the year.
Gibson, 66, has spent the last 35 years as a television journalist. He and Sawyer were co-anchors on Good Morning America until 2006, when Charles Gibson took over after the death of Peter Jennings and the grave injury to Bob Woodruff. Gibson was reportedly pulling down $8 million a year–no word on what his replacement will be paid.
Sawyer was a 60 Minutes correspondent from 1984 to 1989, followed by a ten year stint at GMA. She will go head to head against Katie Couric on CBS and Brian Williams on NBC. Nielsen TV ratings show NBC has the highest viewer audience, followed closely by ABC, with CBS a distant third.
Eyebrows were raised in January when Sawyer appeared to be drunk while reporting on the Obama presidential inauguration.
View more photos below.