ABC Person of the Week

Last updated

ABC Person of the Week is a feature of ABC World News Tonight that began in 1986 and was still running in 2021. It provides a short biography or story of an interesting person, at the end of the Friday night broadcast, thus having high prominence. For news programs, it is a relatively long segment, running three to four minutes. It often features Americans, either famous or obscure, who have inspiring stories involving selflessness, but is not strictly limited in its focus.

Contents

Background

The feature has been presented by ABC News anchors including Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Peter Jennings, George Stephanopoulos, and David Muir.

A 1994 study analyzed the people and values celebrated in its first five years, during which the feature was the ending story on almost every Friday night. The study found that values of "individualism, heroism, and unselfishenss were more commonly portrayed than were populism, capitalism, and patriotism". It found more coverage of white, male, and famous persons, with women more likely to have caretaker roles and with Blacks more likely to have humble backgrounds. [1]

The ABC Person of the Week feature and NBC's "Making a Difference" segments have been described as identifying "genuine heroes" who nonetheless "are forgotten" when the broadcast ends. [2] NBC's feature is lesser known, described as "not unlike" the ABC feature. [3] Craig Barto in USA Today described the segment as "A favorite World News Tonight feature of mine was Jennings' "Person of the Week" — a Friday segment that highlighted a person who accomplished something special. What I liked most about the feature is how it often captured everyday, Average Joes." [4]

When completing her 2009-2014 stint as the ABC News presenter, Diane Sawyer "got nostalgic" about the persons and events covered in the segment. [5] David Muir, who replaced her, grew up watching ABC news closely, including "trying to guess who would be named "person of the week". [6] [7]

Recipients

People covered on the segment have included:

See also

Related Research Articles

Comet Hale–Bopp Long-Period Comet

Comet Hale–Bopp is a comet that was perhaps the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.

<i>ABC World News Tonight</i> American television news program

ABC World News Tonight is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network in the United States. It is currently the most watched network newscast in the United States, with an average of 2 million more than its nearest rival, NBC Nightly News. Since 2014, the program's weekday broadcasts have been anchored by David Muir. As of February 6–7, 2021, Whit Johnson and Linsey Davis anchor the weekend editions of the newscast, with Johnson anchoring on Saturdays and Davis anchoring on Sundays.

ABC News News division of Walt Disney Television

ABC News is the news division of Walt Disney Television's ABC broadcast network. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ABC World News Tonight with David Muir; other programs include morning news-talk show Good Morning America, Nightline, Primetime, and 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Katie Couric American television and online journalist

Katherine Anne Couric is an American television and online journalist, presenter, producer, and author. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, Wake Up Call. From 2013 to 2017, she was Yahoo's Global News Anchor. Couric has been a television host at all of the Big Three television networks in the United States, and in her early career she was an assignment editor for CNN. She worked for NBC News from 1989 to 2006, CBS News from 2006 to 2011, and ABC News from 2011 to 2014. In 2021, she appeared as a guest host for the game show Jeopardy!, the first woman to host the flagship American version of the show in its history.

Television news in the United States has evolved over many years. It has gone from a simple 10- to 15-minute format in the evenings, to a variety of programs and channels. Today, viewers can watch local, regional and national news programming, in many different ways, any time of the day.

Primetime is an American news magazine television program that debuted on ABC in 1989 with co-hosts Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer and originally had the title Primetime Live. The program's final episode aired May 18, 2012.

<i>20/20</i> (American TV program) American television newsmagazine

20/20 (stylized as 2020) is an American television newsmagazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, the program was designed similarly to CBS's 60 Minutes in that it features in-depth story packages, although it focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects. The program's name derives from the "20/20" measurement of visual acuity.

<i>Good Morning America</i> American morning television show broadcast on ABC

Good Morning America is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. The Sunday edition was canceled in 1999; weekend editions returned on both Saturdays and Sundays on September 4, 2004. The weekday program airs from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all time in the United States. The Saturday and Sunday editions are an hour long and are transmitted to ABC's stations live at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, although stations in some media market air them at different times. Viewers in the Pacific Time Zone receive an updated feed with a specialized opening and updated live reports. A third hour of the weekday broadcast aired from 2007 to 2008, exclusively on ABC News Now.

George Stephanopoulos American government official, journalist, writer (born 1961)

George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos currently is a coanchor with Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, and host of This Week, ABC's Sunday morning current events news program. From 2014 to 2020 Stephanopoulos held the title as "Chief Anchor" of ABC News, demoted in 2021 to mornings only as David Muir began new duties covering breaking news in the evening hours and prime time.

Diane Sawyer American television broadcast journalist

Lila Diane Sawyer is an American television broadcast journalist known for anchoring major programs on two networks including ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America, 20/20, and Primetime newsmagazine while at ABC News. During her tenure at CBS News she hosted CBS Morning and was the first woman correspondent on 60 Minutes. Prior to her journalism career, she was a member of U.S. President Richard Nixon's White House staff and assisted in his post-presidency memoirs. Presently she works for ABC News producing documentaries and interview specials.

<i>World News Now</i> American television news program

World News Now is an American overnight news broadcasting that is broadcast on ABC. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with weather forecasts, sports highlights, feature segments, and repurposed segments and story packages from other ABC News programs; its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous.

Thomas Bopp American astronomer

Thomas Joel Bopp was an American amateur astronomer. In 1995, he discovered comet Hale–Bopp; Alan Hale discovered it independently at almost the same time, and it was thus named after both of them. At the time of the comet discovery he was a manager at a construction materials factory and an amateur astronomer. On the night of July 22, Bopp was observing the sky with friends in the Arizona desert when he made the discovery. It was the first comet he had observed and he was using a borrowed, home-built telescope.

Alan Hale (astronomer) Astronomer, co-discoverer of Comet Hale–Bopp

Alan Hale is an American professional astronomer, who co-discovered Comet Hale–Bopp along with amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp.

<i>This Week</i> (American TV program)

This Week, originally titled as This Week with David Brinkley and currently billed as This Week with George Stephanopoulos, is an American Sunday morning political affairs program airing on the ABC television network. It premiered in November 1981. The program is currently anchored by George Stephanopoulos with co-anchors Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl. The program airs live at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time although many stations air the program at a later slot to air local newscasts, especially those in other time zones. During the David Brinkley era, the program drew consistent #1 ratings and in Stephanopolous era generally runs in third place among the Sunday morning talk shows, behind Meet The Press and Face The Nation.

<i>America This Morning</i> American television news program

America This Morning is an American early morning news broadcasting that is broadcast on ABC on weekday mornings. The newscast is anchored by Kenneth Moton and Mona Kosar Abdi, who also serve as anchors of ABC's overnight news program World News Now. It is one of the two early morning news programs that use a two-anchor format, alongside NBC's Early Today. Usually airing following World News Now, it features national and international news headlines, live reports from Washington, D.C., national weather and airport impact forecasts, a short SportsCenter update from the late night Los Angeles-based anchors of the ESPN show to account for West Coast scores, and a regular business news segment called "America's Money".

ABC 2000 was ABC News' special programming covering the new millennium celebrations around the world from December 31, 1999, into January 1, 2000, as part of the 2000 Today programming in the United States. Peter Jennings anchored the 23 hours and 10 minutes of broadcast from Times Square Studios in Manhattan, New York. ABC temporarily converted the Good Morning America marquee broadcast studio into a type of "millennium command center" that included a desk, where a standing Jennings spent most of his time, two lounge chairs, where Jennings would interview guests, a large screen with a time-zone included map of the world, a wall of clocks, and a makeshift newsroom where ABC News staffers would follow the latest developments.

Tanya Rivero

Tanya Rivero has been a news anchor for CBSN since 2017. Previously, she was the host of Lunch Break on Wall Street Journal Live between April 2014 and 2017.

The "full Ginsburg" is a buzzword that refers to an appearance by one person on all five American major Sunday morning talk shows on the same day: This Week on ABC, Fox News Sunday, Face the Nation on CBS, Meet the Press on NBC, and Late Edition on CNN. State of the Union replaced Late Edition on CNN in January 2009.

David Muir American broadcast journalist

David Jason Muir is an American journalist and the anchor of ABC World News Tonight and co-anchor of the ABC News magazine 20/20, part of the news department of the ABC broadcast-television network, based in New York City. Muir previously served as the weekend anchor and primary substitute anchor on ABC's World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, subsequently succeeding her on September 1, 2014. At ABC News, Muir has won multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for his national and international journalism.

We Are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube edition) 2010 single by 57 YouTube musicians

"We Are the World 25 for Haiti " is a collaborative charity song and music video produced by singer-songwriter Lisa Lavie and posted to the YouTube video sharing website to raise money for victims of the January 12 2010 Haiti earthquake.

References

  1. ↑ Larson, Stephanie Greco; Bailey, Martha | Autumn (1998). "ABC's "Person of the Week": American Values in Television News". Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. 75 (3). (excerpt here)
  2. ↑ Neal Gabler (April 25, 2014). "Bundy: Counterfeit hero". Archived from the original on May 1, 2014.
  3. ↑ Hank Stuever (December 13, 2011). "Chelsea Clinton makes broadcast debut on NBC's 'Rock Center'". The Washington Post .
  4. ↑ Craig Barto (August 11, 2005), Editorial/Opinion: Peter Jennings: America's 'person of the week', USA Today
  5. ↑ Linda Ge (August 22, 2014). "Diane Sawyer Gets Nostalgic for Final Person of the Week Segment". The Wrap.
  6. ↑ David Bauder (September 1, 2014). "David Muir Wants To Get Away From The 'World News' Anchor Desk As Much As Possible". AP / Huffington Post.
  7. ↑ Brian Flood (April 14, 2015). "'CBS Evening News' Names Brinda Adhikari Senior Producer". TV Newser.
  8. ↑ "Video: A Reason to Dance at the Prom". ABC News.
  9. 1 2 "PERSON OF THE WEEK (HALE AND BOPP) #172122". Television News archive. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  10. ↑ "Human Rights Leader Jack Healey Reveals the Truth about Celebrities, Government Leaders and Human Rights on September 16". PR Newswire.
  11. ↑ "Person of the Week -- Harper Lee July 2010.wmv" – via www.youtube.com.
  12. ↑ Matt Schudel (February 10, 2012). "Jeffrey Zaslow, co-author of 'The Last Lecture,' dies at 53". The Washington Post .
  13. ↑ "Person of the Week Randy Pausch".
  14. ↑ "Person of the Week: Angelique Todd" – via www.youtube.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.