Elizabeth Vargas | |
---|---|
![]() Vargas in May 2018 | |
Born | Elizabeth Anne Vargas September 6, 1962 Paterson, New Jersey, U.S. |
Education | University of Missouri |
Occupation | Television journalist |
Years active | 1993–present |
Known for | Co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight Co-anchor for 20/20 Host of America's Most Wanted (2021) |
Spouse |
Elizabeth Anne Vargas [1] (born September 6, 1962) is an American television journalist who is the lead investigative reporter/documentary anchor for A&E Networks, and was the host for Fox's revival of America's Most Wanted (2021). She began her new position on May 28, 2018, after being an anchor of ABC's television newsmagazine 20/20 and ABC News specials for the previous 14 years. She is also a news anchor for NewsNation, where she hosts Elizabeth Vargas Reports currently based in New York City.
In 2006 Vargas was co-anchor of World News Tonight alongside ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff.
Elizabeth Anne Vargas was born in Paterson, New Jersey, the daughter of an Italian-Spanish father, Rafael "Ralf" Vargas, a colonel in the U.S. Army from Puerto Rico, and an Irish-American mother, Anne Vargas, a part-time English teacher. [2] She has two siblings, Amy and Christopher, who both work in tech in Silicon Valley. [2] Her father was a U.S. army captain and moved the family to Okinawa [3] when she was four years old. Vargas then spent much of her youth moving from post to post in Germany, Belgium, and the United States. [2] Vargas graduated from an American high school in Heidelberg, where she realized her passion for journalism. [2]
Vargas enrolled at the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1980 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1984, having served as a student reporter at KOMU-TV and a student editor at KBIA. [4] [2] Former advisors spoke well of her competency in her journalism work on campus; Rod Gelatt, former KOMU news director, noted that she was the first student to ever fill in for him as moderator of the station's Missouri Forum public affairs program and Kent Collins, chairman of the university's journalism faculty, remembered her "aggressive and energetic" work ethic. [4]
After college, Vargas worked at Reno's CBS affiliate KTVN, before moving to Phoenix as a lead reporter for then-ABC affiliate KTVK-TV. [2] After three years there, she moved to Chicago to work at CBS station WBBM-TV, where Phyllis McGrady, a senior vice president at ABC, said of her: "Elizabeth is one of the most flexible talents I've ever worked with. She could do interviews, and do hour-long specials that make you think, and then she'll do a great interview with P. Diddy. She is versatile." [5] Vargas left WBBM-TV in 1993.
In 1993, Vargas joined NBC News as a correspondent for Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric . [2] She later became a correspondent mainly for Dateline NBC, and also served as a substitute anchor for Today and the weekend editions of NBC Nightly News . [2]
In June 1996, [6] she joined ABC News' Good Morning America as the newsreader and Joan Lunden's likely "heir apparent". [2] In June 1997, ABC promoted Vargas to prime time magazine show correspondent, succeeded by Kevin Newman as newsreader. In 2002, she became one of the anchors of 20/20 Downtown, which was later rebranded Downtown before being rebranded again in 2003 as Primetime Monday before its end. She later reported occasionally for Primetime. She was also named anchor of World News Tonight Saturday and presented with the opportunity to develop specials for Primetime. In November 2003, Vargas became anchor of World News Tonight Sunday. She was named co-anchor of 20/20 in May 2004. [7]
Vargas was the first national evening news anchor of Puerto Rican and Irish-American heritage and also the third female anchor of a network evening newscast in the US since Connie Chung and Barbara Walters. She is said [5] to be "particularly proud" of an ABC special report in which she questioned why the Laci Peterson case merited more attention than two other similar cases, one involving a black woman and the other involving a Hispanic woman. Another story, based on the book The Da Vinci Code and the role of Mary Magdalene, helped fuel a nationwide religious debate. Vargas stated that for centuries Mary Magdalene has been portrayed as a prostitute by the church despite evidence to the contrary. She went on to question the limited role of women within the Catholic church. In 1999, she won an Emmy Award for her coverage of the Elián González story, and in 1998 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her 20/20 investigation into the wrongful conviction of Betty Tyson. [7]
In April 2005, Vargas and Charles Gibson temporarily filled in for Peter Jennings, who was receiving chemotherapy for lung cancer, on World News Tonight until Jennings's death in August. After a period of mourning and indecision, she and Bob Woodruff were chosen as co-anchors on December 5, 2005. [7] She anchored many broadcasts alone after Woodruff's injury in Iraq in January 2006. She also co-anchored World News Tonight with either Charles Gibson or Diane Sawyer. [7]
On May 23, 2006, Vargas announced her resignation from World News Tonight. Gibson was then named sole anchor of the show, effective from May 29, 2006, replacing Vargas and Woodruff. [8] To explain the sudden change, Vargas cited her doctors' recommendation to considerably cut back her schedule owing to a difficult pregnancy and her wish to spend more time with her new baby when he arrived. Most inside accounts, however, said she fully expected and wished to return to the anchor chair soon after giving birth, but Gibson threatened to quit ABC News if he was not made sole permanent anchor. [9] According to these sources, his gambit succeeded and she was left embittered, although not enough to sever ties with the network. In late 2006, Vargas returned as co-anchor of 20/20 and primary host of ABC News specials. [7] In 2008, Vargas hosted Elvis: Viva Las Vegas, a documentary that explored Elvis Presley's triumph in Las Vegas and his artistic legacy, and featured performances and interviews with various stars, including Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Dwayne Johnson, Faith Hill, David Lynch, Jon Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, and Priscilla Presley. [10]
In 2013, Vargas won a Peabody Award for her contributions in ABC News' coverage of Hurricane Sandy on 20/20. [11] [12]
In a special edition of 20/20 that aired on September 9, 2016, Vargas opened up about her struggles with anxiety and alcoholism and further talked about her upcoming book Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction, which discusses those struggles. [13] In October 2016, she appeared in an episode of ABC's Designated Survivor. [14]
Vargas officially departed ABC on May 25, 2018, after a dedication on 20/20. [15]
In April 2018, A&E Originals signed Vargas to a first-look and production deal. Vargas would serve as the anchor of its A&E Investigates banner for new non-fiction prime-time journalism programming. [16] She broadcast her first A&E Investigates series, Cults & Extreme Belief , in May 2018. [17] The Untold Story, a series focusing on the untold stories of influential people and events, premiered in April 2019. [18] In January 2021, it was confirmed that Vargas would host a revival of America's Most Wanted on Fox, which premiered on March 15, 2021. [19]
Vargas is now the anchor of News Cafe on A&E's FYI Network.
On September 19, 2022, Vargas guest anchored NewsNation Prime during the week until September 23, 2022. [20] Vargas then became the host of a syndicated true crime series shortly after called iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas . [21]
On January 10, 2023, it was announced that Vargas would host a new show on NewsNation, titled Elizabeth Vargas Reports, which is slated to premiere on April 3, 2023. [22]
Vargas has explained that despite her multi-ethnic heritage, she identifies with her Hispanic roots. She is fluent in English and Spanish and proficient in French. [2]
On July 20, 2002, Vargas married singer-songwriter Marc Cohn after three years of dating. [23] They have two sons, Zach and Sam. [24] [25] Vargas also has two stepchildren, Max and Emily, from Cohn's first marriage. In August 2014, Entertainment Tonight reported that Vargas and Cohn were divorcing after 12 years of marriage. [26]
Vargas was introduced to Transcendental Meditation in 2014 by fellow ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos. [27] [28]
Vargas's lifelong battle with alcohol stemmed from anxiety rooted in her childhood. After her father joined the Vietnam War, she began suffering daily panic attacks. She was told early on that she should hide her anxiety to avoid appearing weak, but this only intensified the problem and her addiction to alcohol. [29] During a family vacation in 2012, she realized she needed help. She sought treatment in Utah, but departed prematurely and eventually relapsed. [29]
On November 6, 2013, ABC confirmed a New York Daily News story that Vargas was undergoing treatment for alcoholism in Tennessee. "I am dealing with addiction," Vargas said. [30] [31] Once again, Vargas left rehab too soon but quickly realized it was a mistake. Within a week, she returned for treatment for a third time. Shortly after coming home, she and husband Marc Cohn divorced. [32]
On January 24, 2014, Vargas described herself as an alcoholic. [33] [34] Over the next few years, she wrote Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction. Her book was published by Grand Central Publishing on September 13, 2016, and became an instant New York Times and USA Today best-seller. [35]
In 2018, NBC News reported that Vargas had been sober since 2014. [29]
Constance Yu-Hwa Chung is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance, and basketball legend Magic Johnson after he went public about being HIV-positive. In 1993, she became the second woman to co-anchor a network newscast as part of CBS Evening News.
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 Saturday and Sunday editions of the newscast respectively.
ABC News is the news division of the American television network ABC. 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, 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Katherine Anne Couric is an American journalist and presenter. 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.
Barbara Jill Walters was an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, she appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including Today, the ABC Evening News, 20/20, and The View. Walters was a working journalist from 1951 until her retirement in 2015. Walters was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NATAS in 2000 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings was a Canadian-American television journalist, best known for serving as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. Despite dropping out of high school, Jennings transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists.
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.
Charles deWolf Gibson is an American broadcast television anchor, journalist, and podcaster. Gibson was a host of Good Morning America from 1987 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2006, and the anchor of World News with Charles Gibson from 2006 to 2009.
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.
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 and Saturday programs airs from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all United States timezones. The 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 markets 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.
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.
Linda Cohn is an American sportscaster. She has anchored ESPN's SportsCenter since 1992.
Judy Carline Woodruff is an American broadcast journalist who has worked in local, network, cable, and public television news since 1970. She was the anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour through the end of 2022. Woodruff has covered every presidential election and convention since 1976. She has interviewed several heads of state and moderated U.S. presidential debates.
Deborah Ann Roberts is an American television journalist for the ABC News division of the ABC broadcast television network.
Robert Warren Woodruff is an American television journalist. Since 1996, he has served as a reporter for ABC News. Woodruff co-anchored ABC World News Tonight in 2006 with journalist Elizabeth Vargas. He was severely injured by an IED explosion during a reporting trip to Iraq that January, and he recovered over an extended period before returning to air.
Harris Kimberley Faulkner is an American newscaster and television host who joined the Fox News Channel in 2005. She anchors The Faulkner Focus, a daily daytime show, and hosts Outnumbered. Additionally, she hosts her own primetime political franchise called Town Hall America with Harris Faulkner. She has received six Emmy Awards, including the 2005 Upper Midwest Emmy Awards for Best Newscaster (nominee) and Best News Special (recipient).
Jane Velez-Mitchell is a television and social media journalist and author with specialties in vegan lifestyles, animal rights, addiction, and social justice. She is a New York Times bestselling author, former CNN Headline News (HLN) host, and founder of UnchainedTV.
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 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.
Joie Chen is a Chinese American television journalist as well as an Asian American broadcast journalist. She was the anchor of Al Jazeera America's flagship evening news show America Tonight, which was launched in August 2013. In January 2016, the channel announced it would close on 12 April 2016.
Geoffrey Robinson Bennett is an American broadcast journalist and a co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour alongside Amna Nawaz. He has worked as an editor, reporter and news anchor on radio, cable and broadcast television, and online.
This is called transcendental meditation, which is the kind I practice.
Vargas has been practicing TM for about a year now. When she got back from rehab in 2014, fellow ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos encouraged her to try the technique. A year later, she says her anxiety 'is a lot less than it used to be.'