This Week (U.S. TV program)

Last updated
This Week
This Week with George Stephanopoulos, June 2017.png
Genre Public affairs/news analysis program
Created by Roone Arledge
Presented by
Narrated by Charles Gibson
Theme music composer Score Productions (1981–2011)
DreamArtists Studios (2011–present)
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
No. of seasons34
Production
Production location(s)ABC News Washington Bureau, Washington, D.C.
(1981–2008, 2014–present)
Newseum, Washington, D.C.
(2008–2013)
ABC News Headquarters, New York City, New York
(2011–present)
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time44 minutes
Production company(s) ABC News Productions
Release
Original network ABC
Picture format 480i (4:3 SDTV)
(1981–2008)
720p (16:9 HDTV)
(2003–2012)
1080p (16:9 HDTV)
(2012–present)
Original releaseNovember 15, 1981 –
present
External links
Website

This Week, originally titled as This Week with David Brinkley which had a long run as the #1 public affairs program on network TV. Currently the program is a 3rd place finisher in ratings, now billed as This Week with George Stephanopoulos, is an American Sunday morning political affairs program airing on the ABC television network. [3] It premiered in November 1981. The program is currently anchored by George Stephanopoulos and co-anchored by Martha Raddatz. [2] [4] [5] 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. Since the departure of popular host David Brinkley in 1996, the program generally finishes last in viewer ratings among the big 3 American Sunday network policy and pundit talk shows, behind Meet The Press and Face The Nation .

American Broadcasting Company American broadcast television network

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building.

George Stephanopoulos American government official, journalist, writer

George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos is currently the chief anchor and the chief political correspondent for ABC News, a co-anchor of Good Morning America, and the host of ABC's Sunday morning This Week. Stephanopoulos is a regular substitute anchor for ABC World News Tonight.

Martha Raddatz American newsmedia personality

Martha Raddatz is an American reporter with ABC News. She is the network's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent. She reports for ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir, Nightline, and other network broadcasts. In addition to her work for ABC News, Raddatz has written for The New Republic and is a frequent guest on PBS's Washington Week. Raddatz is the primary fill-in anchor on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Contents

Hosts

In 1960, ABC launched its first Sunday talk show Issues and Answers which feature policy discussions, prior to the age of political pundits dominating the talk shows. One of its early hosts was Howard K. Smith, who also had his own prime-time public affairs program Howard K. Smith: News and Comment air on the network during the 1962–1963 season. Among the program's later hosts was Bob Clark.

<i>Issues and Answers</i> television series

Issues and Answers was a once-weekly TV news program that was telecast by the American Broadcasting Company network from November 1960 to November 1981. The series was distributed to the ABC affiliate stations on Sunday afternoons for either live broadcast or video taped for later broadcast.

Howard K. Smith American news anchor

Howard Kingsbury Smith was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys.

In broadcasting, public affairs radio or television programs focus on matters of politics and public policy. Among commercial broadcasters, such programs are often only to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory expectations and are not scheduled in prime time. Public affairs television programs are usually broadcast at times when few listeners or viewers are tuned in in the U.S., in time slots known as graveyard slots; such programs can be frequently encountered at times such as 5-6 a.m. on a Sunday.

On November 15, 1981, David Brinkley came to the network from NBC News and took over the show, which was relaunched as This Week with a network time slot at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. During Brinkley's run, three major sponsors were part of the show: General Electric, Archer Daniels Midland and Merrill Lynch. After Brinkley retired on November 10, 1996, Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts became co-hosts of the program. Longtime panelist George Stephanopoulos became the host on September 15, 2002; he ended his first tenure with the program on January 10, 2010, shortly after being named the co-host of Good Morning America . ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper served as the interim anchor from March to July 2010. [6] The names of the primary anchors have been included in the billing for the program, such as This Week with David Brinkley and This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

David Brinkley American journalist

David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997.

NBC News news division of the American broadcast network NBC

NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, in turn a subsidiary of Comcast. The group's various operations report to the president of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim.

General Electric American multinational conglomerate corporation

General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate incorporated in New York and headquartered in Boston. As of 2018, the company operates through the following segments: aviation, healthcare, power, renewable energy, digital industry, additive manufacturing, venture capital and finance, lighting, and oil and gas.

Christiane Amanpour, a longtime world affairs correspondent at CNN, began as the program's host on August 1, 2010. During her first two months as host, the ratings for This Week reached their lowest point since 2003. In December 2011, it was announced that Amanpour would step down as anchor of the program, while returning to CNN in turn. [7] On January 5, 2012, ABC News announced that Stephanopoulos would return as the host of This Week. [8] With the return of Stephanopolous as moderator, the program began using former Good Morning America and World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson to perform the voice-over heard during the opening of each broadcast; [9] this lasted until 2014.

Christiane Amanpour News anchor and international correspondent

Christiane Maria Heideh Amanpour is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief International Anchor for CNN and host of CNN International's nightly interview program Amanpour. She is also the host of Amanpour & Company on PBS.

CNN American news channel

Cable News Network (CNN) is an American news-based pay television channel owned by WarnerMedia News & Sports, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia. CNN was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel. Upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States.

<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. Since 2014, the program's weekday broadcasts have been anchored by David Muir. Cecilia Vega and Tom Llamas rotated as anchors of the Saturday editions and Sunday editions until Llamas was named sole weekend anchor in January 2017.

In 2016, Martha Raddatz was named co-anchor of This Week, alternating each weekend with Stephanopoulos. [2]

Key features

Former This Week Newseum studio Newseum studio.JPG
Former This Week Newseum studio

One of the key features of This Week is the roundtable, which included pundits such as George Will and ABC News correspondents such as Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, and other guests discussing the major issues of the week. Will, a regular panelist who was with the program from its launch with David Brinkley until he left ABC to join Fox News as a contributor in 2013, [10] sometimes contributed short reports to the broadcast.

George Will American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author

George Frederick Will is an American political commentator. George Will writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America," in a league with Walter Lippmann (1889–1974). His numerous awards include the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977.

Sam Donaldson American journalist

Samuel Andrew Donaldson Jr. is an American former reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to 2013. He is best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday program, This Week.

Cokie Roberts American journalist

Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Roberts, best known as Cokie Roberts, is an American journalist and author. She is a reporter on contract to National Public Radio as well as a regular roundtable analyst for the current This Week With George Stephanopoulos. Roberts also works as a commentator for ABC News, serving as an on-air analyst for the network.

Other key features include the Sunday Funnies, excerpts of jokes from late night talk and sketch comedy programs of the previous week; and In Memoriam, a selection of prominent deaths from politics, business and culture, and a listing of all reported military deaths from that week.

On April 20, 2008, production of This Week relocated to the Newseum in Washington D.C., in a studio that overlooks the U.S. Capitol. In addition, the program began broadcasting in high definition, becoming the first Sunday morning talk show to broadcast in HD. [11] Following the transition, the program discontinued the segments "Voices" (which featured short clips with interview subjects) and "Images" (which featured photographs illustrating the stories of the past week). ABC and This Week moved out of the Newseum in 2013 due to infrequent use of the studio and other facilities, with the former studio later being used for the Washington bureau of cable news channel Al Jazeera America.

In February 2009, the ratings gap between Meet the Press and its competitors – This Week and CBS' Face the Nation – began closing. Meet the Press posted its lowest ratings since NBC News correspondent David Gregory became moderator in early February of that year, with the February 1 telecast averaging just 3.9 million viewers. Face the Nation averaged 3.33 million total viewers, while This Week came in just behind with 3.32 million. This Week beat Meet the Press on January 11, when George Stephanopoulos interviewed President-Elect Barack Obama. [12]

In 2010, Jake Tapper arranged with Bill Adair to get PolitiFact.com to fact check the statements made by panelists and guests featured on This Week. [13]

On-air staff

Hosts

Regular panelists

The Roundtable typically includes three or four panelists along with the moderator. Recurring panelists have included George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Fareed Zakaria, Martha Raddatz, Peggy Noonan, Victoria Clarke, Donna Brazile, Ann Coulter, Paul Krugman, Jay Carney, Claire Shipman, E.J. Dionne, Jr., Robert Reich, David Corn, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Mark Halperin, Joe Klein, Van Jones, David Brooks, Matthew Dowd, Mary Matalin and Ed Gillespie.

International broadcasts

ABC News programming, including This Week, is shown weekly on the 24-hour news network OSN News in MENA Region. It also airs in Australia on Sky News Australia, in Japan on NHK, and in New Zealand on TVNZ 7.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program in television history, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. Meet the Press specializes in interviews with leaders in Washington, D.C., across the country and even the world on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy and other public affairs, along with panel discussions that provide opinions and analysis. It originates from NBC's bureau in Washington, D.C. (WRC-TV).

<i>NBC Nightly News</i> Flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News

NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network in the United States. First aired on August 3, 1970, the program is currently the most watched network newscast in the United States, with an average of 9.3 million viewers, just a few thousand more than its nearest rival, ABC's World News Tonight. NBC Nightly News is produced from Studio 3C at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City and select editions broadcast from The Brokaw News Center in Universal City, California.

ABC News News division of the American Broadcasting Company

ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. 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, newsmagazine series Nightline, Primetime and 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Katie Couric American journalist

Katherine Anne Couric is an American journalist and author. She recently served as Yahoo! Global News Anchor. Couric has been a television host on all Big Three television networks in the United States, and in her early career 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 addition to her television news roles, she hosted Katie, a syndicated daytime talk show produced by Disney–ABC Domestic Television from September 10, 2012, to June 9, 2014. Some of her most important notable roles include co-host of Today, anchor of the CBS Evening News, and correspondent for 60 Minutes. She also reported for nearly every television news broadcast across ABC, CBS and NBC. Couric's 2011 book, The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives, was a New York Times best-seller. In 2004, Couric earned induction into the Television Hall of Fame.

Charles Gibson American journalist

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

Good Morning America (GMA) is an American morning television show 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 to 9:00 a.m. in all U.S. time zones. The Saturday and Sunday editions are one hour long and are transmitted to ABC's stations live at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, although stations in some 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.

<i>Face the Nation</i> television series

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Samuel Burke

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References

  1. ↑ Dylan Byers (February 27, 2014). "Martha Raddatz to split hosting duties on ABC's 'This Week'". Politico . Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Martha Raddatz Named Co-Anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos". TVNewser . January 2016.
  3. ↑ "George's Bottom Line". ABC News . Archived from the original on December 6, 2009. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Stephanopoulos back to replace Amanpour at ABC's 'This Week,' will remain host of 'GMA'". The Washington Post . December 13, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Diane Sawyer to Step Down as 'World News' Anchor". ABC News. June 25, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Christiane Amanpour Named 'This Week' Anchor - ABC News". ABC News.
  7. ↑ Steve Krakauer (September 27, 2010). "This Weak: Christiane Amanpour Leads ABC To Worst Ratings Since 2003". Mediaite . Retrieved September 27, 2010.
  8. ↑ "George Stephanopoulos Returns To "This Week"". ABC News.
  9. ↑ "TCA: Katie Couric Won't Be Anchoring ABC's Evening Newscast". Deadline Hollywood . January 2012.
  10. ↑ Jack Mirkinson (October 1, 2013). "George Will Joins Fox News, Leaves ABC After 3 Decades". The Huffington Post . AOL . Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Coming Up on 'This Week'". ABC News. April 20, 2008.
  12. ↑ Danny Shea (February 5, 2009). ""Meet The Press" Ratings Lowest Since David Gregory Became Moderator". The Huffington Post .
  13. ↑ Jake Tapper (April 8, 2010). "THIS WEEK Joins With Politifact to Fact-Check the Newsmakers". Political Punch. ABC News. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
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