1978: ABC News Introduces its Three-Anchor Newscast
On this day in 1978, ABC News reformatted its evening newscast ABC Evening News, and re-introduced the program as World News Tonight. Anchors Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters were gone, replaced by a trio of anchors based in three cities: Frank Reynolds in Washington, D.C., Max Robinson in Chicago and Peter Jennings in London. (Walters did occasionally re-appear to cover special events from the New York-based "special coverage" desk.)
Reynolds and Jennings had both anchored earlier incarnations of ABC News evening newscasts. Robinson, who was anchoring the news at an ABC affiliate station in Washington, D.C. when he was hired for World News Tonight, became the first African-American to anchor a nightly network news broadcast.
Reynolds began the July 10, 1978 newscast with a promise: "Speaking for all the men and women of ABC News," he said, "I promise you an accurate, responsible and meaningful report on news at home and abroad."
The three-anchor format continued until 1983, when Reynolds became ill. A series of substitute anchors filled in during his absence. Three weeks after Reynolds death from cancer, Jennings was named sole anchor of World News Tonight. A year later, the newscast was renamed World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.