This Week (U.S. TV program)

This Week
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 origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 34
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 time 44 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 release November 15, 1981 – present
External links
Website

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.[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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Key features

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.

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

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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