This Week (American TV program)

For other series with the same name, see This Week.
This Week
GenrePublic affairs/news analysis program
Created byRoone Arledge
Presented by
Narrated byCharles Gibson
Theme music composerScore Productions (1981–2011)
DreamArtists Studios (2011–present)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons41
Production
Production locationsABC News Washington Bureau, Washington, D.C.
(1981–2008, 2014–present)
Newseum, Washington, D.C.
(2008–2013)
ABC News Headquarters, New York City
(2011–present)
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time44 minutes
Production companyABC News Productions
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseNovember 15, 1981 (1981-11-15) –
present (present)

This Week, originally titled as This Week with David Brinkley and billed as This Week with George Stephanopoulos since 2012, is an American Sunday morning political affairs program airing on ABC.[3] It premiered on November 15, 1981, replacing Issues and Answers with David Brinkley as its original anchor until his retirement in 1996. The program has been anchored by George Stephanopoulos since 2012, after first hosting it from 2002 to 2010. Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl have been co-hosts since 2016 and 2021, respectively.[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. 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.

History

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In 1960, ABC launched its first Sunday talk show Issues and Answers, which featured 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 was given full responsibility for 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 (which departed after taking control on NBC in 1987), Archer Daniels Midland and Merrill Lynch.

On November 10, 1996, David Brinkley retired as host of This Week but continued to appear on the program providing commentary segments until September 28, 1997.[6] Following Brinkley's retirement, ABC News journalists Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts subsequently became co-hosts of This Week. Since 1981, the names of the primary anchors have been included with the show's title, such as This Week with David Brinkley and during this era, the program was billed as This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts (or This Week with Sam & Cokie).[7]

Longtime panelist George Stephanopoulos became the new host of This Week on September 15, 2002;[8] 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.[9]

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.[10] Following the transition, the program discontinued the segments Images and Voices. 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.

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.[11] On January 5, 2012, ABC News announced that Stephanopoulos would return as the host of This Week.[12] 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;[13] this lasted until 2014.

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

Ratings

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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.[14]

Key features

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Former This Week Newseum studio

One of the key features of This Week is the roundtable discussion (currently branded as The Powerhouse 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,[15] sometimes contributed short reports to the broadcast.

After George Stephanopolous became host in 2002, new segments were added to the program including:

  • Images, a selection of photographs illustrating various news stories from the past week.
  • In Memoriam, a listing of prominent deaths, including all reported military deaths, that occurred during the week.
  • Sunday Funnies, excerpts from various late night talk and sketch comedy programs that aired during the week.
  • Voices, excerpts from various interviews conducted during the week.

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.[16]

On-air staff

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Hosts

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Regular panelists

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The Roundtable typically includes three or four panelists along with the moderator. Recurring panelists have included George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Bill Kristol, 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, Ed Gillespie, Sarah Isgur and Chris Christie.

International broadcasts

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ABC News programming, including This Week, is shown weekly on the 24-hour news network OSN News in the Middle Eastern/North Africa region. It also airs in Australia on SBS, in Japan on NHK BS 1.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dylan Byers (February 27, 2014). "Martha Raddatz to split hosting duties on ABC's 'This Week'". Politico. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "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. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019.
  5. ^ "Diane Sawyer to Step Down as 'World News' Anchor". ABC News. June 25, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  6. ^ "David Brinkley Retiring From Broadcasting". The New York Times. 1997-09-26. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  7. ^ This Week with Sam vesves Cokie ( 1998), 13 January 2018, archived from the original on 2021-12-13, retrieved 2019-10-02
  8. ^ "www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/06/19/abc-banks-on-stephanopoulos-to-liven-up-this-week/". The Washington Post.
  9. ^ "Christiane Amanpour Named 'This Week' Anchor - ABC News". ABC News.
  10. ^ "Coming Up on 'This Week'". ABC News. April 20, 2008.
  11. ^ Steve Krakauer (September 27, 2010). "This Weak: Christiane Amanpour Leads ABC To Worst Ratings Since 2003". Mediaite. Retrieved September 27, 2010.
  12. ^ "George Stephanopoulos Returns To "This Week"". ABC News. 2011.
  13. ^ "TCA: Katie Couric Won't Be Anchoring ABC's Evening Newscast". Deadline Hollywood. January 2012.
  14. ^ Danny Shea (February 5, 2009). ""Meet The Press" Ratings Lowest Since David Gregory Became Moderator". The Huffington Post.
  15. ^ Jack Mirkinson (October 1, 2013). "George Will Joins Fox News, Leaves ABC After 3 Decades". The Huffington Post. AOL. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  16. ^ 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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