Abc News

Charlie Gibson is making it interesting in the evening news race. Ever since the former Good Morning America co-anchor took the helm of World News Tonight, the broadcast has either tied or won the coveted 25-54 demographic against NBC's once-dominant Nightly News. In a week shortened by the July 4 holiday and with Diane Sawyer at the helm, ABC defeated NBC's Brian Williams in both the 25-54 demo and total viewers. ABC News senior VP Paul Slavin said it's a sign that the news race is going to be tight this fall, especially with Katie Couric joining the fray at CBS. "NBC is going to face some really tough competition from Katie and some really tough competition from Charlie," Slavin said.

The show opens with Tom and Brooke alone on the stage, acknowledging the tragic events Boston today. I understand the need to address it, and I'm also glad to have my silly dancing show to distract me from the awfulness. The show opens with the pros in an enclosed corridor offstage and then they all come out for a group dance, joined by the former pros that will presumably dancing with the couples tonight. That's tonight's gimmick: this season's couples will be doing their routines alongside a pro couple.

Out with the new, and in with the old.That's the plan, as of yesterday anyway, at ABC News for reviving its troubled "Good Morning America" show.In a major overhaul, two anchors and an executive producer were dumped yesterday to be replaced on an interim basis starting Jan. 18 by former "GMA" host Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, of the "20/20" newsmagazine. Sawyer's return to mornings, where she worked as co-host of "CBS This Morning" from 1981 to 1984, is one of the more surprising turns taken of late by the revolving chairs at the morning show.

As Dr. Christina Catlett leaves the Johns Hopkins Hospital trauma center each evening, she tries to shake the day's searing images - the drug overdoses, gunshot wounds, heart attacks and other heartbreaks. She wants to be able to sleep. "As I drive out of Baltimore City to the county, I almost literally let all that emotion drain out of my body, and let my mind go blank," Catlett said recently. As a result, she commonly remembers little about the scenes that stirred her to tears or anger.

Norm Lewis spends a lot of time with his head in the sky. Not only does he study the clouds for his nightly forecasts, but he's also a huge fan of astronomy. Lewis, a married father of two grown kids, learned about the weather while serving in the military. Since then, he's spent more than 30 years doing weather on TV in Baltimore. Lewis lives in Mount Airy with his wife, Linda. 1. 206mm Astro Physics refractor telescope "This is the finest amateur refractor telescope ever made. The only problem is there are only three of them in the world."

NEW YORK - Just before 7 p.m., Peter Jennings stands on the floor of Madison Square Garden and begins to speak into a hand-held microphone. As delegates to the Republican National Convention mill around him, a few snapping pictures, he offers a brief description of the day's news and foreshadows the speeches by backers of President Bush to come. As ABC's half-hour-long World News Tonight draws to an end, Jennings is appearing live before millions of television viewers. A few seconds later, the dapper anchor, after smoothing invisible creases in his blazer and adjusting his trademark pocket square, faces the camera and starts to speak again.

NEW YORK -- Charles Gibson is still getting used to the idea of being in charge. The veteran newsman has plenty of experience in anchoring ABC's evening newscast (he's been filling in since at least 1998) but when he officially took the helm of World News Tonight at the end of May, he found that it required some adjusting. As a substitute anchor, "it was a little bit like being a grandparent: You could play with the baby and enjoy it and have a terrific time, and if you screwed up, you were always going to be able to give the kid back," he said on a recent afternoon on the set in the bustling newsroom.

In London, motorists shouted profanities at photographers outside Buckingham Palace. At the Paris hospital where Princess Diana died early Sunday, the epithets were worse: "Murderers," medical staff shouted at the men and women with cameras outside. And at the tunnel where the fatal car crash occurred, angry mourners scrawled red graffiti labeling paparazzi cowards.What had seemed a sort of game -- though an increasingly aggressive one -- changed early Sunday when probably the world's most photographed woman died after trying to elude paparazzi on motorcycles.

68 John Amos Actor 64 Cokie Roberts ABC News correspondent 59 Gerard Depardieu Actor 41 Eva LaRue Actress 33 Masi Oka Actor