"This Week" being revamped – George Will is out, pretty much

Next Month With George and Tom
With a New Producer In, ABC's 'This Week' Roundtable Is Out

By Howard Kurtz

Over breakfast at the Four Seasons several months ago, Tom Bettag had what he calls his "first date" with George Stephanopoulos and tried to decide whether there would be a second.

The veteran "Nightline" producer had been asked to take over the former Clintonite's struggling Sunday morning show, "This Week," and he was blunt about what was at stake.

"It's going to be hard for you to have me messing around with stuff you put in there," Bettag told Stephanopoulos. If the larger "Nightline" staff took charge, "there's a whole ego issue here. . . . You will no longer have people you can call 'my people.' "

Stephanopoulos agreed to a lasting relationship, and the ABC program is expected to relaunch Sept. 7 with a new set, fancy graphics and one glaring omission: The journalists' roundtable, the opinionated give-and-take that has been the program's signature for 22 years, has been axed.

(snip)

The dropping of the roundtable means Bettag has had to find new roles for house conservative George Will, the last remaining member of the original show launched by David Brinkley, and panelists Michel Martin and Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria. Bettag says the three will still appear periodically -- by themselves -- for debriefing sessions with Stephanopoulos that will stress their reporting and analysis, not opinion-mongering. Other ABC News staffers will also pop up for these chats -- including "Nightline" correspondents and, on occasion, Ted Koppel -- along with reporters from other news organizations.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40353-2003Aug24.html

The show has sucked since he left.

in 1964 ...this was revealed by george will during sam/kookie's last show; i think donaldson looked kinda sick as this was just after JFK murder, and donaldson is supposed to be a liberal...

is tiresome.

hard to imagine Will giving actual and factual
news reports...

I hope - I wish

:-)

get rid of the ol' so tiresome and annoying George Will...or should I say George WON'T...what a creep.

I'm sorry but when network bigwigs start revamping a political program it makes me suspicious. Usually they want to skew their message to the right. Anyway, from the sound of it, "This Week" will begin to look like "Meet the Press." Who needs it?

...apparently. Nightline is consistently top quality journalism and unsparing of George W. Bush. If the Sunday show is going to ape Nightline, this is excellent news. EXCELLENT!

...will stress their reporting and analysis, not opinion-mongering...


Are we seeing blowback? :shrug:

he feeds information to guests. I've never trusted him. I think he was the "mole" in Clinton's campaign.......but what do I know. I just don't like his style.

I think it would be unfortunate to get rid of Will. He is pompous and officious, but at least he's a grown-up and not one of these vicious, foaming at the mouth types. I enjoy This Week because it's largely intellectual and not the shouting match that the McLaughlin Group is. Getting rid of Mr. Bow Tie would subtract from the intellectual quality of the show.

...after it came out he helped coach Reagan for the presidential debates (using stolen Carter briefing books) then went on-air as a supposedly objective news analyst and praised Reagan "like a thoroughbred" without disclosing his direct interest.

Should his gravy-train be drying up right now, it shouldn't be lamented for ANY reason.