ABC's 'Nightline' Future Is in More Jeopardy With Producer's Exit (goodbye to Koppel finally?)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | 11/18/04 | BROOKS BARNES

[Cableguy]

A longtime producer of ABC's "Nightline" is leaving the show, signaling a larger shake-up at the money-losing late-night newsmagazine.

Co-Executive Producer Leroy Sievers, who has been with "Nightline" since the early 1990s, is negotiating an exit package after Walt Disney Co.'s ABC indicated it would not renew his contract, according to people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Sievers, a hard-news guardian of the traditional identity of the show, has run it on a daily basis since Tom Bettag, the show's other executive producer, started devoting his time to ABC's Sunday morning program "This Week" about a year ago.

The departure of Mr. Sievers comes amid an uncertain future for the 25-year-old show, which has been on a deathwatch since 2002 when ABC almost dumped the newsmagazine in a bid for David Letterman's "Late Show." In a public-relations disaster, ABC was exposed as trying to woo Mr. Letterman privately to leave CBS and take the Nightline slot, and was widely portrayed as insensitively trampling a news icon in pursuit of commercial gain.

ABC retreated, but to some anxious "Nightline" employees, it looks like the network is trying to finish the job -- this time more quietly and gracefully. (The previous incident embarrassed Mr. Letterman, who didn't want to be seen as complicit in killing a much-beloved news show.)

[Owl558]

Ted will be reading the names of all the people ever fired from his show and pretending that it is news.

Goodbye, good garbage, go away!

Do not consume the media product, turn them off, don't watch their shows. This is what will happen if enough of us turn away. They lose $$ and go out of business.

[Sir_Ed]

Man, that interview with Terry Waite was incredible. He said "I told the terrorists that, 'yes...you can break my body, which you tried. You can break my mind, which you tried, but you cannot destroy my soul,' which told them that they could never completrely destroy me...and that gave me hope."

Five years of being alone, chained to a wall. Five years of never seeing the sky, or the sunset...man, that guy has such strength of character.

Ed

[webheart]

if your boss says you're fired, how do you have any standing to "negotiate" anything?

It's called "begging."

[webheart]

The people who started watching Nightline 25 years ago were interested in news.

IIRC, it was about the time that the Iranian hostage crisis took place that Nightline got started. It just kept on going afterwards, like the Energizer bunny, long ago running out of fresh things to say.

[ken5050]

Correct..it also heavily contributed to Carter's defeat..EVERY night, they led the show with..DAY # *** of Americans held hostage.