This Week

This Week Information

This Week}}

This Week is the Sunday morning political affairs program on the ABC television network. It premiered in 1981. The program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones. Currently, George Stephanopoulos is the host for the second time in the show's history. Former Good Morning America and World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson performed the voice-over at the beginning of George Stephanopoulos second turn at This Week.

Hosts

In 1960, ABC's Sunday talk show was launched as Issues and Answers. 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 in the 1962-1963 season. Another host was Bob Clark.

On November 15, 1981, David Brinkley came to the network from NBC and took over the show, which was renamed This Week. During Brinkley's run, three major sponsors were part of the show: General Electric, Archer Daniels Midland and Merrill Lynch. The names of the regular hosts have been included in the billing for the program, such as This Week with David Brinkley. After Brinkley retired on December 8, 1996, Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts co-hosted. George Stephanopoulos became the host on September 15, 2002; he ended his tenure 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.

Christiane Amanpour, a world affairs correspondent at CNN, began as anchor on August 1, 2010. During her first two months as host, the ratings for This Week reached its lowest point since 2003. It was announced in December 2011 that Amanpour would step down as This Week's anchor, returning to CNN.

On January 5, 2012, ABC announced that George Stephanopoulos would return as the host of This Week.

Key features

One of the key features of This Week is the roundtable, which includes 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 since the program's start with David Brinkley, sometimes contributes short reports to the broadcast.

Other key features include the Sunday Funnies, excerpts of jokes from late night television 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, This Week began broadcasting from the Newseum in Washington D.C. in a studio that overlooks the U.S. Capitol. In addition, the program became available in high definition for the first time in the program's history, also becoming the first Sunday morning talk show in high definition. Since this transition, the broadcast no longer includes 'Voices' or 'Images'; however, it still shows 'In Memoriam' and 'The Sunday Funnies'.

In February, 2009, the gap between Meet the Press and its competitors "? CBS' Face the Nation and ABC's This Week "? began closing. Meet the Press posted its lowest ratings since NBC's David Gregory became moderator in early February, with the show airing Sunday, Feb. 1 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 total viewers. This Week beat Meet the Press on January 11, when George Stephanopoulos interviewed President-Elect Barack Obama.

In 2010, Jake Tapper arranged with Bill Adair to get PolitiFact.com to fact check This Week.

International broadcasts

ABC News programming, including This Week, is shown weekly on the twenty-four hour news network Orbit News in Europe and the Middle East. It also airs in Australia on Sky News Australia, in Japan on NHK, and in New Zealand on TVNZ 7.

Former & Current Anchors

David Brinkley (1981 " 1996)
Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts (1996 " 2002)
George Stephanopoulos (2002 " 2010, January 8, 2012 " present)
Christiane Amanpour (August 1, 2010 " December 25, 2011)

Guest anchors

From the time between Stephanopoulos' announcement and the announcement that Amanpour would succeed Stephanopoulos, a variety of guest anchors were used.

Jake Tapper (January 17, 2010)
Terry Moran (January 24, 2010)
Barbara Walters (January 31, 2010)
Elizabeth Vargas (February 28, 2010)
Jonathan Karl (March 21, 2010)
Matthew Dowd
Jake Tapper (March 2010"July 2010)

Regular panelists

The Roundtable typically includes four panelists along with the moderator. George Will is almost always a panelist. Other recurring panelists include Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Fareed Zakaria, Martha Raddatz, Peggy Noonan, Torie 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, and Ed Gillespie.