Tag Archives: World News Tonight

Tom Llamas to Serve as Primetime Anchor for NBC News Now Live-Streaming Service

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Life is but a stream(ing news service) for Tom Llamas…

The 41-year-old Cuban American broadcast journalist, a popular former ABC News anchor, has joined NBC News as a primetime anchor for its NBC News Now live-streaming service.

Tom Llamas

Llamas will work as a senior national correspondent and will also contribute reporting to the network’s flagship shows and breaking news and special events coverage.

The launch of his new show marks the first evening newscast for NBC News Now, which will face off against, among other competitors, a similar program anchored by Linsey Davis that is already running at ABC News — and which recently expanded its hours.  He will start May 3.

“Tom brings with him more than two decades of experience tenaciously covering the news across multiple platforms and for many different audiences,” said Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, in a prepared statement. “Our viewers expect us to bring them smart and trustworthy journalism, wherever they are, and we’re thrilled that Tom will be bringing his expertise and passion to NBC News, NBC News Now and beyond.”

Llamas had been working as a senior anchor at ABC News, leading its weekend World News Tonight broadcast and working as its chief national affairs correspondent. He also served as a breaking-news anchor for ABC News Live, that company’s live-streaming service. In January, however, he abruptly left the Walt Disney-backed news division, and the identity of his next employer had been one of the news industry’s worst-kept secrets.

Llamas began his reporting career with NBC News in 2000, serving first with the specials unit at NBC News and then as a political campaign reporter for MSNBC. He also worked at NBC Owned Stations as an investigative reporter and anchor at WNBC in New York and as a reporter for WTVJ in Miami.

His new assignment illustrates the new focus traditional TV-news outlets are placing on streaming video. NBC News launched NBC News Now in May of 2019 and in recent months has started to expand the live hours it offers as well as the personnel assigned to them.

Monica Hernandez to Moderate the Next Democratic Presidential Debate

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Monica Hernandezis getting political…

The Latina broadcast journalist and WMUR-TV anchor/reporter will serve as a moderator at the next Democratic presidential debate, alongside ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight’s David Muir, ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis, and WMUR-TV’s Adam Sexton.

Monica Hernandez

The debate is set for February 7 at 8:00 pm ET in Manchester, New Hampshire, wedged between the Iowa Caucusesfour days before and the New Hampshire primary four days after.

The eighth debate of the primary cycle is hosted by ABC News, WMUR-TV and Apple News. It is set at St. Anselm Collegein Manchester and will air on ABC, Hearst Television’s WMUR-TV, Apple News and on ABC News Live.

So far, all six of the candidates who qualified for the previous debate – Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren— appear to have met the fundraising and polling thresholds to qualify for the debate. Another way in per Democratic National Committeerules would be to score a pledged delegate in Iowa.

The qualifying criteria involving grassroots fundraising (225,000 individual donors with 1,000 unique donors or more per state) likely will keep out candidate Michael Bloomberg, who is self-financing.

The previous debate hosted by CNNat Drake Universityin Des Moines, Iowa on January 14 drew an estimated 7.3 million viewers, a slight uptick from the 6.17 million who watched the debate in December, sponsored by PBSand Politico, and the 6.5 million who watched November’s event, hosted by MSNBC.

The New Hampshire debate is the second of four in each of the key voting states. Next up is February 19 in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC with The Nevada Independent, and February 25 in in Charleston, SC, hosted by CBS News, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Twitter.

Julian Castro Among Democratic Presidential Candidates to Qualify for Next Debate

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Julian Castro has made the cut…

The 44-year-old Mexican American politician and presidential hopeful is one of 10 Democratic candidates who’ve qualified for the next debate.

Julian Castro

ABC News and Univision will give each of the candidates slightly extra time to respond to questions than they were given at the last event, and they’ll be able to make opening statements but not closing remarks.

Since no more than 10 candidates made the cut to qualify, there will be just a single debate, on September 12. 

It’ll air from 8:00-11:00 pm ET on ABC and Univision from Texas Southern University’s Health & PE Center in Houston.

ABC News has also announced where the candidates will be standing on the stage. The order, from left to right, will be: Amy Klobuchar, Corey Booker,Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden,Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourkeand Castro. 

Candidates leading in the polls — Biden and Warren — were placed at the center, with the other candidates fanning out from that point based on their ranking.

ABC Newschief anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight anchor David Muir, correspondent Linsey Davisand Univision anchor Jorge Ramoswill moderate.

Candidates will be given one minute and 15 seconds to respond to direct questions, and 45 seconds for other responses and rebuttals, ABC News said. That is a bit more time than CNNallocated for its debate coverage on July 30-31, when candidates were given a minute to respond and 30 seconds for rebuttals. Some critics complained that candidates weren’t given enough time or had to abruptly finish when their time expired.

Elizabeth Vargas Leaving ABC News to Pursue New Ventures

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It’s the end of a long chapter for Elizabeth Vargas…

The 55-year-old half-Puerto Rican journalist, an ABC News staple for two decades and co-anchor with David Muir of the network’s newsmagazine 20/20 for 14 years, is leaving the company in May after the show’s 40th season draws to a close.

Elizabeth Vargas

The news broke on Friday and ABC News president James Goldston and Vargas told staff in memos, with Goldston saying she was going to “pursue new ventures.” There was no mention of a 20/20 anchor replacement.

“It has been a profound privilege to be the anchor of 20/20 for 14 years, and a true honor to work with each and every one of you,” wrote Vargas in a memo to her co-workers after news broke of her departure. “I am incredibly lucky to work alongside the very best in the business: the producers, editors, writers on this show, and the enormous team working every week to get our show on the air. I am so very proud of the stories we have told together.”

Vargas has worn many hats at ABC’s news division, and famously was named co-anchor of the networks’ World News Tonight with Bob Woodruff. That job was announced in late 2005, about a month before Woodruff was severely injured by an IED while covering the war in Iraq. Eventually, Vargas stepped down from WNT and Charles Gibson became sole anchor.

She became only the second female 20/20 anchor when she replaced Barbara Walters in the fall of 2004, and the first Latina.

In 2014, she spoke about her alcohol addiction, and two years later wrote a book about it, Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction.

Vargas came to ABC from NBC, where she was a correspondent and anchor for Dateline NBC and Today among other assignments.

Vega Officially Named as Co-Anchor of ABC World News Tonight‘s Weekend Editions

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Cecilia Vega is making world news…

The Latina broadcast journalist, a correspondent for ABC News, has been officially named as one of the anchors for ABC World News Tonight‘s Saturday and Sunday editions, as well as serve as senior national correspondent.

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Vega, who has interviewed everyone from Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto to Sylvester Stallone, will co-anchor the newscasts with Tom Llamas.

“Since joining ABC News in 2011, Cecilia has done fantastic work, deftly covering everything from the Olympics and papal conclave to the Occupy Wall Street protests and the election of President Barack Obama,” said ABC News chief James Goldston in memo to staffers. “Most recently, she has reported on the 2014 midterm elections, Ebola cases in the United States, the Sony computer hacking and fallout, and allegations against Bill Cosby.”

Prior to joining ABC News, Vega was an Emmy Award-winning journalist for KGO in San Francisco and award-winning print reporter. We’re very grateful that she’ll be making the jump from the West Coast to New York City for this new role as anchor and senior national correspondent.

Vega and Llamas will take the reins beginning this weekend, making official the posts they’ve filled with since last fall when David Muir became anchor of World News Tonight.

Benitez to Host Fusion’s “Nightline on Fusion” Program

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Giovani “Gio” Benitez is ready to walk the (night)line…

The 29-year-old Latino television correspondent will host Nightline on Fusion, Fusion’s one-hour weekly edition of ABC News’ Nightline.

Gio Benitez

Co-hosted by Fusion’s Kimberly Brooks, the network’s edition will feature contributions from additional ABC News and Fusion talent. Nightline on Fusion will include stories from the late-night program — the ones that “resonate with Fusion’s young, diverse millennial audience” —  as well as original content produced for Fusion, that network said.

Fusion will begin broadcasting its weekly edition on February 18 at 8:00 pm ET.

Fusion was launched as a joint venture between Univision Communications Inc. and the Disney/ABC Television Network on October 28, 2013.

Benitez serves as a correspondent for ABC News, appearing on Good Morning America, World News Tonight, 20/20 and Nightline.

He has won two television news Emmy awards.