Brinkley’s Weeks Ahead Will Include Documentaries

David Brinkley, the sonorous Southerner who has been a network anchor for 40 years, will step down as the host of ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” on Nov. 10, the Sunday after the presidential election.

The 76-year-old Brinkley said in an interview Tuesday that he will continue to provide an expanded commentary on the Sunday morning public-affairs show and also plans to do several historical documentaries for ABC News.

“I’ve basically done only two programs on television: ‘Huntley-Brinkley’ for 14 years and ‘This Week’ for 15 years,”’ said Brinkley, who co-anchored NBC’s top-rated nightly newscast with Chet Huntley from 1956 to 1970. “I told ABC that I could go on forever doing what I’ve been doing, but I decided that I want to do something different.”

ABC did not immediately announce a successor to Brinkley, but network sources said that longtime panelists Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson will be named soon as co-hosts of “This Week.”

“This Week” has been the top-rated Sunday public-affairs show since 1982, but NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert has been gaining on it, tying the ABC program during the third quarter of this year. ABC News executives have been worrying about the possible impact of Brinkley’s retirement on the show’s ratings, but Brinkley said it was his idea--not management’s--that he continue his commentaries at the end of each program.

“Instead of doing my homily at the end, I want to go out and report a real story, not just a piece of funny business,” said Brinkley, who added that the length of the segment is still to be determined.

Brinkley, who has covered every president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will be part of ABC’s coverage of the presidential inauguration in January. Asked whether he was sick of politics and political coverage, he said: “I’m not sick of it; I’m disappointed by it. So much of it is so tiresome, with so much air time and lies told. It’s not as attractive to me as it used to be. I have some thoughts about how we might improve it--but that’s a long conversation for another day.”

Brinkley, who began his career as a correspondent for NBC News in Washington in 1943, is the author of a best-selling historical book, “Washington Goes to War.” Describing himself as an “amateur historian,” he said he wants to make documentaries about 20th century history and culture. He is beginning work on a documentary about 20th century presidents that will include his personal reflections.

“I’ve known a good many presidents, and I’d like to do a program that will tell people something they don’t already know,” he said.

He also will do a documentary on Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.