Donaldson, Roberts to Rejoin ‘World News’

In an effort to boost the ratings for ABC’s “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings,” two of the network’s veteran anchors will return to the newscast as correspondents.

Sam Donaldson, ABC’s White House correspondent from 1977 until 1989, will return to that beat, replacing John Donvan, and Cokie Roberts will appear several times per week in an expanded role as the network’s chief congressional analyst.

In addition, “World News Tonight” on Monday will unveil a new set and changes in format that are designed to reemphasize hard news.

The ABC newscast, which reigned atop the evening news ratings for eight years until a year ago when “NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw” passed it, is now being challenged for second place by “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather.”

ABC executives asked Donaldson and Roberts to rejoin “World News Tonight” to bolster its marquee. “There’s no more potent symbol of our recommitment to ‘World News Tonight,’ ” executive producer Paul Friedman said Wednesday.

Donaldson and Roberts will continue as co-anchors of “This Week,” ABC’s Sunday morning discussion program. Donaldson also will continue as co-anchor with Diane Sawyer of “PrimeTime Live,” but he is expected to cut back on his reporting for the newsmagazine.

Donaldson, 63, said he is eager to return to his old job, at which he made his name as an aggressive reporter. “I’m going to be at the White House Monday morning at 7 a.m.,” he said. “I’m going to be doing this full time. I won’t be mailing it in.”

Roberts said she too is happy to help out. “I think there was a feeling that the flagship newscast has been losing out to the newsmagazines [in terms of on-air talent],” she said.

Though NBC and CBS have developed distinctive identities for their newscasts, many at ABC have felt that “World News Tonight” has flip-flopped between soft features and hard news as executives disagreed about how to combat top-rated NBC.

“For a while I think the program lost its soul and its image as the place to come for the most serious explanation of the news,” Friedman said.