Koppel, Walters Rally to ‘Nightline’s’ Relevancy

The ABC anchors are fighting back.

Just a few days after reports surfaced that ABC had taken steps to woo CBS’ David Letterman and his late-night show to replace “Nightline” in an effort to boost its late-night revenue, two of ABC News’ biggest stars, Ted Koppel of “Nightline” and Barbara Walters of “20/20,” lectured the network and its corporate owner, the Walt Disney Co., about their responsibility as broadcasters.

Walters lashed out at ABC during Tuesday’s installment of her daytime series “The View,” comparing the “Nightline” controversy to her frustration last year when ABC bumped “20/20” from its long-standing Friday time period in order to make room for the Disney-produced dramatic series “Once and Again.”

Walters, who executive-produces “The View,” noted that she can “understand why a program might need to be changed, moved or even replaced,” but that “to be treated as dispensable and irrelevant is thoughtless and hurtful.”

Citing the veteran status and prestige of other ABC News stars such as Koppel, Peter Jennings and Sam Donaldson, Walters said, “We have seen entertainment programs come and go. News used to be considered a public trust. It was, and perhaps still is, what gives the networks its dignity and integrity. It deserves respect, and so, I think, do we.”

Koppel, meanwhile, in a New York Times opinion piece published Tuesday, called eulogies for his show “wonderful but premature.” Addressing questions about the show’s value to ABC, he wrote that “conservatively speaking, ‘Nightline’ has earned well over half a billion dollars for a succession of corporate owners over the years. The program continues to be profitable to this day.”

The anchor also acknowledged that ABC’s owner, Disney, has an incentive to “meet its obligations to investors. Particularly in these difficult economic times, it is perfectly understandable that Disney would jump at the chance to increase earnings by replacing ‘Nightline’ with the more profitable David Letterman show.”

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Still, Koppel took issue with anonymous ABC executives quoted last week as saying that “Nightline” is “irrelevant” because of all-news cable channels.

“I would argue that in these times, when homeland security is an ongoing concern, when another terrorist attack, may, at any time, shatter our sense of normalcy ... when, in short, the regular and thoughtful analysis of national and foreign policy is more essential than ever--it is, at best, inappropriate, and at worst, malicious to describe what my colleagues and I are doing as lacking relevance,” Koppel wrote.

Executives at ABC did not return phone calls seeking reaction to Koppel’s or Walters’ comments. The network made an undisclosed offer to Letterman, whose “Late Show” contract is up in August, raising the specter of displacing “Nightline,” which Koppel has anchored at 11:30 p.m. for more than 20 years.

On a separate front involving changes within ABC News, Cokie Roberts confirmed plans to step down at the end of the year as co-host of the Sunday morning program “This Week,” which she co-anchors with Sam Donaldson--something she told her bosses she intended to do, Roberts said, when she signed her last two-year contract. She said she has had “very good conversations” with management about what to do next.

Times staff writer Elizabeth Jensen contributed to this report.