''This Week'', originally titled as ''This Week with David Brinkley'' and currently billed as ''This Week with George Stephanopoulos'', is an American Sunday morning political affairs program airing on the ABC television network. It premiered on November 15, 1981, with David Brinkley as its original anchor until his retirement in 1996. The program has been anchored by

George Stephanopoulos George Robert Stephanopoulos ( el, Γεώργιος Στεφανόπουλος ; born February 10, 1961) is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos currently is a coanchor with Robin Robe ...

since 2012, after first hosting it from 2002 to 2010. Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl have been co-hosts since 2016 and 2021, respectively. The program airs live at 9:00 a.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

although many stations air the program at a later slot to air local newscasts, especially those in other time zones. During the David Brinkley era, the program drew consistent #1 ratings and in Stephanopolous era generally runs in third place among the Sunday morning talk shows, behind '' Meet the Press'' and '' Face the Nation''.

History

In 1960, ABC launched its first Sunday talk show '' Issues and Answers'', which featured policy discussions, prior to the age of political pundits dominating the talk shows. One of its early hosts was

Howard K. Smith Howard Kingsbury Smith (May 12, 1914 – February 15, 2002) was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as t ...

, who also had his own prime-time public affairs program '' Howard K. Smith: News and Comment'' air on the network during the 1962–1963 season. Among the program's later hosts was Bob Clark. On November 15, 1981, David Brinkley came to the network from

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's ...

and was given full responsibility for the show, which was relaunched as ''This Week'' with a network time slot at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. During Brinkley's run, three major sponsors were part of the show:

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

(which departed after taking control on NBC in 1987),

Archer Daniels Midland The Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, commonly known as ADM, is an American multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation founded in 1902 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The company operates more than 270 plants and 4 ...

and

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banki ...

. On November 10, 1996, David Brinkley retired as host of ''This Week'' but continued to appear on the program providing commentary segments until September 28, 1997. Following Brinkley's retirement, ABC News journalists Sam Donaldson and

Cokie Roberts Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne "Cokie" Roberts (née Boggs; December 27, 1943 – September 17, 2019) was an American journalist and author. Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio, PB ...

subsequently became co-hosts of ''This Week''. Since 1981, the names of the primary anchors have been included with the show's title, such as ''This Week with David Brinkley'' and during this era, the program was billed as ''This Week with Sam & Cokie''. Longtime panelist

became the new host of ''This Week'' on September 15, 2002; he ended his first tenure with the program on January 10, 2010, shortly after being named the co-host of ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

''. ABC News Senior White House Correspondent

Jake Tapper Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist, author, and cartoonist. He is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, hosts the weekday television news show '' The Lead with Jake Tapper'', and co-hosts the Sunday morning public a ...

served as the interim anchor from March to July 2010. On April 20, 2008, production of ''This Week'' relocated to the

Newseum The Newseum was an American museum dedicated to news and journalism that promoted free expression and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication. The purpose of the museum, funded by the ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in a studio that overlooks the U.S. Capitol. In addition, the program began broadcasting in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

, becoming the first Sunday morning talk show to broadcast in HD. Following the transition, the program discontinued the segments ''Images'' and ''Voices''. ABC and ''This Week'' moved out of the Newseum in 2013 due to infrequent use of the studio and other facilities, with the former studio later being used for the Washington bureau of cable news channel

Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jaze ...

Christiane Amanpour Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امان‌پور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief ...

, a longtime world affairs correspondent at CNN, began as the program's host on August 1, 2010. During her first two months as host, the ratings for ''This Week'' reached their lowest point since 2003. In December 2011, it was announced that Amanpour would step down as anchor of the program, while returning to CNN in turn. On January 5, 2012, ABC News announced that Stephanopoulos would return as the host of ''This Week''. With the return of Stephanopolous as moderator, the program began using former ''Good Morning America'' and '' World News Tonight'' anchor

Charles Gibson Charles deWolf Gibson (born March 9, 1943) is an American broadcast television anchor, journalist and podcaster. Gibson was a host of ''Good Morning America'' from 1987 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2006, and the anchor of '' World News with Cha ...

to perform the voice-over heard during the opening of each broadcast; this lasted until 2014. In 2016, Martha Raddatz was named co-anchor of ''This Week'', alternating each weekend with Stephanopoulos.

Ratings

In February 2009, the ratings gap between ''Meet the Press'' and its competitors – ''This Week'' and CBS' ''Face the Nation'' – began closing. ''Meet the Press'' posted its lowest ratings since NBC News correspondent David Gregory became moderator in early February of that year, with the February 1 telecast 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. ''This Week'' beat ''Meet the Press'' on January 11, when George Stephanopoulos interviewed President-Elect

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

Key features

One of the key features of ''This Week'' is the roundtable, which included pundits such as

George Will George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator and author. He writes regular columns for ''The Washington Post'' and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC. Gold, Hadas (May 8, 2017)." ...

and ABC News correspondents such as Sam Donaldson and

, and other guests discussing the major issues of the week. Will, a regular panelist who was with the program from its launch with David Brinkley until he left ABC to join

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...

as a contributor in 2013, sometimes contributed short reports to the broadcast. After George Stephanopolous became host in 2002, new segments were added to the program including: * ''Images'', a selection of photographs illustrating various news stories from the past week. * ''In Memoriam'', a listing of prominent deaths, including all reported military deaths, that occurred during the week. * ''Sunday Funnies'', excerpts from various

late night talk Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effe ...

and

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...

programs that aired during the week. * ''Voices'', excerpts from various interviews conducted during the week. In 2010, Jake Tapper arranged with Bill Adair to get PolitiFact.com to

fact check Fact-checking is the process of verifying factual information, in order to promote the veracity and correctness of reporting. Fact-checking can be conducted before (''ante hoc'') or after (''post hoc'') the text is published or otherwise dissem ...

the statements made by panelists and guests featured on ''This Week''.

On-air staff

Hosts

* David Brinkley (November 15, 1981 – November 10, 1996) * Sam Donaldson and

(November 17, 1996 – September 8, 2002) *

(September 15, 2002 – January 10, 2010 and January 8, 2012 – present) *

(March–July 2010) *

(August 1, 2010 – December 25, 2011) * Martha Raddatz, co-host (January 24, 2016 – present) * Jonathan Karl, co-host (February 21, 2021 – present)

Regular panelists

The Roundtable typically includes three or four panelists along with the moderator. Recurring panelists have included

, Sam Donaldson,

Bill Kristol William Kristol (; born December 23, 1952) is an American neoconservative writer. A frequent commentator on several networks including CNN, he was the founder and editor-at-large of the political magazine ''The Weekly Standard''. Kristol is now ...

Fareed Zakaria Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's '' Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a columni ...

, Martha Raddatz, Peggy Noonan,

Victoria Clarke Victoria "Torie" Clarke (born May 18, 1959) is an American communications consultant who has served in several private sector positions and in three Republican presidential administrations, most notably as the Assistant Secretary of Defense fo ...

Donna Brazile Donna Lease Brazile (; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...

Ann Coulter Ann Hart Coulter (; born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative media pundit, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic ...

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was t ...

Jay Carney James Ferguson 'Jay' Carney (born May 22, 1965) is an American public relations officer, political advisor and journalist who has served as Amazon's Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs from 2015 to 2022, and the United States Wh ...

, Claire Shipman, E.J. Dionne, Jr.,

Robert Reich Robert Bernard Reich (; born June 24, 1946) is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 i ...

David Corn David Corn (born February 20, 1959) is an American political journalist and author. He is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for '' Mother Jones'' and is best known as a cable television commentator. Corn worked at ''The Nation'' from 1987 to 20 ...

Katrina vanden Heuvel Katrina vanden Heuvel (; born October 7, 1959) is an American editor and publisher. She is the publisher, part-owner, and former editor of the progressive magazine ''The Nation''. She was the magazine's editor from 1995 to 2019, when she was su ...

Mark Halperin Mark Evan Halperin (born January 11, 1965)Mark Halperin. ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. is an American journalist, currently a host and commentator for Newsmax TV. Halperin previously worked as ...

Joe Klein Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is an American political commentator and author. He is best known for his work as a columnist for ''Time'' magazine and his novel ''Primary Colors'', an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton' ...

Van Jones Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American news and political commentator, author, and lawyer. He is the co-founder of several non-profit organizations, a three-time ''New York Times'' bestselling author, a CNN host and ...

, David Brooks,

Matthew Dowd Matthew John Dowd (born May 29, 1961) is an American political pundit and consultant. He was the chief strategist for the Bush–Cheney 2004 presidential campaign and was an ABC News political analyst. On September 29, 2021, he announced a run fo ...

Mary Matalin Mary Joe Matalin (born August 19, 1953) is an American political consultant well known for her work with the Republican Party. She has served under President Ronald Reagan, was campaign director for George H. W. Bush, was an assistant to Presi ...

and

Ed Gillespie Edward Walter Gillespie (born August 1, 1961) is an American politician, strategist, and lobbyist who served as the 61st Chair of the Republican National Committee from 2003 to 2005 and was counselor to the President from 2007 to 2009 during the ...

International broadcasts

ABC News programming, including ''This Week'', is shown weekly on the 24-hour news network OSN News in the Middle Eastern/North Africa region. It also airs in Australia on SBS, in Japan on NHK BS 1.

References

External links

*
George's Bottom Line
at ABC News
This Week
at ABC Medianet * and {{DEFAULTSORT:This Week (American TV program) 1981 American television series debuts 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows 2010s American television talk shows 2020s American television talk shows 1980s American television news shows 1990s American television news shows 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2020s American television news shows ABC News American Broadcasting Company original programming Fusion TV original programming English-language television shows American Sunday morning talk shows