Koppel, Bettag will be staying the 'Night'
Journo wants to expand into 'Brave New World'
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"Tom and I are not leaving 'Nightline,' " Koppel said forcefully during an informal briefing with reporters at ABC News headquarters in New York on Thursday to discuss the eight-part series "Nightline in Primetime: Brave New World," which will premiere as a weekly one-hour program July 29 at 10 p.m.
Koppel said his goal is to expand "Nightline" into new arenas like the primetime slot. Bettag said that if the primetime series generates above-average Nielsen ratings, he and his staff would be ready to charge back into production to keep the show going as a midseason replacement.
Creative producers and writers "would pour out of the woodwork and kill themselves" to work on a weekly primetime version of "Nightline," Bettag said.
Koppel will host the primetime "Nightline," but Robert Krulwich will get a lot more camera time because he'll report all eight of the stories.
The primetime hours will try to offer a new take on such subjects as cloning, extraterrestrial life and man's relationship with machines. Krulwich said the show won't be predictable and "routinized," like a typical newsmag. For example, the show will employ performance artists weaving their bodies through abstract sculptures as offbeat intros to some of the segments.
Bettag said it would be impossible to break down the production budget of the eight primetime hours because the show will draw on the staff of the Monday-Friday "Nightline." But he added that it will be far cheaper than the $550,000 an hour ABC News spends, on average, for an episode of "20/20."
