As he strikes out on his own after 25 years, it appears Ted Koppel can survive without "Nightline," the show he created and made him a news icon.
But can "Nightline" survive without Koppel?
That question persists in the wake of Koppel's announcement he will leave ABC when his contract runs out in December.
While Koppel, 65, and his longtime producer Tom Bettag, 60, look for their next gig (or retire, which is unlikely), ABC News is left with the task of reinventing the show -- assuming it continues and which has slumped in the ratings -- let alone persuading the network to expand to an hour at a time when the web may want an entertainment offering more competitive with NBC's Jay Leno and CBS's David Letterman.
ABC News executives insist their grip on the timeslot is safe. "They want us to keep putting on the best broadcast that we can -- and that's where we stand," says spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.
The news division seized the timeslot as a series of special reports during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980, and the show went on to win enormous acclaim and respectable ratings against the "Tonight Show" With Johnny Carson."
But the show's competitive position to Leno and Letterman has eroded, and the news division is under the gun to revamp the show and broaden its appeal.
"Nightline" will continue as a half-hour show until Koppel signs off in December. After that, ABC News is proposing an hourlong live version that could debut as early as January.
The alternative is that ABC kills "Nightline" and takes away the timeslot in a bid to increase its share in a latenight ad market that took in $676 million in 2004.
"Nightline" averaged 3.6 million viewers in the first quarter of this year, down 6% from a year ago. That compares with 6 million for Jay Leno and 4.6 million for David Letterman. The show still vastly outdraws "Jimmy Kimmel Live," which hasn't lived up to network expectations, drawing just 1.5 million viewers.
NBC anointed Conan O'Brien as Leno's successor, leaving a dearth of latenight talent to sustain a third 11:30 show. An ESPN-produced sports offering, ad execs say, would skew too much toward male viewers, making it difficult to achieve the mass audience of the latenight talkers.
Kimmel's contract is up in January; the network could cancel the show or move it back a half-hour to accommodate an hourlong "Nightline."
Some advertising execs say ABC is better off keeping "Nightline" than launching what could be an also-ran entertainment show in late night.
"It would be challenging for ABC to be a consistent No. 2, let alone No. 1," says John Rash, director of broadcast negotiations for Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithun. "There is still a mission and a market for a strong No. 3 focused on good journalism."
With cable having abandoned hard news in primetime, "Nightline's" serious feel is once again unique, and its demographics are younger than the evening news.
"The prestige factor that the show has is still strong," says Bob Flood, exec veepee of media-buying firm Optimedia in New York. "But they need to draw in more audiences, whether it's with a different host or a different format."
But a different format holds risk. Any turn toward soft features or a live talking-head fest could alienate Koppel's core audience and make "Nightline" less distinctive from cable.
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