Brokaw’s start as the sole anchor of “NBC Nightly News” came just days after Peter Jennings became the single face and voice on ABC’s “World News Tonight”. In many respects, the rise and success of the Canadian-born Jennings was an even more impressive feat than Brokaw and Rather’s accomplishments. He had failed as an anchor in the 1960's, but found his footing as a world correspondent, covering major international stories before he returned to the anchor desk–older, wiser and with more confidence.

During the 1980's and early 1990's, when foreign news overshadowed domestic events, Jennings was the right anchor for his time. His sudden and unexpected death from lung cancer on August 7th, 2005 shocked his millions of faithful viewers–and those who worked with him or competed with him. With his urbane air, handsome good looks and unquenchable curiosity, Peter Jennings would have been an ideal fictional character. But he was very real.

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings was born in Toronto on July 29th, 1938. His father, Charles Jennings, later became news director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Young Peter hosted his own CBC children’s show at age nine, but eventually dropped out of school, a move he would later regret. By the time he turned 24, Jennings was covering news for the commercial CTV network. ABC’s news director at the time, Elmer Lower, spotted the young Jennings and hired him as a reporter in 1964.

In those days, ABC was a poor third in the ratings and its news division was, to put it charitably, inferior in resources compared to CBS and NBC. Worse, ABC didn’t have an evening news anchor that could compete with either CBS’ Walter Cronkite or the NBC duo of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. In a bold move, ABC promoted Jennings to the anchor chair, making him the youngest news announcer ever on an American broadcast network. But “Peter Jennings With The News” was not a success.

Many ABC affiliates refused to carry the programme and Jennings was considered too “green” to be an anchor, especially when compared with his more seasoned competitors on the other networks. ABC hoped that Jennings’ good looks and youth would attract a younger audience, much as the network’s entertainment division tried to grab young adults. But Jennings’ age and Canadian background and voice inflections worked against him. ABC’s lack of resources didn’t help; the network was late in expanding its newscast to the 30 minute format adopted by its competitors, and it was behind CBS and NBC in airing the evening news in color. After three years with little success, Jennings opted to leave the anchor chair and do some reporting; the move was made in late 1967 by mutual agreement. His beat would be international news; Jennings opened ABC’s Beirut bureau as its director and covered world events for the network thereafter.

As the 1970's began, there were signs ABC was gaining credibility as a news organization. Jennings was in Munich during the network’s coverage of the 1972 Summer Olympic games; his reporting skills paid off when Palestian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage. Jennings’ coverage of the tragedy won plaudits from the industry and ABC’s competitors. The young Canadian continued to cover the Middle East and other overseas hot spots; he briefly returned as news anchor on the short-lived morning show “A.M. America” in 1975. When it was replaced by the far more successful breakfast entry “Good Morning America,” Jennings went back to the field.

By 1977, with ABC finally atop the television ratings in prime time, the network decided it was time to upgrade its news division. Roone Arledge, who successfully ran ABC Sports, was named head of the news division as well. Unable to lure a major name to anchor the network’s third-place evening newscast, Arledge instead created a multi-anchor format. “World News Tonight,” which premiered in 1978, used Jennings at the network’s London desk, where he covered and reported on overseas news. Veteran ABC reporter Frank Reynolds was based in Washington as the “anchor among equals”on major stories and news from Congress and the White House. Newcomer Max Robinson, the first African-American to co-anchor a prime time newscast, followed domestic news from his base in Chicago. With snappy and innovative graphics and a more aggressive reporting style, coupled with ABC’s prime time success, “World News Tonight” rose to a tie for second place with NBC, and made ABC competitive in the evening news game for the first time ever. At a time when news in the Middle East dominated, including the Camp David peace accords under President Jimmy Carter and the Iranian hostage crisis, Jennings’ knowledge of the region gave ABC’s Middle East coverage a depth and intelligence missing from the other networks.

By 1983, Frank Reynolds had died from cancer, leading Arledge to dump the multi-anchor format. He approached Jennings to become the sole star of ABC’s evening newscast, but Jennings was hesitant because of his past experience. Still, he couldn’t refuse a second time.Now more seasoned, sharper and with years of reporting experience under his belt, Jennings came into his own.

Despite strong competition from Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather–who were also very experienced correspondents–Jennings’ good looks and curiosity served him well. As one ABC News writer noted, “He’s now as good as he used to think he was”. Dan Neil of “Media Life Magazine” offered another explanation for Jennings’ popularity: “In manner he appeared the urban sophisticate, and he was that, measured in gallons, yet he reached beyond that urbanity to connect with his viewers, the great and common American public. He found them fascinating, their loyalty endearing.”

By the late 1980's, “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings” became the highest-rated evening newscast, a first for ABC and a lead Jennings would hold through the mid-1990's when NBC and Tom Brokaw surged ahead. It was a triumph for both the network and anchor, and seemed to confirm Jennings’ decision to focus on international stories and complicated subjects–religion, politics and other topics–to create a newscast that had more depth and focus than either NBC or CBS.

But by the 90's, the three networks weren’t the only game in town for news. Cable had begun siphoning off viewers, first with CNN, then with the even more successful but (conservative) opinion-driven Fox News Channel. NBC joined in the cable news race by teaming up with software giant Microsoft to create its own channel, MSNBC. Syndicated shows such as “Inside Edition” and “Entertainment Tonight” began covering light, fluffy celebrity scandals and oddball stories. NBC’s lead in evening news was obtained in part by coverage of many of those 1990's scandals that viewers gravitated toward like moths to a flame. Jennings once told “Newsweek” magazine that ABC lost its number one ranking in news during the O.J. Simpson case; he refused to air as many Simpson stories as his competitors, while he increased the number of stories from overseas. Because of those factors, Jennings says he resigned himself to play second in the ratings behind NBC and Brokaw. Not that he wasn’t competitive. “World News Tonight” instituted a “person of the week” feature every Friday, highlighting an individual who made a difference–and that person didn’t have to be famous.

Still, Jennings continued to cover the big stories of the era–the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton; the controversial 2000 U.S. presidential election; the war in Iraq–and of course, the tragic events of 9/11. While he was on the air relaying the attacks on the World Trade Center to viewers, Jennings’ personal concern focused on his two adult children. As he told his viewers that day,

"I checked in with my children, who were deeply distressed, as I think many young people are across the United States, and so if you're a parent and you've got a kid in another part of the country, call 'em up."

By March 2005, Jennings–by now an American citizen-- was looking forward to regaining the number one slot against NBC and CBS. But on April 5th, 2005, the usually unflappable anchor told his audience in a raspy voice about news he himself found out from his doctors just days earlier:

“As some of you know, I have learned that I have lung cancer. I was a smoker until about 20 years ago. And yes, I was weak and I smoked over 9/11. But whatever the reasons, the news does slow you down a bit. I have been reminding my colleagues today who have all been incredibly supportive, that almost 10 million Americans are already living with cancer, and I have a lot to learn from them. And living is the key word. The National Cancer Institute says that we are survivors from the moment of diagnosis. I will continue to broadcast on good days. My voice will not always be like this. Certainly, it's been a long time, and I hope it goes without saying that a journalist who doesn't deeply value the audience's loyalty should be in another line of work.”

Sadly, Peter Jennings never returned to the anchor desk after that broadcast; he continued treatment while keeping in touch with his ABC News colleagues by e-mail. Nearly four months later, he succumbed to the disease. ABC continued to call the newscast “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings” for a week after the anchor’s death on August 7th, 2005, before dropping his name from the title. ABC used fill-in anchors until it announced a replacement team for Jennings.

Veteran ABC correspondents and anchors Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas began co-hosting “World News Tonight” on January 3rd, 2006. In an effort to do battle with NBC’s Brian Williams and CBS’ Bob Schieffer (who was named interim anchor of the “Evening News” after Dan Rather’s departure), ABC aired three daily live versions of “World News Tonight,” one for each of America’s major time zones (Eastern, Central and Pacific) with updated information for each zone. ABC also wanted Woodruff and Vargas to go to breaking stories live from where they happened. On January 29th, 2006, Woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt were covering the war in Iraq, riding in a military convoy, when they were injured in a roadside bombing. Both were hospitalized for treatment. Just weeks later, ABC announced that Elizabeth Vargas was pregnant and planned to go on maternity leave later in the year. With Woodruff’s return to the network uncertain and Vargas deciding to cut back on her schedule drastically, ABC needed a stable presence at the anchor desk. That need became imperative when Katie Couric left NBC’s “Today” show to become the new anchor on the “CBS Evening News.”

On May 23rd, 2006, Vargas resigned as co-anchor of “World News Tonight.” Six days later, ABC announced her replacement would be veteran correspondent and “Good Morning America” co-host Charles Gibson; he left “GMA” officially on June 28th.

Jennings’ death, along with the departures of Brokaw and Rather, have raised new questions about the future of the network newscasts, and whether they will survive in their current form.

But Peter Jennings’ legacy is not in doubt. He reported the news accurately, put the events into logical context, and gave his audience issues to think about. In an era when news and entertainment have become blurred, that’s a legacy to be proud of.