QUESTIONS FOR TED KOPPEL
Night Shift
Interview by MATT BAI
Published: May 1, 2005
Even before you announced that you were leaving ''Nightline,'' which just had its 25th anniversary, there
were lots of rumors. With all the talk about the program's low ratings, and with ABC trying to woo David Letterman at one
point, did you feel as if this wasn't entirely your decision?
No. Among the conditions of our last contract was that I would work three nights a week, and the initial plan was that
we would phase that down, that I would go from three nights a week to two nights a week to one night a week, and then just
sort of fade out. I think there's an appropriate time to say, ''Enough is enough,'' and somehow, the 25th anniversary seemed
like the right time.
Did you ever think, We've got to get the ratings up. We should get a panel of judges, like the ones on ''American Idol,''
to vote someone off the show.
I drift off to sleep every night thinking just that.
Couldn't find the right judges?
Simon was already otherwise occupied.
I have a theory that everybody in TV news now is too good-looking. Wouldn't it be better if we just admitted that smart
people aren't always good-looking and had a bunch of people reporting on TV who were hard to look at?
Hey, here I am. But I must also tell you that one of my oldest friends in the world, Peter Jennings, is just the handsomest
guy in town. And Peter turned out to be a pretty damned good newsman.
I take it you've talked to him since his cancer was diagnosed.
Of course. We've been friends for 41 years. There's only one person alive with whom I've had a longer ongoing relationship,
and that's my wife.
What's the biggest problem with network TV news today?
That they're giving up some of the very things that can differentiate them from the bloggers and other groups that are
getting into journalism. They're giving up, for the most part, on overseas coverage. A lot of it is now being done just on
the basis of video that comes in from APTV or Reuters Television, and then some guy sitting in London does a voice-over. That's
not the smartest thing in the world.
You've been known to intimidate guests. Have any guests ever intimidated you?
Orson Welles. ''Citizen Kane,'' as far as I'm concerned, is one of the greatest movies ever made -- and he did that when
he was in his 20's.
No one in politics ever intimidated you?
No, not intimidated. But Bill Clinton, I always had the feeling, was at least two questions and three answers ahead of
me.
A lot of us had that feeling. There have been many satires of you over the years. Who does the best impression?
Darrell Hammond does a good one.
People seem to like to make fun of your hair. Have you ever thought of just shaving it off?
I recognized a long time ago that it gives people something that they can mock me for, and frankly, I'd rather that they
mock me about my hair than that they mock me about my story selection or dumb interviewing style or whatever else they might
focus on.
What's next for you? Will it definitely be in news?
Yes.
You don't want to be the Fed chairman?
Gee, is that open?
It might come open. What kinds of things are you thinking about? Will it surprise anyone?
It will surprise me because I don't for sure know what it's going to be. I've been watching with great interest the fact
that Howard Stern got $500 million for a five-year contract, and it does open all kinds of new possibilities.
