Ted Koppel to leave ABC

Koppel to leave by the end of the year.

Ted Koppel, who has anchored ABC News’ Nightline since its inception a quarter-century ago, said Thursday he will leave the network when his contract expires at the end of the year.

His departure comes at a time of questions about the future of his late-night news program, which has been declining in the ratings and was threatened three years ago when ABC tried to lure David Letterman from CBS.

“Ted and I have discussed a number of options under which he might have remained at ‘Nightline’ or in some other capacity at ABC News, but Ted believes this is the right time for him to leave,” ABC News President David Westin said.

Westin said he was optimistic that Nightline would continue with an orderly transition. Ultimately, ABC and parent Walt Disney Corp. executives will decide whether the network sticks with news in that time slot.

Nightline began as a series of special reports during the Iranian hostage crisis in November 1979 (originally anchored by Frank Reynolds) and became a regular newscast the following March. It was groundbreaking in its early years for how Koppel conducted live interviews with several subjects — a standard in television now but then a product of new technology.

The broadcast’s longtime executive producer, Tom Bettag, will also leave ABC News at year’s end.

Koppel, 65, is not retiring. He and Bettag plan to remain as a team for some future projects.

“This is exactly the opposite of Ted retiring,” Bettag said.

Koppel joined ABC News as a general assignment reporter in New York in 1963, at age 23. He was the network’s chief diplomatic assignment when Americans when the hostage crisis began his stint on Nightline.

So when will they move Jon Stewart over to ABC, a station that is becoming Anything but Comedy.