Gibson says he's ready for the anchor battle -- and the '08 race

PASADENA , Calif. -- There are just about six weeks left before Katie Couric begins anchoring the ``CBS Evening News" and all eyes turn to the long-awaited three-way race between Couric, NBC's Brian Williams, and ABC's Charles Gibson.

Gibson, who took over the reins at ``World News Tonight" in May, has a few choice words on the subject: ``Let's get it on."

Yesterday at the Television Critics Association summer conference here, the anchor -- who appeared via satellite from Cyprus -- talked about the media's obsession with the anchor race (few viewers care, he said), his relationship with Couric (her daughters once attended the school where Gibson's wife was headmistress), and the increasing dangers of international reporting (``You take as much precaution as you can. But sure, you want to see what's going on out there ").

For the past five weeks, ``World News Tonight" has outpaced CBS and NBC among adults 25- 54 years old, although it's still behind NBC in total viewers.

But don't tell Gibson he's connecting to audiences because he's old. Couric is 49 years old, Williams is 47, Gibson is 63.

``My walker is just off the stage," he replied wryly to a reporter's comment about his ``older" generation. ``The definition of a generation is 20 years. I'm not that much older than they are. And I don't feel any older than they are, I'll tell you."

``World News" is attempting to connect to a younger generation via its daily 3 p.m. live Internet webcast, ``World News Now." It summarizes the day's top stories and is available for replay via mobile phones and other platforms. Last month, the webcast was downloaded 7.6 million times.

To better reflect its 24-hour digital presence, the network announced yesterday that it has renamed its evening broadcast ``World News With Charles Gibson," dropping ``tonight" out of the title.

``The program we air at 6:30 p.m. each night remains our flagship broadcast, but it has evolved well beyond 30 minutes on television," said David Westin, the president of ABC News, in a statement. ``With an afternoon webcast downloaded by millions and updated content available throughout the day on abcnews.com, `World News' is always on," he said.

Gibson, who's in Cyprus covering the departure of thousands of Americans from Lebanon, said he's still getting used to all the traveling his anchor job requires. At his last gig, co-anchor of ``Good Morning America," he was more grounded in New York. ``I always carry my passport," he said, adding, ``When I left Israel this morning, I forgot it and we had to send somebody back to get it. I suspect Peter [Jennings] never did that."

While Gibson's predecessor, Elizabeth Vargas, was on the job less than a year, Gibson has no timetable for his new job. He'll stay ``until they kick me out," he joked. His contract will enable him to work through the 2008 presidential election, an event he is already excited about.

``It's going to be a great election. It's going to be fascinating," he said. ``I think at last count, there were somewhere around 122,000 potential candidates for president of the United States. Everybody wants to get in the race. It's wide open.

``I think the last election where there wasn't an obvious choice . . . from either party was in 1952," he said. ``The thing that really fascinates and worries me is how deeply divided we are [as a country ]. . . . What worries me more than anything else is about the disappearance of the political middle, the center in this country.

``We've got the two parties playing to their bases more and more and getting more liberal and more conservative. . . . Where will we find political common ground as a nation?"

On a lighter note, Gibson wanted to clear up some confusion about his name. Is it Charles or Charlie?

``If you listened over the years to the introduction on `Good Morning America,' the announcer always said `Charles Gibson' and people on the program called me `Charlie,' " he said.

When it really counts, however, he said, ``I sign my checks Charles."

Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com