Diane Sawyer to take over “World News” in January

Diane Sawyer will become the news anchor for ABC when Charlie Gibson retires from “World News” at the end of this year.

Sawyer, 63, will also be the second woman to be the single host of an evening newscast for an American broadcast TV network and will start her role in January.

Gibson, 66, and Sawyer have worked together for several years on ABC’s morning show — “Good Morning America” — before Gibson  became the anchor of ABC’s “World News” in 2006.

Before Gibson, the newscast was co-anchored by Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. That ended after Woodruff was gravely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Sawyer has worked for President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, as well as CBS News — inclusive of five years as a “60 Minutes” correspondent – and later on Sawyer joined ABC News in 1989. Besides this, she has also worked on news magazines like “Primetime Live” and “20/20″ — before becoming the  co-host of “Good Morning America” with Gibson in 1999