ABC Person of the Week is a feature of

ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...

that began in 1986 and was still running in 2021. It provides a short biography or story of an interesting person, at the end of the Friday night broadcast, thus having high prominence. For news programs, it is a relatively long segment, running three to four minutes. It often features Americans, either famous or obscure, who have inspiring stories involving selflessness, but is not strictly limited in its focus.

Background

The feature has been presented by ABC News anchors including

Charles Gibson Charles deWolf Gibson (born March 9, 1943) is an American broadcast television anchor, journalist and podcaster. Gibson was a host of ''Good Morning America'' from 1987 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2006, and the anchor of ''World News with Char ...

Diane Sawyer Lila Diane Sawyer (; born December 22, 1945) is an American television broadcast journalist known for anchoring major programs on two networks including ''ABC World News Tonight'', ''Good Morning America'', ''20/20'', and ''Primetime'' newsmagaz ...

Peter Jennings Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings (July 29, 1938August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-born American television journalist who served as the sole anchor of ''ABC World News Tonight'' from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. He dropped o ...

, George Stephanopoulos, and

David Muir David Jason Muir (born November 8, 1973) is an American journalist and the anchor of ''ABC World News Tonight'' and co-anchor of the ABC News magazine '' 20/20'', part of the news department of the ABC broadcast-television network, based in N ...

. A 1994 study analyzed the people and values celebrated in its first five years, during which the feature was the ending story on almost every Friday night. The study found that values of "individualism, heroism, and unselfishenss were more commonly portrayed than were populism, capitalism, and patriotism". It found more coverage of white, male, and famous persons, with women more likely to have caretaker roles and with Blacks more likely to have humble backgrounds. (excerp
here
The ABC Person of the Week feature and NBC's "Making a Difference" segments have been described as identifying "genuine heroes" who nonetheless "are forgotten" when the broadcast ends. NBC's feature is lesser known, described as "not unlike" the ABC feature. Craig Barto in USA Today described the segment as "A favorite World News Tonight feature of mine was Jennings' "Person of the Week" — a Friday segment that highlighted a person who accomplished something special. What I liked most about the feature is how it often captured everyday, Average Joes." When completing her 2009-2014 stint as the ABC News presenter,

"got nostalgic" about the persons and events covered in the segment.

, who replaced her, grew up watching ABC news closely, including "trying to guess who would be named "person of the week".

Recipients

People covered on the segment have included: *

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

Abby Cadabby Abby Cadabby, mostly referred to as just Abby, is a Muppet character on the PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street'', performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph. On August 14, 2006, Abby made her debut in the first episode of ''Sesame Stre ...

*Emilio Amigo: Teacher of autistic students in Ohio. *

Thomas Bopp Thomas Joel Bopp (October 15, 1949 – January 5, 2018) was an American amateur astronomer. In 1995, he discovered comet Hale–Bopp; Alan Hale discovered it independently at almost the same time, and it was thus named after both of them. At t ...

, co-discoverer of comet Hale-Bopp * John W. Boyd, Jr. *

Maksim Chmerkovskiy Maksim "Maks" Aleksandrovich Chmerkovskiy ( uk, Максим Олександрович Чмерковський ; born January 17, 1980) is a Ukrainian-American Latin–ballroom dance champion, choreographer, and instructor. He is widely known ...

Amanda Dunbar Amanda Dunbar (born 1982) is a Texas-based artist who gained acclaim at an early age for her oil painting skills. Amanda Dunbar began painting in an after school art class at the age of 13. Her spontaneous and advanced works acquired significan ...

Caroline Kennedy Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author, attorney, and diplomat serving in the Biden administration as the United States Ambassador to Australia since 2022. She previously served in the Obama administration as th ...

* Alan Hale (astronomer), co-discoverer of comet Hale-Bopp *

Jack Healey Jack Healey (born 1938) is an American human rights activist, author and the former director of Amnesty International USA. He is best known as the organizer of Amnesty's benefit concerts in the 1980's featuring bands like U2, the Police, Pete ...

* Harper Lee * Kellie Lim * Scott Neeson * Bill Nye * Randy Pausch, for whom the feature was part of a remarkable rise to prominence * Angelique Todd * Stephen Wiltshire *

Edie Windsor Edith "Edie" Windsor (née Schlain; June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017) was an American LGBT rights activist and a technology manager at IBM. She was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court of the United States case ''United States v. ...

References

{{reflist

External links

ABC Person of the Week with David Muir
American awards Television series segments ABC News

Background

Recipients

See also

References

External links