NEW YORK — The biggest adjustment ABC has made since last November's debut of the post-Ted Koppel "Nightline" may simply be recognizing that there's another show tomorrow.
Not everything has to fit in tonight. While "Nightline" has rarely retreated to the single-topic format that Koppel made distinctive, it no longer makes you feel as if its correspondents were double-parked.
"We were criticized in the early days for trying to pack too much into the show, and I think we quickly realized that the show was at its best when we let it breathe a little bit," said James Goldston, "Nightline" executive producer.
The new "Nightline" marks its five-month anniversary Friday. It's a work in progress, still to be tested by a huge news event. Ratings indicate neither success nor failure, although it has shown signs of attracting a younger audience.
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"I think we're beginning to do it in a way that's convincing our audience that we're going to remain serious," said Terry Moran, one of the trio of hosts (with Martin Bashir and Cynthia McFadden). "It's beginning to jell with people, and it's beginning to jell with us, too."
"Nightline" is essentially a mini-newsmagazine, a few notches less sober than "60 Minutes." As such, it may have fallen unexpectedly into a niche. Prime-time newsmagazines are slowly fading away, with those remaining obsessed with true crime tales or celebrity chats. "Nightline" has less and less competition for the types of stories it does.
Last Wednesday's show typified the balance "Nightline" is trying to strike. In the opening report, Chris Bury contrasted the attitude toward illegal immigration in Arizona's Cochise and Yuma counties: a tall fence and night-vision equipment guarding the border at one end of the state, with buses lined up to cart Mexican laborers to farms at the other.
The story ran 10 minutes, as did McFadden's report on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's return of a stolen vase to Europe. The night ended with a two-minute "sign of the times" piece about odd video available on the Web, including actress Keira Knightley tapping out a song on her teeth.
Koppel's oft-stated concerns about softer and less relevant news programs are being borne out by the new "Nightline," said Matthew Felling, spokesman for the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington.
" 'Nightline's' selling point used to be its continuity," he said. "When you used to turn to 'Nightline,' you knew what you were going to get. Now you don't know if you're going to get bird flu, Craig's List or Keira Knightley."
Former NBC News President Neal Shapiro, a longtime "Dateline NBC" producer, said the new "Nightline" strikes a good balance between serious journalism and lighter pieces.
"People underestimate just how difficult transitions are," Shapiro said. "When you are succeeding something that has worked for a long time and someone who has been there for a long time, it's really difficult. The audience has huge expectations, and they have a personal connection with the person who is leaving."
Through April 16, the new "Nightline" has averaged 3.56 million viewers a night, down 2 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research. Ratings among the 25-to-54-year-old demographic are up 2 percent, an important goal for ABC. During the week of April 10, "Nightline" had its most-watched week since the launch (3.74 million), Nielsen said.
The numbers indicate, at the very least, that Koppel's departure did not provoke large-scale viewer defections.
The "Nightline" triple-anchor team is rarely seen together. Bashir anchored last Monday's show alone, for example, while Moran introduced Bury's piece on Wednesday. After a commercial, McFadden anchored the rest of the show.
The danger, as critic Frazier Moore of The Associated Press noted, is that it "gives the program an unstable, who's-in-charge-here feel."
Goldston said the format enables "Nightline" to use the anchors' reporting ability; the determination of who will be in the studio is often determined by who is not on the road.
