ABC 2000

The whole world indeed watched on New Year’s Eve 1999. And ABC News captured the majesty, beauty and sometimes silliness of it all with nearly 24 hours of continuous coverage of the millennium observance anchored by Peter Jennings. ABC 2000 proved to be a remarkable, exciting and all-encompassing effort that put viewers on the main streets of a true global village. The network operated 70 of its own cameras around the world and also had access to more than 400 additional cameras as part of an international Millennium Day Broadcast Consortium, 2000 Today, linking broadcasters in 66 countries, including the BBC, TV Asahi in Japan, CBC in Canada, ABC Australia, CCTV in China, and PBS in the United States. ABC dispatched nearly three-dozen correspondents to key points around the world, including Barbara Walters in Paris, Bill Blakemore in Jerusalem, Lynn Sherr in Bombay and James Wooten in Djibouti, Africa, just to name a few. Mr. Wooten participated in one of the more memorable efforts to add context to this once-in-a-lifetime worldwide event. Seconds after Morton Dean reported from a spectacular fireworks display in Moscow, Mr. Wooten could be seen standing in the stark darkness of a barren refugee camp. No, the celebration of the millennium was not for everybody. ABC stood tall while some rival broadcast networks mostly took a pass. Its efforts were rewarded with robust ratings and “Didja see that?” water-cooler talk in the following days. For daring to seize the moment and then measuring up to it, a Peabody goes to ABC 2000.