Diane Sawyer Gives Up 'World News' Anchor Seat

Sawyer's retirement means that all three of the major network nightly news programs will be hosted by men.

Diane Sawyer is ending her run as anchor of ABC's World News, the network announced Wednesday, after almost five years behind the desk.

Sawyer, who took over in December 2009 after Charlie Gibson retired, will stay at ABC and "will work on specials and events," according to Politico. She'll be replaced my David Muir (a familiar face to regular watchers of World News), and in other personnel shifts, ABC promoted George Stephanopoulos to chief anchor.

Sawyer's retirement means that the three major network nightly news programs will all be hosted by men – Muir joins Brian Williams' Nightly News and Scott Pelley's Evening News. There was a brief period when the CBS and ABC programs were hosted by women, when Sawyer's turn as anchor overlapped with Katie Couric's stint at Evening News.

Earlier this year ABC saw another of its long-tenured anchors retire, though Barbara Walters remains under contract with the network, so she'll probably be around a bit, just like Sawyer.

Muir, weekend host of World News and co-anchor of 20/20, is set to take over in September. For those of you skeptical that he can fill the void Sawyer is leaving, here's a video of him guest-hosting World News in March: