Who

The former anchor of Good Morning America, Sawyer took over the network's evening newscast from Charles Gibson when he retired at the end of 2009. Her husband is Mike Nichols.

Backstory

The daughter of a Kentucky politician, Sawyer was a teen beauty queen before attending Wellesley. In 1968 she started her television career as a local news reporter in Louisville, then switched sides in 1970 to work in the Nixon White House press office. Following Nixon's resignation, Sawyer helped the disgraced president assemble his memoirs before returning to reporting in 1978 as a political correspondent for CBS. In 1981, she signed on as co-anchor of the CBS Morning News; three years later she became a correspondent for 60 Minutes. In 1989, Roone Arledge lured Sawyer to ABC as the anchor Primetime Live with Sam Donaldson, and as an occasionally fill-in on 20/20. She's been with the Disney-owned network ever since, taking over as co-anchor of Good Morning America with Charlie Gibson in 1999 with the understanding that it would be a temporary gig to help the ratings-challenged broadcast get back on its feet. Alas, it turned out to be a much longer engagement than anyone ever expected—Sawyer spent 10 years as the show's host, adding a dose of gravitas to the otherwise perkiness-saturated morning news scene. 

Of note

Neither Sawyer nor Gibson initially landed the coveted evening news anchor position after Peter Jennings's retirement—instead ABC News president David Westin picked the relative greenhorns Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas. But when Woodruff was severely injured in Iraq just weeks into his tenure and Vargas announced she was pregnant the day afterward, Westin needed a Plan B. The obvious replacements were Gibson and Sawyer, and both jockeyed for the job: Gibson threatened to leave ABC altogether if he wasn't picked and Sawyer retained mega-lawyer Allen Grubman to make her case to ABC brass. The job eventually went to Gibson. But Sawyer was persuaded to hang around and her dedication paid off in the fall of 2009 when she was named Gibson's replacement when he retired at the end of that year. 

Keeping score

Sawyer's annual ABC salary has been estimated at $12 million.

For the record

Sawyer has landed some big gets over the years. Her sit-down with Saddam Hussein in 1990 was his first Western interview in a decade, and she chatted with Bill Clinton in his first interview after his 1992 presidential win. Sawyer had a memorable tete-a-tete with an unhinged Whitney "crack is whack" Houston, and was the first to interview Ellen DeGeneres shortly after she came out. More recently, Sawyer was the first to book a repentant Mel Gibson after his DUI/anti-Semitic rant. She also got the exclusive with notorious "TB lawyer" Andrew Speaker in his hospital room, insisting on wearing a surgical mask throughout the interview—for her protection rather than to boost ratings, of course.

Drama

Sawyer has tangled with fellow ABC anchor Barbara Walters since the dawn of time. The two blondes say there's no enmity, but they inevitably compete for scoops. In 2000, Walters was "furious" that Sawyer had gotten an exclusive interview with Yasser Arafat. (The two reporters allegedly bickered in David Westin's office over the incident.) In 2002, the Times reported that Sawyer and Walters had butted heads over Walters' interview with the recently-outed Rosie O'Donnell. They even clashed days in the days after Sept. 11th: Walters was reportedly pissed that she remained in the studio while Sawyer got to cover the tragedy from Ground Zero.

Trophy case

She has won 11 Emmys and 2 Peabodys.

Personal

Sawyer married movie director Mike Nichols in 1988. They've never had any kids. (Nichols has three kids with his ex-wife.) Sawyer and Nichols live in an apartment on Fifth Avenue they bought for $11 million in 2002. Their neighbors include uber-lawyer Herb Wachtell.

No joke

Sawyer was on the short list of those thought to be famous Watergate source Deep Throat—before, that is, Mark Felt owned up to it.