SAN DIEGO – On the West Coast, “Saturday Night Live” isn’t live. Neither is the “NBC Nightly News.” From Seattle to San Diego, TV viewers have long been served warmed-over evening news and entertainment programming that aired live a few hours earlier in the East. But now, the West Coast’s second-class status is about to end, at least with one nightly national news program. Starting Jan. 3, ABC will offer two live broadcasts of “World News Tonight” for West Coast viewers at 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Pacific time, featuring new co-anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. ABC touts the change as a recognition of the value of West Coast viewers. “They really want to make this work, to make a splash and get an edge that makes them different from the other guy,” says former ABC Los Angeles correspondent Judy Muller, now a journalism professor. With the network evening news broadcasts on ABC, NBC, and CBS facing increased competition from other news outlets, some say ABC’s move to go live, is also acknowledging that less-than-fresh news doesn’t cut it anymore. “It seems almost absurd to be giving somebody three-hour old news when on the Internet […]

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