ABC 2000 Today

ABC 2000 Today
Presented by	Peter Jennings Barbara Walters Diane Sawyer Charles Gibson Elizabeth Vargas Jack Ford Sam Donaldson Connie Chung Cokie Roberts Deborah Roberts Carole Simpson Morton Dean Dick Clark
Theme music composer	Gavin Greenaway
Opening theme	IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth
Country of origin	United States
Production
Location(s)	Times Square Studios, Manhattan, New York (Primary)
Running time	23 hours 10 minutes
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	December 31, 1999 – January 1, 2000

ABC 2000 Today is ABC News' coverage of New Year's Eve celebrations around the world from December 31, 1999 into January 1, 2000, as part of the 2000 Today programming in the United States. Peter Jennings anchored the 23 hours and 10 minutes of broadcast from Times Square Studios in Manhattan, New York. ABC temporarily converted the Good Morning America marquee broadcast studio into a type of "millennium command center" that included a desk, where a standing Jennings spent most of his time, two lounge chairs, where Jennings would interview guests, a large screen with a time-zone included map of the world, a wall of clocks, and a makeshift newsroom where ABC News staffers would follow the latest developments.

Jack Ford was stationed in Times Square throughout the broadcast, and was also joined by entertainer Dick Clark (the creator and host of his namesake New Year's Rockin' Eve, which did not air due to ABC 2000) as a correspondent to conduct his traditional countdown. Other correspondents were Charles Gibson in London, Diane Sawyer in New York, Barbara Walters in Paris, Sam Donaldson at the Y2K Command Center in Washington, Connie Chung in Las Vegas, Deborah Roberts at Walt Disney World, Morton Dean in Moscow, and literally hundreds of others at ABC News, technicians and newsmen, who worked throughout the day to bring the broadcast. Those hundreds of others included ABC News personalities stationed around the world to cover the new year in every time zone, including Elizabeth Vargas in Sydney, Australia, Cokie Roberts at the Vatican, with her mother, the then U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Carole Simpson in Chicago, and Bob Brown, who narrated many segments consolidating the day's events. Local stations also featured their own coverage during time local breaks, which varied from traditional breaks for local news and weather to full-scale coverage of local countdowns and possible Y2K bug effects (which in ABC and local coverage, eventually became minimal as little to any issues came out of that).

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