Channel 9 to Shut Its 'Eye on Washington'

WUSA is pulling the plug on its weekend political round-table show, "Eye on Washington."

The show, anchored by WUSA (Channel 9) anchor Derek McGinty, is scheduled to air for the final time this weekend.

WUSA General Manager Allan Horlick said the decision was based on how best to direct newsroom resources. " 'Eye on Washington' is a wonderful program, but its focus is largely national politics, and our mission is really serving the Washington community."

One of the show's regular panelists, the Nation's David Corn, said he was sorry to learn of the show's demise.

"We believed we tried to have a pretty sophisticated level of discourse without resorting to shouting," Corn said by phone yesterday. "It struck me how [McGinty] was able to bring a lot of people to important topics."

Other frequent panelists have included USA Today's Susan Page, syndicated columnist Linda Chavez and Slate's William Saletan.

"Eye on Washington" averaged about 65,000 viewers in this year's first quarter; in the local market, it usually ranked third in the 7 p.m. Saturday time slot.

The current version of the political show debuted in November 2004 with McGinty as moderator. The history of a locally produced round-table show on Channel 9 goes back to 1969 with "Agronsky & Company," moderated by Martin Agronsky. That show changed to "Inside Washington" when Gordon Peterson became the host on 1988; Peterson took "Inside Washington" with him when he left for WJLA in 2004.

"Eye on Washington" and the Saturday half-hour local newscast that followed will be replaced by "Entertainment Tonight."