Diane Sawyer: "Respectable Lady"

ABC News "World News" anchoress Diane Sawyer kicked off Monday's debut broadcast wearing the same colors as Katie Couric's 2006 debut:  black and white.  The difference?  Katie's black schoolgirl jumper and white top vs Diane looking very Armani in a chic white blouse and black jacket.

Diane out of the box:  "It is so good to be here with you tonight."  The crown jewel in Diane's illustrious broadcast news career that eluded her when Charles Gibson was tapped in 2006 to replace the short-lived team of Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas.

So many stories; so little time.  Diane kicked off with a two-story package of Senate health care vote stories and the hundreds of millions in payola larded in the bill to hold-out Ben Nelson, re-election challenged Chris Dodd, Vermont's socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. New GMA host George Stephanopoulos popped up to round out the debate with in-studio chitchat with Diane.  George was supered as "ABC News Chief Political Correspondent" and not GMA host with the most.

Diane fumbled the tease to the first break (to be fair it looked like a video error).  She teased her upcoming interview with Iranian artful dodger Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - but there was no video.  Continuing on in the script Diane promoted the Brittany Murphy death and up popped Mahmoud's mug.

Then it's on to a Lisa Stark report on "travel mayhem."  Diane interacted with Lisa after her live report.

We see Diane in all black, knit eyebrows intact, pummeling Iran's president Ahmadinejad. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he is as blind as NY Governor David Paterson.  Mahmoud is a master at projecting that vacant, nobody's home look.  Maybe he's on drugs...  Ahmadinejad unwittingly coined the phrase of the night about Diane debut:  "Respectable lady."  Perhaps the Iranian thug thought he could divert Diane by kissing up to her. 

The last story on holiday package delivery by reporter David Muir could've been a commercial for UPS.  David wrapped up his UPS plug in-studio with Diane.

Diane wrapped up her first show with:  "For you, Charlie Gibson, I hope you had a good day and a good night."

Diane, looking tired to me, made a couple of verbal fluffs and appeared a bit stiff and nervous.  Grade B.  A respectable, workmanlike virgin performance.

Leave it to the Huffington Post to run a WWIII size headline:  MAN ANCHORS NBC NEWS and this story about Brian Williams as the creamy filling in the network news filly cheesesteak sandwich.