was "Foreign Desk Anchor," although he continued to serve as the network's chief foreign correspondent. By mid-1979, the broadcast, which featured some of the same glitzy presentation as Arledge's previous television show, Wide World of Sports, had climbed in the ratings. The newscast had gained 1.9 million households from its debut, and was now in a dead heat with NBC's evening newscast. In 1979, Jennings married for the third time to fellow ABC correspondent Kati Marton. That same year, he became a father when Marton gave birth to their daughter, Elizabeth. In 1982, Jennings's and Marton's second child, Christopher, was born. As part of ABC's triumvirate, Jennings continued to cover major international news, especially Middle East issues. His nightly appearance at an anchor desk in London convinced some viewers that ABC News was more dedicated to foreign news than the other networks. Jennings reported on the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis, the assassination of Sadat, the Falklands War, Israel's 1982 conflict with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon, and Pope John Paul II's 1983 visit to Poland. His insistence on covering the major international stories himself irked some of his fellow ABC foreign correspondents, who came to resent being scooped by what they deemed as "Jennings's Flying Circus." Jennings, too, was not completely satisfied with his job in London. When his contract expired with ABC in the early 1980s, Jennings flirted with the possibility of moving back to Canada and working with the CBC on its new nightly newscast, The Journal. The CBC could not meet Jennings's renegotiation demands, though, and the deal fell through. Sole anchor In 1983, Reynolds fell ill with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that often attacks the bones, and was forced to stop anchoring in April. His absence caused a dip in the ratings for ABC's nightly newscast. ABC originally expected a full recovery, and relocated Jennings to its Washington bureau to fill in for Reynolds while he was sick; the move helped buoy the newscast's ratings, though it remained in third place. On July 20, 1983, Reynolds died unexpectedly after developing acute hepatitis. On August 9, 1983, ABC announced that Jennings had signed a four-year contract with the network and would become the sole anchor and senior editor for World News Tonight on September 5. Jennings would anchor the program from New York City, the program's new base of operations. The