This Week, originally titled as This Week with David Brinkley and currently billed as This Week with George Stephanopoulos, is an American Sunday morning political affairs program airing on the ABC television network. It premiered on November 15, 1981, with David Brinkley as its original anchor until his retirement in 1996. The program has been anchored by George Stephanopoulos since 2012, after first hosting it from 2002 to 2010. Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl have been co-hosts since 2016 and 2021, respectively. The program airs live at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time although many stations air the program at a later slot to air local newscasts, especially those in other time zones. During the David Brinkley era, the program drew consistent #1 ratings and in Stephanopolous era generally runs in third place among the Sunday morning talk shows, behind Meet the Press and Face the Nation. History In 1960, ABC launched its first Sunday talk show Issues and Answers, which featured policy discussions, prior to the age of political pundits dominating the talk shows. One of its early hosts was Howard K. Smith, who also had his own prime-time public affairs program Howard K. Smith: News and Comment air on the network during the 1962–1963 season. Among the program's later hosts was Bob Clark. On November 15, 1981, David Brinkley came to the network from NBC News and was given full responsibility for the show, which was relaunched as This Week with a network time slot at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. During Brinkley's run, three major sponsors were part of the show: General Electric (which departed after taking control on NBC in 1987), Archer Daniels Midland and Merrill Lynch. On November 10, 1996, David Brinkley retired as host of This Week but continued to appear on the program providing commentary segments until September 28, 1997. Following Brinkley's retirement, ABC News journalists Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts subsequently became co-hosts of This Week. Since 1981, the names of the primary anchors have been included with the show's title, such as This Week with David Brinkley and during this era, the program was billed as This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts (or This Week with Sam & Cokie). Longtime panelist George Stephanopoulos became the new host of This Week on September 15, 2002; he ended his first tenure with the program on January 10, 2010, shortly after being named the co-host