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One down, two to go. After more than 20 years of seeing the same three anchors on the major networks’ evening news, NBC’s Tom Brokaw recently became the first to retire, at age 64.

Dan Rather, 73, has already announced that he will retire March 9, 2005 (exactly 24 years after he took the top job at CBS in 1981). Peter Jennings, 66, who became ABC’s sole anchor in September 1983 – the same month Brokaw got the NBC job—has not said whether he will renew his contract, which expires in 2005.

Many have described the long tenures of Brokaw, Rather and Jennings as an era that is now coming to an end. But, with Brokaw’s replacement Brian Williams (who some wags have described as the biological offspring of Brokaw and Jennings), it looks like this era of network television news continues, at least for now. Nothing has changed, except the well-groomed white man in the anchor seat.

But, it is not likely that we will see Brian Williams and his two new cohorts-to-be retire from the same news programs in 2025.

The network news still outdraws leading cable news programs on Fox News and CNN. Between 25 and 30 million people sit down to watch the three major network newscasts each evening, while Fox’s and CNN’s best news shows each evening usually don’t draw more than three million each.

But, the audience for the network newscasts, like the networks themselves, is shrinking. The social structure that once enabled people to get home from work and sit down for a network newscast with Tom, Dan, or Peter at 6:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. in the Central Time Zone!) hardly exists anymore. Too many Americans work late and commute long distances.

It’s amazing that the network news has lasted in its same form for so long. Aside from technical improvements, the format of the evening news is surprisingly unchanged from 1963, when CBS (with Walter Cronkite) was the first to switch from 15-minute to 30-minute evening newscasts.

Since that time, with few variations, the network news has featured a New York-based anchor who reads brief news stories and introduces longer pieces from field reporters. These days, minus the commercials and promos, the half-hour newscast amounts to about 20 minutes of news.

What should be the future of network news?

With the advent of cable news, the Internet, and the 24/7 news cycle, the evening network television newscasts rarely break news stories these days. So, their time is much better spent on explanation and analysis, which are the things the Internet and cable news seldom do.

Ironically, the best examples of this in-depth approach are the work of two other senior news anchors – Ted Koppel and Bill Moyers – both of whom are often overlooked and underappreciated.

Koppel, 64, started regular late night half-hour reports on the Iran hostage crisis for ABC back in 1979. In 1980, those regular half-hour newscasts became Nightline, one of television’s best in-depth news programs. Koppel hasn’t announced his retirement yet, but ABC was ready to ditch his program two years ago in an attempt to woo David Letterman to the ABC late night slot. If you haven’t watched Koppel lately, you should: his show is wonderful.

Bill Moyers, 70, ends a long career as a journalist this week when he steps down as the host of PBS’s Friday evening news program NOW with Bill Moyers. Although other newsmagazines get the headlines, the hour-long NOW consistently has been the best newsmagazine on the air, with in-depth investigative reports on economic and political issues, and the best interviews on television.

Replacing Koppel and Moyers will be a much more difficult task. We should hope their retirements don’t mark the end of an era.