• The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday, November 26, 2008 9:30 AM

Former "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel and Discovery Communications are parting ways about six months ahead of Koppel's May 2009 contract end date. Koppel joined Discovery Channel in January 2006 as managing editor.

Discovery, under CEO David Zaslav and Discovery Networks chief John Ford, has lately taken a new direction, away from news. Koppel's critically-acclaimed documentaries were not in line with that direction. "It was like oil and water, it didn't mix particularly well," Koppel says.

As for his plans, Koppel still does commentaries for National Public Radio and also works for BBC World News from Washington. He says he won't be working for NBC's "Meet the Press," as some observers speculated. That program is rumored to be close to making a decision on a permanent moderator.

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