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Tom Bettag
Executive Producer, Discovery Networks
Tom Bettag is the executive producer for the Discovery Channel. In this role, he joins Ted Koppel in working with the company’s top executives to develop a slate of long-form programming, including town hall meetings that will examine some of the most important issues in the world today. He joined the network in January 2006.
Bettag was executive producer of daily network news broadcasts for the past 19 years, 14 as executive producer of ABC News Nightline. Between 2000 and 2004, as senior executive producer of Nightline, he also served as the executive producer of the ABC News broadcasts This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Nightline UpClose.
Bettag is the recipient of six duPont-Columbia University Silver Batons, three Overseas Press Club Awards and 30 Emmys, among many other accolades. Nightline was recognized in 2002 with a Peabody Award for Broadcast Journalism, citing over 20 years of excellence in long-form presentations.
Prior to joining ABC News in May 1991, Bettag spent 22 years at CBS News, serving as executive producer of CBS Evening News With Dan Rather from 1986 to 1991. During his tenure as Evening News executive producer, Bettag spearheaded the network's critically acclaimed coverage of the Chinese student uprising in May, 1989 and along with Rather, gained the first television interview with Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Kuwait.
A native of Rockford, Michigan, Bettag received a BA degree in history from the University of Notre Dame in 1966, and an MS degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1967. He resides in Washington, DC. He and his wife Claire have two sons, Carl and Andrew.
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