The beginning of PEJ's Network TV intro includes this aside:

"This was the year people in network TV news had anticipated for a generation. What would happen, they wondered, when the three flagship evening news anchors left their chairs? Privately, at least one of those anchors worried that his network might stop airing a nightly newscast altogether."

According to the footnotes, this worry was expressed in a "private conversation with Tom Rosenstiel." So who was worried? My bet is Dan Rather...