Ted Koppel talks about leaving ABC's Nightline, what's wrong with network TV news and who does the best impression of him in an interview with the NYT Magazine.

An excerpt:

Even before you announced that you were leaving ''Nightline,'' which just had its 25th anniversary, there were lots of rumors. With all the talk about the program's low ratings, and with ABC trying to woo David Letterman at one point, did you feel as if this wasn't entirely your decision?

No. Among the conditions of our last contract was that I would work three nights a week, and the initial plan was that we would phase that down, that I would go from three nights a week to two nights a week to one night a week, and then just sort of fade out. I think there's an appropriate time to say, ''Enough is enough,'' and somehow, the 25th anniversary seemed like the right time.

Did you ever think, We've got to get the ratings up. We should get a panel of judges, like the ones on ''American Idol,'' to vote someone off the show.

I drift off to sleep every night thinking just that.

Couldn't find the right judges?

Simon was already otherwise occupied.

I have a theory that everybody in TV news now is too good-looking. Wouldn't it be better if we just admitted that smart people aren't always good-looking and had a bunch of people reporting on TV who were hard to look at?

Hey, here I am. But I must also tell you that one of my oldest friends in the world, Peter Jennings, is just the handsomest guy in town. And Peter turned out to be a pretty damned good newsman.