After graduating from law school, Woodruff worked as a bankruptcy associate at
Shearman & Sterling, LLP in New York City. In 1989, while Woodruff was teaching law in Beijing, China, CBS News hired him as an on-screen interpreter during the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Shortly thereafter, he left the law practice and became a full-time correspondent, initially working for several local stations.
ABC News Woodruff began working for
ABC News in 1996. He succeeded
Peter Jennings as a co-anchor of
ABC World News Tonight in December 2005 with Elizabeth Vargas. In January 2006, Woodruff was critically wounded by a
roadside bomb in Iraq.
Wounded in Iraq On January 29, 2006, Woodruff and Canadian cameraman
Doug Vogt were seriously injured in an explosion from an improvised explosive device near Taji, Iraq, about north of Baghdad. Woodruff had traveled with an ABC News team to Israel to report on the aftermath of the
2006 Palestinian elections, and then via Amman, Jordan to Baghdad, so that he could meet with troops before President
George W. Bush's
State of the Union address for 2006. At the time of the attack, they were
embedded with the
U.S. 4th Infantry Division, traveling in an Iraqi
MT-LB. Woodruff and Vogt were standing with their heads above a hatch, apparently filming a stand-up. Both men were wearing
body armor and protective helmets at the time. Woodruff sustained
shrapnel wounds; Vogt was struck by shrapnel in the head, and suffered a broken shoulder. After being stabilized at the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, both men were flown to Balad and underwent surgery for head injuries with a joint Army and Air Force neurosurgical team at the U.S. Air Force hospital south of Balad, Iraq, located in Camp Anaconda, and they were reported to be in stable condition. Tom Brokaw reported on the
Today show that Woodruff had a portion of his skull removed during surgery to reduce the damage from brain swelling. Woodruff and Vogt were evacuated to the U.S. Army's
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany overnight on Sunday, January 29. On ABC
World News Tonight that evening, anchor Elizabeth Vargas discussed the dangers of reporting in a combat zone. After leaving Germany, Woodruff was treated for several weeks at
Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
Recovery from injuries Woodruff was kept in a medically induced coma for 36 days to assist his recovery, and ABC News temporarily assigned
Good Morning America anchors
Charles Gibson and
Diane Sawyer to alternate duties on the evening newscast as co-anchors with Vargas. Vogt meanwhile was reported to be awake, mobile, and recovering. As of March 7, 2006, Woodruff's brother reported that the ABC anchor was beginning to walk, recognize friends and family, and speak in several languages. However, he struggled with
expressive aphasia for more than a year after the injury. Woodruff was transferred on March 16, 2006, to a medical facility closer to his home in Westchester County, New York, a sign of "continued progress in all respects", ABC News President,
David Westin, wrote in an email to staffers. Westin's email noted that Woodruff was able to get around, talk to and joke with his family, but that "months of further recuperation" were required. On April 6, 2006, ABC News released photos of Woodruff recovering at home, with a letter thanking everyone for their support and kindness during his ongoing recovery. Woodruff especially thanked the soldiers, doctors, and nurses who had saved his life. On December 29, 2006, Woodruff's wife, Lee, an editor at
Family Fun Magazine appeared on
Good Morning America to discuss family activities to celebrate the New Year. During the report, anchor
Kate Snow asked Lee about her husband's condition. Lee said that Bob was doing well and was currently filming a television documentary about his experiences. She also revealed that he had been back to Iraq since the incident to visit the soldiers with whom he was traveling at the time of his injury.
Consequences at ABC News ABC World News Tonight remained second in the
Nielsen Media Research rankings, but it had lost some ground to NBC's then first-place
Nightly News, anchored by
Brian Williams before his ouster.
Bob Schieffer on
CBS Evening News also closed the gap with ABC after Woodruff's injury.
Return to air On February 27, 2007, Woodruff appeared on
Good Morning America,
ABC World News with Charles Gibson, and
The Oprah Winfrey Show in advance of a documentary that aired on ABC later that evening. Despite having made great progress in his recovery, during an interview with Diane Sawyer, Woodruff had some difficulty remembering words and details, such as the name of the
Vietnam War and the word "injury". The hour-long documentary
To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports explored the consequences of
traumatic brain injury and highlighted the difficulties brain injured veterans face finding treatment—a subject that had first appeared in
Discover magazine several weeks earlier, and was elaborated on by
The Washington Post reporters in the exposé "Painting Over the Problems at Walter Reed's Building 18". Woodruff resumed his contributions to
ABC World News with Charles Gibson the following day, February 28, with the first in a series of follow-up reports centering on the problems that wounded American soldiers are encountering in their treatment and recovery, particularly at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Starting March 7, he was scheduled to begin reporting for
Nightline "at regular intervals". On July 12, 2008, Woodruff began hosting the weekly ABC News–produced newscast
Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff on the
Planet Green television channel. On
Focus Earth, Woodruff covered the environmental news of the week, looking at subjects ranging from climate impact, environmental policy, political debate, and world events, as well as how climate change affects religious and cultural views and issues. In 2014, Woodruff worked with ESPN and ABC Sports as a reporter and host for the
2014 FIFA World Cup, normally alongside
ESPN Brazil senior writer Rubens Pozzi. In 2020, he started a
National Geographic show
Rogue Trip, with his son Mack. The show premiered on Disney+. ==Bob Woodruff Foundation==