Pope Benedict Resignation Coverage: Networks Not Sending Top Talent To Rome Right Away

Pope Benedict's shock resignation may have dominated Monday's headlines, but so far, news networks are holding off on sending their top talent to Rome to cover the story.

TVNewser compiled a list of the people who will reporting on the fallout from Benedict's decision to step down. (He will formally leave at the end of February.) Aside from Fox News' Shep Smith, no major anchors are making the journey to Rome. NBC will have Chris Jansing joining its local team. ABC is sending weekend anchors from "Good Morning America." CBS isn't sending any of its anchors. Nor is CNN.

Compare that to 2005, when John Paul II's death sent Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, Charlie Gibson and a plethora of other top-flight anchors to the Vatican.

Of course, the circumstances are quite different: Benedict is not dead, and his relatively brief tenure was not as historically consequential as his predecessor's. It remains to be seen whether networks will fly their biggest stars to Europe when Benedict actually ends his papacy on Feb. 28th.