Aaron Brown, the former CNN anchor who found cable TV an awkward fit, is joining PBS's "Wide Angle" series and ending his on-air absence of more than two years.

"If I was going to do broadcast journalism again, be a public person again ... then it had to be something different from what I'd done," Brown said. "You can count on one hand how many gigs there are like this."

Anchoring "Wide Angle," a weekly public affairs series with a global focus, offers the chance "to work in an environment where people just think about making good TV and good journalism," Brown said.

"By the end [of an episode], you understand the world you live in and how it's connected to you," he said Saturday.

Brown, 59, who left CNN in November 2005 during a shake-up that gave his time slot to rising star Anderson Cooper, said he was contractually barred from working in TV until last June. He has been teaching at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism.

"Wide Angle" begins its seventh season July 1.

(Lynn Elber, Associated Press)

Two ABC series were in repeats -- as winners -- at the annual awards honoring good work in media presentations of gays and lesbians.

"Brothers & Sisters" and "Ugly Betty" received awards for outstanding drama and comedy series during the 19th annual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards at the Kodak Theatre on Saturday night.

Both shows, which feature openly gay or transsexual regular characters, received the same awards last year from GLAAD.

Other winners included Bravo's "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" for outstanding reality program, Janet Jackson for the Vanguard Award and Rufus Wainwright for the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, in honor of the late casting director who fought homophobia in the entertainment industry.

(AP)