[DTV]

It seems it was, and it wasn't. The 7pm London edition with Donald McCormick and Nici Marx was double-headed, but other editions had a main presenter/side presenter format (I think a regular pair for this was Stephen Cole and Nisha Pillai, respectively).

When the beeps came in The World Today was axed, then it came back roughly 18 months later. Again there were two presenters, but one took care of news and the other, business. That format lasted until about 2019? It outlasted the World Today brand, anyway.

The World Today has a complicated history. At the launch of BBC World in 1995, there was one edition of The World Today - 18:00-20:00 UKT. With the March 1997 schedule change, it was one of only two brands to survive upon the rebranding of many slots as Newsdesk (though with an edition of the new HARDtalk now broadcast at 19:30).

Then with the October 1997 relaunch, the other branded slots were renamed The World Today or axed. At this point, there were four editions of the programme a day, which had varying degrees of longevity.
- 06:00-07:30 UKT; with Philip Hayton; originally Newsday; "an essential briefing", included Europe Today. Axed March 1998.
- 11:00-12:30 GMT; with Nik Gowing and news from Nisha Pillai; originally Newsdesk; included Europe Today, Viewpoint and Postcards from Asia and Europe. Axed April 2000.
- 13:30-14:30 GMT; with Stephen Cole and news from Nisha Pillai; originally Newshour Asia Pacific; "specially tailored for viewers in Asia". Axed April 2000.
- 18:00-19:30 UKT; with Donald MacCormick and Nici Marx; "The day's most comprehensive news bulletin", included Europe Today. Axed December 1999.

As you say, the name was resurrected a year-and-a-half later, as part of a new business-oriented 'European Breakfast' schedule from September 2001. The World Today comprised the first hour of this schedule, with 30 minutes of news presented by Martine Dennis and 30 minutes of business presented by Tanya Beckett. The two did crop up in the other's half-hour, but, again as you say, I wouldn't call it double-headed in the traditional sense. The branding was dropped in April 2008 and the slot was slightly reformatted in February 2010, with WBR reduced to 15 minutes and a news review (which was double-headed) taking up the last 15-minutes. This was rebranded as The Briefing in 2017, at which point the hour was reduced to a single presenter.