The veteran executive will oversee all internal and external communications across the network’s programming.
Lester Holt may be turning up more frequently in David Muir‘s rear-view mirror. During Muir’s tenure at World News Tonight, the ABC broadcast has done something most TV programs cannot do in the streaming era: Add new linear viewers. Yet in recent weeks one of the evening-news program’s competitors has nibbled at its lead in a crucial category of viewer.
ABC News has resolved a legal fight with former Good Morning America producer Kirstyn Crawford, who had accused the network’s news division of turning a blind eye to allegations of misconduct and harassment by Michael Corn, a former senior news executive. ABC filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice on Friday in New York state court of Crawford’s suit against ABC News and Corn, a former GMA executive producer, who Crawford accused of improper sexual contact during a 2015 business trip to Los Angeles. Crawford’s team also signed the filing. The lawsuit has been dismissed for both ABC News and Corn.
Robin Roberts will head up a new production unit at ABC News, which will produce narrative nonfiction projects, including series, specials and documentaries for ABC, Hulu and Disney Plus. ABC News calls the unit’s projects “a natural extension of Roberts’s background covering pop culture, newsmakers and world events over her 20-plus year career.”
Exclusives
Selina Wang, who served as CNN’s only reporter on the ground during the coronavirus-challenged Beijing Winter Olympics, will soon become one of ABC News’ key personnel in a very different arena: The White House. (Image: ABC/Pawel Kaminski)
Bonnie Mclean has been named director, Los Angeles bureau chief,Dimitrije Stejic has been named director, London bureau chief, and Andrea Owen is now executive director, deputy Washington, D.C., bureau chief.
Kendall Heath, who had been leading the Sunday public affairs show as interim EP following the sudden death of Dax Tejera, has been promoted to executive producer of politics.
For a year, ABC News kept a team in Uvalde, Texas. The result is a nuanced portrait of what happens over time to a suffering community, as seen in the two-hour documentary, It Happened Here — A Year in Uvalde, that airs Friday on ABC and Saturday on Hulu.
It appears Michael Corn and ABC News are not out of the woods just yet. Portions of an August 2021 sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Good Morning America producer Kirstyn Crawford against the former executive in charge of GMA that were dismissed by a New York judge last June were reinstated by a New York appellate court Tuesday morning.
ABC News has found the new anchors for GMA3, the early afternoon spinoff of Good Morning America. ABC News President Kim Godwin said Thursday that the hour will be led by anchors Eva Pilgrim (l) and DeMarco Morgan, joining Dr. Jen Ashton (r), the chief medical correspondent for ABC News, who has been a fixture on the hour for the past three years. Morgan and Pilgrim have been among the anchors that have filled in over the last few months.
ABC News says it edited an interview with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to exclude false claims he made about coronavirus vaccines. “We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis said during a report on Kennedy Jr.’s recent presidential bid announcement. “We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including portions of that exchange in our interview.”
FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver is exiting ABC News as Disney ramps up layoff. ABC News will hold onto the FiveThirtyEight brand with plans to streamline the statistics-driven news and analysis site. The network plans to create a more efficient structure for FiveThirtyEight leading into the 2024 presidential election and beyond. Silver sent a message to his team in a company Slack channel warning that the Disney layoffs would impact FiveThirtyEight, and that Silver is not planning to return after his contract ends.
Grand Knighthawk: Infiltrating the KKK, produced by George Stephanopoulos Productions and ABC News Studios, premieres on Hulu Thursday, April 27.
ABC News President Kim Godwin has created a “culture of fear” after chopping several veteran staffers in an alleged bid to plug leaks about her mismanagement at the Disney-owned network, insiders tell the New York Post. Godwin — who drew widespread criticism from many at the network as news spread of the salacious affair between GMA3 hosts TJ Holmes and Amy Robach — huddled with a coterie of her close-knit aides before firing a slew of workers as part of a phased rollout of 50 job cuts last month, sources say.
As issues of access to safe drinking water make headlines across the United States, ABC Owned Television Stations are producing a three-part documentary series with ABC News and National Geographic […]
ABC News underwent a round of staff reductions on Thursday, with about 50 positions impacted as part of parent Walt Disney Co.’s companywide cuts. ABC News President Kim Godwin also announced a realignment of her leadership team, with Katie den Daas serving as VP of newsgathering, overseeing the domestic and international teams, as well as NewsOne; Derek Medina, EVP, will oversee an expanded business and operations team; and Stacia Deshishku, executive editor and SVP of news, who will oversee the investigative and enterprise reporting units, as well as linear shows and special events.
Emmy-winning journalist Kelley L. Carter has signed a multi-year deal with ABC, elevating the ESPN Andscape senior entertainment reporter to a new role as entertainment reporter for all shows under the ABC and ABC News umbrella, including Good Morning America, GMA3 and ABC News Live.
Executives at the Disney news division — and its corporate parent — hoped to cut recent scrutiny by parting ways with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, the co-anchors of early-afternoon program GMA3 who also had a romantic relationship despite being married to other people. On Friday, the two sides broke up, so to speak, with ABC News President Kim Godwin telling staffers she hoped their departure would end a period of “distraction” at the home of Good Morning America and World News Tonight. But Godwin and her team are likely to face a period of rebuilding.
Tejera, who died suddenly on Friday of a heart attack, was named executive producer of This Week in 2020, and the show rose to the top among Sunday shows among adults 25-54. He made his mark by sending its hosts out on location, expanding the show’s focus beyond the typical concentration on Beltway politics.
ABC News has severed ties with Kristen Hentschel, a freelance TV producer for the news outlet, after it was revealed she was moonlighting as a corporate operative.
