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.
Exclusives
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.
Television news producer Kristen Hentschel was doing precisely what journalists should do on a searing hot day in Stuart, Fla., in July 2018: She confronted a politician with unwelcome questions. Microphone and ABC News business card in hand, Hentschel rushed up to a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives before a debate, the candidate recalls, and asked him about 20 dead gopher tortoises that were reportedly found at a nearby construction site. Florida designates the species as threatened. A city investigation found no dead tortoises. In fact, it found no evidence at all that any of the reptiles had ever been present. That wasn’t the only surprise. Though Hentschel has done freelance work for ABC, she was not there for the network, but for a political consulting firm.
Automation And Cloud Drive Studio Workflows
Technology executives from Disney, CBS Television Stations, Fox’s WTTG Washington and Amagi said they’re turning to private and public clouds to find new efficiencies in production workflows at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum on Tuesday, a transition one sees as “scaling” in. Pictured (l-r): CBS Television Stations’ Jeff Birch, WTTG Washington’s Jim Beahn, Disney’s Fabian Westerwelle and Amagi’s Stephen Bach (Alyssa Wesley photo). Read a full report here and/or watch the video above.
Networks spend millions trying to conjure the kind of energy the GMA3 anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes brought to the show. But news of their relationship threatens a delicate balance.
Good Morning America anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes reportedly will not anchor their morning show for an unspecified period of time in the wake of their alleged romantic affair going public. ABC News President Kim Godwin reportedly recently told staffers that GMA anchors Amy Robach and TJ Holmes “will be off air while network figures out how to best handle situation,” Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal tweeted Monday. “Calls it a distraction but not a violation of policies.”
On Monday morning, ABC News boss Kim Godwin informed staffers on the network’s daily editorial call that ABC News will need to implement a hiring freeze, with the exception of executive producers and producers. Godwin added that business travel — outside of newsgathering — will also be frozen.
Ginger Zee’s ‘Boots On The Ground’ Coverage From Hurricane Ian’s Eyewall Was No Vacation
Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC News, provided her millions of social media followers with behind-the-scenes updates before and during Hurricane Ian as well as live reports on ABC World News Tonight and Good Morning America.
After 13 years, Good Morning America hosts George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts have passed an improbable milestone without public notice. They’re now the longest-serving pair of hosts ever on any ABC, CBS and NBC morning show. They’ve presided during a time GMA took over from Today as the most popular morning show and have kept that distinction for a decade, yet also as the shows diminished in audience and influence.
People who want to watch ABC News’ Nightline no longer have to stay up past 12:30 in the morning. The venerable late-night news show, perhaps the last weekday word in the daily broadcast news cycle, is taking a step into streaming video, with a weekly newsmagazine counterpart that aims to burnish new storytelling tactics for subscribers to Hulu. The first half-hour broadcast of Impact x Nightline debuts Thursday, Oct. 6.
The revamped ABC News app is built on Disney’s proprietary technology, product and design platforms — improving speed and scalability, and offering increased flexibility for storytelling.
TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp talks with Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC and co-host of Hearst Media Production Group’s Hearts of Heroes, along with fellow host Sheldon Yellen, about broadcast’s role in disaster preparedness and the frontline workers whose stories they tell in the show. A full transcript of the conversation is included.
ABC News is doubling down on documentaries and docuseries, launching a new non-fiction division called ABC News Studios. The studio already has 15 series in various stages of production, as well as 3 feature-length documentaries, which will live under the ABC News Films banner.
ABC News has found the next co-anchor for the weekend edition of Good Morning America. On Tuesday, ABC News president Kim Godwin told staff that Janai Norman will join the program effective immediately, working alongside anchors Whit Johnson and Eva Pilgrim.
A judge in New York State Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against former ABC News producer Michael Corn, who was alleged to have sexually assaulted a subordinate and to have created a toxic work environment at ABC News.
For the past four weeks, GMA has eked out gains over NBC’s Today in a critical audience category that can help determine how much advertising money Madison Avenue invests in news programs. GMA typically cedes viewers 25-54 to Today, but for each of the past four weeks has instead won.
Executives from ABC News, NBCUniversal Local, ABS-CBN and Avid told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that they’re not reversing steps to build distributed production environments, regardless of how many people are returning to the office. But the road still has its bumps, such as persistent issues with latency and intercom and confidence monitoring.
