ABC News is moving closer to finding a new executive producer for its flagship “Good Morning America” broadcast after a weeks-long search, according to two people familiar with the matter, a critical decision for Kim Godwin, who was named president of the Walt Disney-backed unit in April.
Godwin, a former senior executive at CBS News, is said to be considering both internal and external candidates, and there is some hope her choice will become known over the next few weeks.
ABC News declined to make executives available for comment. The show’s executive producer slot has been open since the abrupt departure of ABC News veteran Michael Corn in April.
“GMA,” the nation’s most-watched morning program, is a business pillar both for ABC News and its parent company and captured approximately $293.6 million in advertising in 2020, according to Kantar, a tracker of ad spending. The program, anchored by Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan, also serves as a massive promotional platform for Disney., which relies on the show to get the word out about many of its movies and initiatives.
The show has recently been expanding. In 2018, ABC News launched an afternoon extension of the program that, after a shaky start, has functioned as sort of a news update for midday viewers. In 2019, ABC expanded the hours of the “GMA” Saturday broadcast, part of a bid to get more stations to run the program across the U.S. on the weekend.
“GMA” remains locked in a scorched-earth battle with NBC News’ “Today” for viewers and ratings. While “GMA” attracts a bigger audience most weeks, “Today” commands a lead among the viewers that advertisers covet most, people between 25 and 54. And yet, in two recent weeks, “GMA” won more viewers in that crucial demographic than its rival. That has lent some ballast to the show during a transitional time, when it has been supervised by two of its senior producers, Christine Brouwer and Simone Swink, who carry responsibility, respectively, for the program’s 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. hours.
The “GMA” producer seat isn’t the only task on Godwin’s to-do list. She will also have to choose a successor for Meghan McCain’s seat at “The View” in weeks to come.