LEAD STORY
James Goldston is leaving ABC News
ABC News will have a new president to preside over the network during the Biden administration now that current president James Goldston announced his resignation this past Thursday.
Goldston said his last day at the network will be on March, 31.
He has been the head of ABC News since 2014 and said the decision to leave was his own, adding that he is ready “for a new adventure.” During his tenure, he was very instrumental in growing ABC News into a news juggernaut — its flagship shows Good Morning America and World News Tonight with David Muir have seen ratings success in their respective dayparts.
Goldston was in charge of Good Morning America in 2012 when it overtook NBC News’ Today Show as the most-watched morning news show and that streak has held firm since then. While at World News Tonight, Goldston led it to become the top-rated newscast routinely ranking hire than telecasts, entertainment shows included, in all of broadcast and cable television.
The daytime talk show The View was also put under the purview of ABC News during Goldston’s tenure and it became a go-to venue for politicians during the just concluded 2020 presidential election.
It has not been all smooth sailing for Goldston during his time at the top — last year his deputy Barabara Fedida was ousted after a Disney internal investigation revealed that she had made some racially insensitive comments towards staff and talent, and she also had a rough managerial approach. Goldston was not implicated, but his close association with her puts a blemish on his reign.
The search for Goldston’s replacement has already begun and according to Peter Rice, chairman of general entertainment content for Disney, a transition team will be put in place to oversee many of the functions performed by Goldston.
This transition team includes Derek Medina, an executive vice president in charge of business affairs; Michael Corn, executive producer for Good Morning America; Almin Karamehmedovic, executive producer for ABC World News; Wendy Fisher, vice president of newsgathering; and Marie Nelson, senior vice president of content strategy.
The TV news business is going through an executive overhaul — Phil Griffin who is in charge of MSNBC is being replaced by Rashida Jones beginning February 1. NBCUniversal, last year, also replaced their overall boss Andy Lack with Cesar Conde and there is a watch over at CNN to see whether Jeff Zucker will remain as president of the network.
(Los Angeles Times, Variety, New York Times)
RECAP
NBC News Shows Off It’s New DC Office & Studios
NBC News took the covers off its new, swanky Washington, D.C. offices and studios this past week. The new facility, which is located at 400 N. Capitol, spans six floors and covers over 80,000 square feet and will be the home of NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Noticias Telemundo, and Sky News’ D.C. bureau. The new space mimics the neoclassical and federal-style architecture found around the nation’s capital and boasts 14-foot high ceilings with a coffered ceiling similar to the main hall at the transit station in Washington’s Union Station. Around 400 employees will be based at its new D.C. offices. (NBC News PR, TVNewser)
WGN America Changes Its Name To NewsNation
Starting March 1st the network currently known as WGN America will be rebranded as NewsNation. The network is aiming to position itself as a “fact-based and unbiased” news channel and is looking to compete against the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. As part of the rebrand NewsNation will be adding two additional news hours between 6-8 pm ET anchored by Nichole Berlie and Joe Donlon. When NewsNation debuts it will be available in 75 million homes up from 66.5 million where it is currently. This is due to new carriage deals with cable, satellite, and internet providers. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Sinclair Rebrands Its RSNs To Bally Sports
19 regional sports networks owned by Sinclair will see their names change from Fox Sports to Bally Sports before the start of the 2020 MLB season. Bally’s paid Sinclair $85 million last year to add its name to the RSNs for a period of 10 years. FS Tennessee and FS Carolinas, which are part-time networks, will cease to exist once the rebrand takes place while SportsTime Ohio and Prime Ticket will become Bally Sports Great Lakes and Bally Sports SoCal respectively. (Sports Business Daily)
QUICK RECAP
Turner Sports’ Sekou Smith passes on due to COVID-19. (NABJ Sports/Twitter)
Michael Strahan tests positive for COVID-19. (TVNewser)
Former Fox News contributor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces she is running for Governor of Arkansas. (NPR)
Former Alabama senator Doug Jones becomes a CNN contributor. (Doug Jones/Twitter)
David Scott joins ABC News as a correspondent with the investigation unit. (ABC News Public Relations)
Larry Kudlow gets a show on Fox Business. (The Daily Beast)
NBC News hires Guad Venegas as a Los Angeles-based correspondent. (TVNewser)
Khadija Sharif-Dinkard becomes VP of business affairs at ABC News. (ABC News Public Relations)
Emily Compagno joins Fox News’ Outnumbered. (TVNewser/Twitter)
Nick Vega joins CNBC’s Make It as a money reporter. (Talking Biz News)
Tom Llamas moves from ABC News to NBC News. (Variety)
Fox News signs Leo Terrell to a contributor role. (TVNewser)
Rick Davis, a CNN original, is retiring after 40 years. (CNN)
Peacock and WWE sign a multi-year deal making Peacock the exclusive home of the WWE Network. (Sports Business Daily)
Amazon drops out of bidding for the Italian soccer league Serie A. (Sports Pro Media)
CBS Sports updates its logo. (NewscastStudio)
HBO Max now has 17.1 million accounts activated. (Tavish ZM/Twitter)
Peacock now has 33 million sign-ups. (Variety)
Fox Sports is interested in bidding for the NHL. (Front Office Space)
CNN receives an Emmy for Technology & Engineering. (CNN Press Room)
Bridgeton becomes Netflix’s most-watched series ever. (Deadline)
HBO Sports is launching a companion podcast for Real Sports. (Awful Announcing)
CBS Sports sells out its Super Bowl ad inventory. (Variety)
Ashleigh Banfield talks about her new show on NewsNation. (TVNewsCheck)
Non-race Indycar is moving from NBC Sports Gold to Peacock. (Awful Announcing)
NBCUniversal and Twitter sign a multi-year global content partnership deal. (CNBC)
Kids programming becomes the next battlefield for streaming networks. (Variety)
New TV news channel GB News to be launched in the UK. (Mark Di Stefano/Twitter)
Greg Olsen retires from the NFL and will likely join Fox Sports. (Awful Announcing)
How many cameras is CBS Sports going to use for the Super Bowl? (NewscastStudio)
ESPN is looking to sell its X Games unit. (Front Office Sports/Twitter)
Opinion piece: former Fox News politics editor on what he learned after calling Arizona for President Biden. (Los Angeles Times)
Should Netflix buy a sports league? (Financial Times$$$)
Telemundo to launch a new morning show. (TVNewser)
Turner posts a stable fourth-quarter earnings report. (MediaPost)
Morning show weekend wars move to Washington, D.C. (Variety)
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