Oh boy. Things just are not looking up for Disney recently, despite the entertainment giant's heroic efforts to course-correct its listing cruise ship of an entertainment enterprise; The Mouse House continues to fail miserably at the task.
READ:
Disney+ Keeps Bleeding Customers, As Another 1.3 Million Cancel Subscriptions
Disney Slapped With Another Massive Civil Rights Lawsuit Over Racist Discrimination
Those are just a sampling of the woes for Disney, however. The problems come as across all broadcast television networks, including Disney's ABC, the only programming gaining viewers nationally, as we reported recently, was the airing of NFL games. Readers may have also caught the "bloodbath" at rival network CBS this week, with its parent company, Paramount Global, laying off hundreds of employees, including investigative journalist Catherine Herridge.
READ:
How Bad Has Broadcast TV Become? Stats Show Nobody Is Watching Anything Besides the NFL
ABC News isn't faring much better of late. Readers may remember in 2022 the damaging scandal in the network's news division over two of the "Good Morning America 3" co-hosts, TJ Holmes and Amy Robach, keeping their off-air relationship a secret.
Amy Robach says there’s ‘been a price to pay’ for choosing love with T.J. Holmes https://t.co/CHacL9UHXn pic.twitter.com/dQqLYmRwtD
— Page Six (@PageSix) January 18, 2024
Now, a major reshuffling at the Disney-owned network reportedly has come about, in part, from hiccups by one exec in handling that debacle, if details are accurate:
Embattled ABC News president Kim Godwin’s days could be numbered despite getting her contract renewed — as staffers quietly cheered her effective demotion, The Post has learned.
The Disney-owned network elevated veteran exec Debra OConnell on Wednesday to helm a new division that would encompass ABC News — putting Godwin under her — amid softening ratings at top-ranked shows “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight with David Muir.”
The move was widely cheered at ABC News headquarters on the Upper West Side, with more than one staffer overheard saying: “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead,” as others “celebrated at the bar” and breathed a sigh of relief that the “dictatorial” culture under Godwin would soon come to an end, multiple sources told The Post on Thursday.
“The mood after the announcement was very light and happy. People are relieved,” one source said. “They feel network can get back to its glory days with Debra coming in.”
Some sources told the New York Post that an element of Godwin's demotion was how she misread the Holmes-Robach situation:
ABC launched an internal probe soon after, as more juicy stories were leaked to the tabloids about Holmes’ other affairs at ABC. After a prolonged suspension, ABC settled with the pair to exit the company.
Details of the affair spilled out in November 2022, but Godwin permitted the “GMA3” pair to remain on the air, causing a spectacle which led to more news stories.
As more lurid tidbits came out, Godwin benched the duo but defended them on a Dec. 5 interoffice call, saying they “had not violated company policy.”
From what inside sources told the NY Post, one of the final straws may have been Godwin's lackadaisical management of "GMA":
“Godwin rarely visits ‘GMA’ studios unless it’s for a photo-op for her Instagram page,” said one ABC insider.
“Shows like ‘GMA,’ you need someone at the top driving competition,” another source said.
“There hasn’t been a driven person at the top since Ben Sherwood and James Goldston, who were producers. They were in the control room. They were driven to compete, which makes a difference.”
Indeed, it appears O'Connell made a beeline for that show's studio, in the wake of her promotion:
OConnell, meanwhile, turned up at “Good Morning America’s” studios in Times Square before the crack of dawn — just 12 hours after news of the shakeup — to greet the staff and anchors and to send a clear message that “she is in charge[.]”
As one of my RedState colleagues pointed out, this change likely won't end Disney's downslide, whomever it installs at the top of the food chain. Media conglomerates that do the Left's bidding on DEI, climate change propaganda, and woke virtue signaling will likely remain in permanent freefall because they can't stop lying. Americans just don't buy what they're selling anymore.
One relevant item, which appeared in my email inbox Friday, points to--perhaps--a larger problem for the Democrat Party and their presumed nominee, President Joe Biden, heading into the March Madness phase of the presidential primary race. The fact that "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" is sitting down on Sunday with liberal New York radio show host Charlamagne tha God is bad news (as my colleague Nick Arama explained in January; see below).
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