wabceyewitness

Whoopi is under contract until 2016 however, ABC owned stations and affiliates have long term contracts to air Kelly & Michael at 9am. Ben Sherwood wants a third hour of Good Morning America but doesn't mind it being detached from the main two hours, so here's a solution: Let The View run through the end of next season then in fall 2016, ABC News can give the hour over to Good Morning America to run a third hour with some quick news hits and a lot of celebrity interviews and cooking. Have it go out live at 10am eastern and tell affiliates they can air it at 10am or 11am, depending on syndicated contracts they have. For the 8am hour sign off just have the anchors say "Good Morning America continues later this morning right here on ABC..."

It's kind of dumb, to be honest. They're not even saying the ."com" part. They stopped doing that when referring to 7online but it was fine then because the name 7online already refers to an online source. Now the anchors and even the voiceover on promos says "watch it on abc7ny" or "tonight's live lotto drawing tonight only on abc7ny" .... they realize this sounds like they are referring to the TV station and no longer promoting the website, right? Also, the website bar under the logo stopped rotating and now just says "abc7ny" .. no hashtag, .com or anything...

She's off this week. Michelle is in for the AM shift.

Such a tough year for Diana Williams. First her husband undergoing stem cell transplant and now sad news that her son is laying unconscious in a hospital after being involved in a very serious accident on the way to his Air Force base. You can read more on her Facebook page. What an incredibly tough time for her and her family. She is such a wonderful person who've I've been lucky enough to meet several times. Keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

The weekend open still uses the date and says "live from abc news in New York.."

I like Lara but not as a main anchor for the 7am hour. Honestly, her agent played the cards right when renegotiating. Sam Champion had left just a few months prior, Josh Elliot was on the verge of bolting for NBC. So they caved to naming Lara an anchor to avoid the appearance of everyone jumping ship. Not that Her leaving would've meant many viewers leaving but the bad press would not have helped the show's momentum.

Why is it automatically assumed that all reporters want to be weekday anchors? Could it be possible that Michelle - like the three dozen other reporters at the station - actually enjoys being out in the field reporting and is content with just anchoring the weekends as long it allows her time to report? Not everyone goes into broadcasting to be tied down to an anchor desk.

Lori has been at 11pm before. It's not often but not uncommon. She'll be on at 4 and 11pm all week. Shirleen is brand new; perhaps they felt more comfortable having Lori fill in for Liz & Sade than having the anchor who's been there for just a week?

Ken, Lori and Bill were all on the morning show today.

The person who originally posted about new music and graphics ("nynewsguy") says the same thing every year or two and bases his/her information on nothing but their own wishful thinking or speculation. He/she continuously spreads false news about WABC.

Exactly.

About Michelle ... Who says she wants a weekday anchor spot if it opens? Some reporters like the idea of reporting, getting to go out in the field and not being tied to an anchor desk 5 days a week. Not everyone we see on TV aspires to be an anchor. Look at Sandra Bookman. She's been anchoring weekends since the 90s. Do you think she would still be at Channel 7 if she felt like she was passed over when Lori, Liz, Sade and now Shirleen were brought on board?

More likely that she is being groomed to soon replace a departing anchor, just as Sade was. You might be right about Diana, although she is my favorite anchor there, she has been there close to 25 years now! Perhaps she is deciding that it's time to take a step back.. But that is all just speculation. Liz just signed a new contract so is likely staying put. I wonder about Lori and Sade.

Correct. Roz wanted the 11pm slot after Diana moved from 6 & 11 to co-anchor the 5pm when Robb Hanrahan left. WABC opted to hire Liz Cho instead and Roz let them know she would be leaving. So, Sade was brought on first as noon anchor (displacing Lori Stokes for a few months - which she initially was not happy about) and then moved to 5pm alongside Diana once Roz said farewell.

It's likely that one of the main anchors are leaving. If you're an evening anchor in a big market like Philadelphia, you don't come to New York just to anchor at noon without the promise that you'll be anchoring a more prominent show. For example, Sade came from Baltimore with the promise of filling a bigger spot once Roz left. David came back from Chicago with the promise of anchoring the new 4pm show. So... Looks like Lori, Diana, Sade or Liz may be saying goodbye and some point soon.

She's anchoring the noon show. It's been reported on Twitter already and confirmed by her retweets.

Last time WABC hired someone just for the noon show, it was Sade Baderinwa and it was to prepare for the eventual departure of Roz Abrams.

Not a fan. I actually thought the last one they had was one of the best morning news opens. This new one is just a hyped of version of something that belongs back in the 1990s.

It was given to NBC like that. It's similar to how White House video has WH.gov branded on the top right.

New graphics would be nice. The 16-year old music is still perfect for EWN and NYC - doubt it will change much. You also said back in 2013 there would be new music and graphics - what happened to that?

They JUST started streaming?!

Agreed. I wish they updated the opening music to match the hard news headline music they've started using and also to match the hard news they've added back to program.

The ad was probably placed nationally by NBC in all copies of New York. Magazines like New York can sell ads nationally or by region. NYC is one region. If NBC chose to buy the ad in just NYC, they would've included the local branding. In this case, it seems that they wanted the same as in all regions so just used the national NBC logo.

Noticed the 7am open now says and shows Robin's, George's and Lara's names.

When it became clear that Katie's talk show was tanking and Barbara Walters was retiring, there was speculation that one possible scenario would be Katie transitioning into The View. I think it's a good fit. I don't think Diane wants to be bogged down with daily show responsibilities. Before her mother and her husband passed, she was already off traveling overseas shooting ABC News specials, one of which will air in spring.