mountainave

Well, Diane's final show really proved this true. Whereas anchor departures tend to be look-backs on all the anchor has done and often have show staff come out at the end to applaud or salute the anchor, Diane's final segment really was a celebration of the show and the team that produces it.

I agree, and I think that's why there hasn't been a huge promotion of Diane's final broadcast across the network. The transition seems very low-key. The network probably wants to maintain the integrity of the World News brand rather than draw attention to who is anchoring and who is not. David has been filling in so often for Diane that some people probably won't even notice for a while that David has taken over, and I'm sure that's intentional on the part of network execs. ABC doesn't want people to stop watching just because it's the end of Diane's era, which I could see being more likely if they played up the fact that she was leaving the desk. It's going to seem very seemless, I would expect. Again, ABC learning from NBC's mistakes. Also, it would be different if Diane was leaving the network altogether. It helps that she is remaining at ABC and taking on an elite role. It also helps that she likes the person succeeding her. If she didn't, I'd imagine she would demand more attention to her departure. I don't know how all of that will affect the graphics package if at all, but I think we will for the most part see the same program for the near future. That may change as the show becomes more David's, and as the new EP takes over.

What do you mean? GMA broadcasts from the downstairs portion of the Times Square studio and GMA Weekend broadcasts from ABC HQ.

Was anyone else watching EWN this past weekend when a vehicle hit a pedestrian right outside the EWN studio? Rob and Michelle were distracted by it for a quite a bit of time.

Bill Evans in for Amy Freeze this morning with Michelle and Toni.

Ryan Smith in for Dan Harris on GMA Weekend this morning. Interesting that instead of having Ron Claiborne fill in for Dan and finding someone to fill in as news anchor, they leave Ron where he is and replace Dan.

I wonder why they don't play the EWN music during the teases that precede commercial breaks anymore.

Lee Goldberg (WABC) will be on tomorrow (Wednesday).

Speaking of Amy Freeze, she will be on GMA filling in for Ginger on Monday and Tuesday.

Lauren Glassberg filling in for Joe Torres tonight.

The decision was a reflection of the silent majority of Today viewers who still love Matt. As one article put it, most of the people who felt Matt was to blame for the botched Curry ouster have already left to GMA or CBS. Even though Today is #2, it is still very profitable for NBC and axing Matt would surely cause chaos that would risk disrupting that profitability.

Six?! Wow, didn't know that. Just assumed most had 3-4 like WABC.

It does seem Cecily has been a regular between GMA Weekend and now GMA. I wonder why they haven't been having Bill, Lee, or Jeff from WABC.

Byron Pitts in for David Muir anchoring World News tonight.

For a while Gerard McNiff was ABC's meteorologist. Maybe he's not there anymore. Here's an article: http://www.juliewan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/gerard-mcniff.pdf

Joe Torres filling in for Bill Ritter tonight on the 11.

Any proof?

Right. I didn't say anything to suggest otherwise. He wanted to know if he could ask Tamsen a question/have some conversation with her or if he should go right to the next story after she tossed it back from Point Pleasant to him in the studio.

He wasn't getting pissed. He was trying to ask the control room if there was going to be time for him to banter with Tamsen or if he should go right to the next story while the control room folks were in the middle of doing a hundred things to keep the show running. Sometimes anchors need to ask more than one time before someone in the control room (especially one like at PIX which probably isn't heavy on staff) hears them or is not in the middle of doing something. It happens often and isn't unique to PIX.

It would seem to make more sense for Meredith to do it as a way to promote herself for her upcoming talk show. That being said, maybe planning for the show will leave her too busy to step into Today. Who knows. Yeah, it seems like Couric even substituting on Today might be complicated given the partnership between Yahoo and ABC News. On a separate note, they have a long list of internal candidates who are more than able to sit in for Savannah. Seems like it might send the wrong message to them and to some loyal viewers to bypass all of them in favor of Katie or Meredith, although if it's all about ratings, that might not be a factor in the mind of execs.

Ben Sherwood's first order of business as Pres. of DATG? Can't find any info on this on the internet. Do the promos advertise Lara as the host?

This morning, it's George and Amy, with Lara playing her usual role and Dan Harris filling in for Amy. So, it doesn't seem Lara is Robin's automatic backup.

I think he should be between George and Lara, or on the end next to Lara. Looked too crowded on the one side and too large of a gap between George and Lara this morning.

It sounds to me like it's just an additional title for her to have that she wanted as part of her contract renegotation. She'll probably continue doing what she's been doing, maybe with a few extra stories and interviews. I suspect it also means she'll be the main fill-in at the desk. Anyway, confusing for all of us, I think. We can read into it all we want. Who knows...

I'm guessing that for the first few months we'll see all of them getting a chance to sub in until the folks in charge figure out who gels best with the rest of the anchors, and that person will become primary fill-in.