mountainave

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.

Gio is filling in for Lara through Wednesday while Lara fills in for Robin. He's done the news for GMA Weekend, but if I'm not mistaken (do correct me if I am), I think this is Gio's first time filling in for an anchor on GMA weekday.

Not that I'm aware of. I thought Heather wasn't too bad at all, either.

They should do this more often! http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=9487105

Sara Haines needs to tone down the touching and rubbing of Gio Benitez.

Haven't been watching it regularly. Is it not Josh, Lara, and Ginger every day anymore?

They've still got Rob Schmidt anchoring just a half hour per day? Why even bother.

They used it this morning, too. It's gotta go. Not sure what it looks like in HD, but it looks absolutely ridiculous on a CRT.

Agreed. Lots of great banter at the desk.

Diana Williams, Rob Powers, Lee, and Anthony Johnson doing the 6 tonight. Not a combination seen very often, especially at 6!

Interesting. I don't think Bill's retiring any time soon. I wonder if Rob volunteered to do it -- maybe they usually fly solo because it's hard to find people to do the 6, or maybe the ND figured she'd give it a shot? Just a pure guess.

I didn't say either show needed one. I said it made sense. Do you think the average viewer would rather see anchors and guests interact with media in real time or just listen to them read tweets off the teleprompter? Clearly, the former. With respect to Sara, I wouldn't go so far as to say she annoys the hell out of me, but I by no means would consider her a rising star, either.

Yes, it's not conducive for hard news, but it makes sense. People are migrating away from TV to online and social media, and viewers want to interact. This is a way to keep viewers and keep them engaged. Can't help but wonder if it was also motivated in part by Lara's contract renegotiation. This gives her something more to do on the show.

The key demo is 25-54, so I can't think of a reason why they'd show 25-49 and 18-49 other than because they lost in 25-54.

Not to mention, can you really attribute a single show's win to him? It could've been the content, among other things.

Any video clips from this morning posted somewhere?

What happened to the decision to only cover news within the five boroughs?

I wonder if at least some of it might be medical. She was hit by a car while reporting in the field for WABC around 10 years ago. She has also posted on social media during several of her absences about being sick with one thing or another. So, who knows. Just speculating.

Rob Nelson's bio is up on 7online.

Haven't seen Smith, but I could see Haines being viewed as authentic and relatable. Makes sense.