If anyone did not read what happened last Wednesday, nearly 200 behind the scenes people at ABC News--from production, behind the scenes staffers, even the 15 member team that did awesome work on the political website 538 are gone (even though their election polling will continue.)
GMA and
GMA3 will be merged under one production team, while the nighttime programs
20/20 and
Nightline will be merged with a similar production unit.
Many of the people who lost their jobs worked at
GMA3, with most of them were around when the show started when COVID-19 started five years ago this week titled
Pandemic: What You Need To Know. Amy and later T.J. when he came aboard in fall 2020, along with Dr. Jennifer Ashton made it work--during a time Americans needed honest, credible information on how to be proactive and more importantly, to lessen the chances of getting very sick or worse.
Compared to the powerhouse
GMA morning show, they had different people on staff. Separate floors in the same building, but as Amy explained in the podcast--they could never do the show live (even though the only times you would see the Previously Recorded banner is during holidays.) All because of money.
But once that love affair started in November 2022 and eventually spilled into that one lovey-dovey segment, that's when I knew it was over. When Dr. Jen decided to leave on her own in late June 2024, what is the point? T.J. hasn't watched the show since being fired, and I barely catch it since I get so busy doing other things online.
It's all about reality shows and live sports. That's it.
Anytime there are layoffs, especially at the Big Four TV networks, it is very sad.
Bottom line, people are not watching linear TV that much anymore. Podcasts, streaming, and to a certain degree YouTube is how we get our news.
Look at what happened to newspapers, where they had trusted and sometimes Pulitzer Prize winning reporters. The days of thick Sunday newspapers ended by the mid 2010's, which gave way to trimmed articles from the AP wire services pretending and junior staffers leads the newsrooms. If it hasn't started already, I'm afraid it's going to happen with TV.
Expect DeMarco Morgan and Eva Pilgrim possibly being shuffled with up-and-coming anchors/reporters, in both the short and long term.
The podcast is worth listening to, and there are some links that shed more light on this shocking series of developments:
https://nypost.com/2025/03/06/media/abc-news-entirely-gutted-gma3-fired-executive-producer-as-part-of-layoffs/https://pagesix.com/2025/03/05/entertainment/former-abc-news-staffers-find-home-at-cbs-amid-disney-layoffs-and-turmoil-at-network/Amy got emotional at times during the podcast that was released late Sunday night. For the first time, they gave us plenty of insight on how the show was put together, how it all evolved since the lifestyle/entertainment
Sarah, Strahan, and Keke did not gain too much traction in the late 2010's, with struggled in the ratings--mostly losing to the powerful CBS weekday lineup. And wait until you hear how they felt the show when the show really clicked--quite fascinating details on another dark period in the television news industry:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7klgUjmuHTJHjPytM947wQ?si=CUPv4gm9QrSYO_QgqjFmFA