Disney Shakes Up Management at ABC
By GARY GENTILE
AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES Disney shook up the management team at its fourth-place ABC Television network Tuesday, promoting two rising stars and firing its top two programmers after only two years on the job.
The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, elevated ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer and ABC Cable Networks President Anne Sweeney as co-chairs of its Media Networks division.
Gone are ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne, who had been expected to remain, and Lloyd Braun, who served as chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group.
Braun and Lyne were appointed in 2002 and charged with resurrecting the ailing network, which collapsed after the ratings failure of its game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."
The two struggled to find hit dramas and had only mild success developing a slate of new sitcoms.
Steve McPherson, who was president of Touchstone Television, was named to the new post of president ABC Prime Time Entertainment, responsible for the network's prime-time schedule.
ABC-owned Touchstone produces many of the network's prime-time shows, including "Alias" and "Hope and Faith," and "Scrubs" for NBC.
McPherson has less than a month to finish setting the network's prime time fall schedule, which will be presented to advertisers in May.
ABC is firmly ensconced as the fourth-place network this season, behind CBS, NBC and Fox. It is averaging 9.2 million viewers in prime time, down from 10.1 million viewers last season, according to Nielsen Media Research.
ABC is also in fourth place among viewers aged 18-to-49, the demographic craved by advertisers and the one ABC watches most closely.
The network is also the chief thorn in the sides of Disney chief executive Michael Eisner and chief operating officer Robert Iger, who have pledged to shareholders to make a turnaround at ABC their top priority.
As part of the shake up, Mark Pedowitz was named president of Touchstone Television.
Alex Wallau, who had been president of ABC since 2000 overseeing news, sports, daytime and children's programming, has accepted a lesser role as president, ABC Network Operations and Administration. He will report to Sweeney.
Rich Ross will take over the day-to-day management of the Disney Channel from Sweeney. Also named to run Disney's flailing ABC Family cable channel was Paul Lee.
Luckless ABC got off on the wrong foot this season when John Ritter, star of "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teen-Age Daughter," died just before the season started. The network's strategy of building with comedies has failed because none has become a hit.
While CBS has a broadly popular schedule led by "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," NBC minted a new hit with "The Apprentice" and Fox is helped immeasurably by "American Idol," ABC has no big hit.
Its management structure has been criticized because of micromanaging by Eisner and Iger. Reportedly, a chance to get "The Apprentice" fell through because ABC couldn't get all its managers to agree on it.
Last week, ABC had only two scripted shows among Nielsen's 40 most popular programs: "The Practice," which is going off the air after this season, and "NYPD Blue."
Its most successful shows this season have been "The Bachelor" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
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AP Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.
By GARY GENTILE
AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES Disney shook up the management team at its fourth-place ABC Television network Tuesday, promoting two rising stars and firing its top two programmers after only two years on the job.
The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, elevated ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer and ABC Cable Networks President Anne Sweeney as co-chairs of its Media Networks division.
Gone are ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne, who had been expected to remain, and Lloyd Braun, who served as chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group.
Braun and Lyne were appointed in 2002 and charged with resurrecting the ailing network, which collapsed after the ratings failure of its game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."
The two struggled to find hit dramas and had only mild success developing a slate of new sitcoms.
Steve McPherson, who was president of Touchstone Television, was named to the new post of president ABC Prime Time Entertainment, responsible for the network's prime-time schedule.
ABC-owned Touchstone produces many of the network's prime-time shows, including "Alias" and "Hope and Faith," and "Scrubs" for NBC.
McPherson has less than a month to finish setting the network's prime time fall schedule, which will be presented to advertisers in May.
ABC is firmly ensconced as the fourth-place network this season, behind CBS, NBC and Fox. It is averaging 9.2 million viewers in prime time, down from 10.1 million viewers last season, according to Nielsen Media Research.
ABC is also in fourth place among viewers aged 18-to-49, the demographic craved by advertisers and the one ABC watches most closely.
The network is also the chief thorn in the sides of Disney chief executive Michael Eisner and chief operating officer Robert Iger, who have pledged to shareholders to make a turnaround at ABC their top priority.
As part of the shake up, Mark Pedowitz was named president of Touchstone Television.
Alex Wallau, who had been president of ABC since 2000 overseeing news, sports, daytime and children's programming, has accepted a lesser role as president, ABC Network Operations and Administration. He will report to Sweeney.
Rich Ross will take over the day-to-day management of the Disney Channel from Sweeney. Also named to run Disney's flailing ABC Family cable channel was Paul Lee.
Luckless ABC got off on the wrong foot this season when John Ritter, star of "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teen-Age Daughter," died just before the season started. The network's strategy of building with comedies has failed because none has become a hit.
While CBS has a broadly popular schedule led by "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," NBC minted a new hit with "The Apprentice" and Fox is helped immeasurably by "American Idol," ABC has no big hit.
Its management structure has been criticized because of micromanaging by Eisner and Iger. Reportedly, a chance to get "The Apprentice" fell through because ABC couldn't get all its managers to agree on it.
Last week, ABC had only two scripted shows among Nielsen's 40 most popular programs: "The Practice," which is going off the air after this season, and "NYPD Blue."
Its most successful shows this season have been "The Bachelor" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
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AP Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.