ABC - S.O.S.: SAVE OUR SAWYER

S.O.S.: SAVE OUR SAWYER

ABC executives have mounted an S.O.S. campaign -- for "Save Our Sawyer" -- to persuade Diane Sawyer to remain as co-host of Good Morning America following the current season, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday). The newspaper observed that if she decides to leave the morning program, her exit would generate more instability at a network that has already had to deal with the death of former World News anchor Peter Jennings and the wounding of his successor, Bob Woodruff, in Iraq. "There's only one Diane Sawyer," one top ABC News executive told the Times. "She's the best in the business, and there will never be another like her." An ABC staffer added, "She really drives the show. ... There's this environment in which she's the mommy and everyone else is just part of her household. If she were to go, it would send everything into a state of chaos." The newspaper suggested that Sawyer is unlikely to leave -- simply because there is no where else for her to go. It commented: "With Brian Williams in place at the NBC Nightly News, Vieira on Today and Couric at CBS, Sawyer is effectively boxed out of the other top broadcast jobs in the industry."

12/01/2007