CBS News veteran Kim Godwin is expected to become the next president of ABC News, a move that would make her the first Black executive to lead a broadcast-network news division.
Godwin has had an offer from Disney’s ABC for several weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter, but only in the last few days did CBS CEO George Cheeks agree to let the executive out of her contract. The decision, this person says, was not an easy one for CBS to make; the company wanted to keep Godwin on board. Godwin was recently given new responsibilities at CBS’ local stations, taking oversight of news operations there in the wake of the dismissal of executives Peter Dunn and David Friend amid a probe of allegations about their behavior.
CBS News declined to comment. ABC News, CBS and Disney could not be reached for immediate comment. There has been no official announcement of Godwin’s hire and there is always a chance decision-making might change. NBC News previously reported the move.
Godwin has risen to executive vice president of CBS News, where she is a lieutenant of sorts to Susan Zirinsky, that unit’s president. She has been with CBS News since 2007, and has worked in positions ranging from executive director for development and diversity to senior broadcast producer of “CBS Evening News.” In 2019, she helped recalibrate the evening-news program as Norah O’Donnell took over as its anchor.
She enters a news division that has enjoyed new success in recent years. “Good Morning America,” the ABC News A.M. franchise, is the most-watched morning show in the nation, and “World News Tonight,” anchored by David Muir, has become one of the most-watched programs on the ABC schedule.
Disney executive Peter Rice, chairman of the company’s general-entertainment division, has been working with a search firm for weeks to find a replacement for James Goldston, who left the company at the end of March. Among those who had been considered for the top news role, according to people familiar with the search process, were Sam Feist, the Washington bureau chief for CNN; Tom Cibrowski, the former senior ABC News executive who had a hand in bolstering ABC’s “Good Morning America” in its battle with “Today” and who now runs Disney’s San Francisco TV station, KGO; Wendy McMahon, president of ABC’s local stations division; Marie Nelson, ABC News’ senior vice president of content strategy; and Jim Bell, the former NBCUniversal executive who supervised “Today,” NBC Sports’ production for the Olympics and “The Tonight Show” during parts of his tenure.
More to come…
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