The executive producer of Good Morning America will leave the No. 2 breakfastcast at the end of September, adding another wrinkle to the world of the network morning shows.
GMA executive producer Ben Sherwood told ABC News president David Westin on Thursday that he wanted to leave the show for family reasons.
The past two months have seen Today cohost Katie Couric announcing her departure for the CBS evening news (her last day was May 31), the hiring of Meredith Vieira as her replacement, and, last week, the impending departure of Good Morning America cohost Charles Gibson.
Since taking over in April 2004, Sherwood and GMA have mounted a strong challenge to the dominance of Today--one week last spring getting to within 40,000 viewers of the show--but Today has pulled ahead by far within the past year.
Sherwood's departure comes at a tumultuous time for GMA. While missing the opportunity last year to beat Today, Couric's departure from Today last week offered another chance during the summer before Vieira begins on the NBC morning show in September.
GMA also is trying to fill the coanchor job that Gibson will leave this month to take up his World News Tonight duties full time. Coanchors Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts remain on the show, though there isn't a permanent weatherman--features correspondent Mike Barz has been filling in since Tony Perkins left for Washington in December. Substitutes in line for Gibson's job include ABC News correspondents Bill Weir (cohost of Weekend GMA) and Chris Cuomo along with WABC-TV anchor Bill Ritter.
Sherwood, a Harvard-educated, best-selling author, will return to his hometown of Los Angeles, leaving behind what sources described as a seven-figure contract; it's purely his decision and not dictated by ratings or anything else. ABC and Disney indicated that it would try to find a position on the West Coast for Sherwood and that he would be welcome back at ABC News at any time.
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