ABC News is rebuilding the anchor desk at Good Morning America‘s weekend edition, and the change is bigger than a personnel swap. Instead of one team covering both mornings, the network is running two.
From Sept. 12, Rachel Scott anchors Saturdays with Whit Johnson. From Sept. 13, Rhiannon Ally joins Gio Benitez on Sundays. Leslie Lopez handles meteorology on both editions. ABC News announced the changes on Wednesday.
What changed, and who is where
- Saturday: Rachel Scott and Whit Johnson. Scott stays the network’s senior political correspondent; Johnson continues to anchor the Saturday edition of World News Tonight, a job he has held since 2021, and has been on the weekend GMA desk since 2018.
- Sunday: Rhiannon Ally and Gio Benitez. Benitez joined the weekend desk in 2023 and remains ABC News’ transportation correspondent. Ally, at ABC News since 2021, most recently co-anchored the overnight shows World News Now and Good Morning America First Look.
- Weather: Leslie Lopez across both days. She moved from Los Angeles station KABC-TV to ABC News in New York five months ago, after anchoring KABC weekday morning weather since 2016.
- Streaming: Johnson, Scott, Benitez and Ally rotate as anchors of ABC News Live Weekend at 10 a.m. ET on the network’s 24/7 streaming channel.
- Weekdays: All five will appear more often on weekday GMA.
The reset follows Janai Norman’s abrupt exit five months ago; ABC News did not renew her contract after she had co-anchored the show since 2022. The announcement did not clarify what happens to Somara Theodore, the previous weekend meteorologist.
Why two teams instead of one
Morning news is a habit business. Audiences show up for people they recognise, and weekend mornings historically deliver a smaller, older, more loyal crowd than weekdays. Splitting Saturday and Sunday looks like a way to double the number of familiar faces the network can build around, without paying anchors to work both days.
The bigger tell is what happens after the broadcast ends. Four of the five anchors rotate through ABC News Live Weekend, which streams on Disney+, Hulu and the ABC News app. That is the same talent pool servicing linear and streaming inventory in the same daypart. For a news division under cost pressure, that is the economics of the exercise: one bench, multiple windows.
What it signals for media buyers
News brands are increasingly built as talent stacks rather than shows. Scott anchors on Saturday, reports politics all week, and turns up on a streaming channel bundled inside two subscription services. The person is the distribution asset; the timeslot is just one of several outlets.
A simple way to read moves like this:
- Frequency over slot: Count how many surfaces an anchor appears on, not how many hours a show runs.
- Bundle reach: ABC News Live sitting inside Disney+ and Hulu means the streaming audience is partly incremental and partly cannibalised from linear. Ask for de-duplicated reach before pricing it.
- Continuity risk: Two teams means half the audience sees each anchor half as often. Recognition builds slower; measure brand lift over quarters, not weeks.
Good Morning America airs at 8 a.m. ET on Saturdays and Sundays.
The read for Indian broadcasters
The template travels. Indian news networks already run anchor-led brands across TV, YouTube and app-based live feeds, but the talent economics are rarely designed as one pool serving all three. ABC’s move is a reminder that when a live streaming channel sits inside a general entertainment bundle, the cheapest incremental hour of programming is the anchor you already employ.
Source: TheWrap
