ABC News employees are bracing for big cuts as the Disney-owned network slashes budgets — even those at top-rated “Good Morning America” on the chopping block, The Post has learned.
The House of Mouse has asked “GMA” to cut its bottom line by $19 million, from previous projections of $17 million, before Disney’s fiscal year end on Sept. 30, an insider with knowledge of the matter told The Post. .
The expected layoffs come as Disney began axing its television arm on Wednesday, cutting 140 jobs at its networks that include NatGeo and Freeform, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, sources told The Post that the “GMA” cuts won’t come from the eight-figure salaries of the show’s top talent — Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan and George Stephanopoulos.
It’s backstage workers like bookers and producers who are likely to get the shaft, insiders added.
“They all have contracts, so there won’t be cuts at that level,” a former ABC News executive said of the hosts, who are estimated to earn between $17 million and $18 million each. “But they will have to cut jobs.”
ABC News declined to comment.
The pending cuts to “GMA” come as the show loses ground to NBC’s “Today,” which is a close second in total viewers and consistently tops in viewers ages 25-54, a key advertising demographic .
In the second quarter of the year, Nielsen said “GMA” had 2.8 million total viewers and 494,000 viewers in the demo, while “Today” garnered 2.7 million viewers and 620,000 demo viewers.
“GMA’s not doing quality stuff,” said another former ABC News executive. [segments] selling studio stuff.”
In addition to the direct cuts, both sources said “GMA” and other network shows may deploy local reporters instead of sending national correspondents to cover events — an increasingly common practice at dime rivals such as CBS News. , which also parted ways with “Evening” long ago. News anchor Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday.
ABC News will likely use a hiring freeze and not fill the open jobs listed, the first source said.
There are already rumors that ABC News Group and Networks president Debra O’Connell will save a lot of salary by not hiring an executive to replace former ABC News president Kim Godwin, who resigned in May after a race to troubled three-year-old.
The source said O’Connell is likely to promote one of her deputies instead — a much more frugal option and one that would allow her to retain the network’s internal workings.
Either way, the pending cuts come as O’Connell looks to clean up the network after Godwin’s reign, which includes ridding the network of the former executive’s cronies.
“It will be very difficult,” the source said of the cuts. “The net is really cut close to the bone.”
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