The Unbreakable Kim Godwin

ABC News Chief Kim Godwin has her detractors at at the network, fairly or not.
ABC News Chief Kim Godwin has her detractors at at the network, fairly or not. Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
February 4, 2023

Late last Friday, shortly after ABC News announced that GMA3 anchors T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach would be leaving the network, bringing an end to an elongated and salacious made-for-Page-Six spectacle regarding their extramarital affair, I received word about a rumor ricocheting through the news division. There was a widely held suspicion that Disney executives were considering relieving Kim Godwin, the ABC News chief, of her duties. The theory behind the speculation was that Godwin had fundamentally mismanaged a mini-scandal—that she’d moved indecisively in plotting Holmes and Robach’s punishment, which exacerbated a stupid daytime tabloid story into an unabating organization headache, frustrating colleagues, annoying senior management, and providing an unforced error at a time when Disney faces significant headaches and secular challenges.