It's Wednesday, Sept. 7, and Michael Strahan has just wrapped day two of his full-time gig at Good Morning America — four months after a messy exit from the ABC daytime show Live. Ben Sherwood, who since 2014 has been running the Disney/ABC broadcast and entertainment networks, remarks that he "can feel the energy … feel the competitive fire." After a three-year stint as president of ABC News, Sherwood, 52, still is very much invested in the network's flagship morning program. Perhaps his most significant accomplishment while on the job was GMA's vanquishing of Today's 852-week winning streak in 2012. Of course, Today last year regained the lead in the critical 25-to-54 demographic. And so Sherwood, who takes his task as morale booster seriously, has made this one-day trip to New York in part to rally the troops. He'll also stop in at the weekly primetime ad sales meeting, hand out the monthly MVP award (something he makes a point of doing personally) and make a jaunt across the East River to Vice headquarters in Brooklyn for a check-in on nascent cable network Viceland. (Disney has invested $400 million in Vice Media.) Disney/ABC TV's Ben Sherwood on a 'Star Wars' Series, "Mistakes" in Michael Strahan's 'Live' Exit and Bob Iger's Future
