ABC News Live increases live anchored news on weekends

ABC News Live is expanding its weekend live anchored news programming. 

Whit Johnson, Janai Norman, Gio Benitez and DeMarco Morgan, will also start sharing weekend anchor duties on streamer ABC News Live July 20, 2024.

Johnson, Norman and Benitez already co-anchor “Good Morning America” on weekends and they will continue to appear on that show. 

Morgan, who anchors “GMA3: What You Need to Know” and recently started holding down weekend hours on the streamer, is also slated to keep his weekday job.

The newscasts will be branded under the name “ABC News Live Weekend.” 

“It’s our strategy to have all of our stars on ABC News Live, and it’s something that has already been happening,” said Seni Tienabeso, executive director of the news streamer, in a statement.

The network already airs a repeat of “ABC World News Tonight” with David Muir and also streamed coverage of the 2024 Republican National Convention featuring Muir earlier in the week.

ABC News Live does have a stable of anchors who appear regularly on streaming, but it’s not uncommon for them to show up on other ABC News programs either as reporters of fill-in anchors.

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Weekends on ABC News Live have relied heavily on taped programming, with repeats of its “What Would You Do?,” “Nightline” and “20/20” filling much of the afternoon and evening and those shows will largely remain on the schedule for now.

ABC News Live also runs “GMA Life,” a roundup of lifestyle segments.

For the past few years, most news streamers have been focusing heavily on building out their weekday schedules. ABC News Live, along with rivals CBS News 24/7 and NBC News Now, currently feature a mix of live, anchored newscasts and repeats or simulcasts of other programming during dayside weekday hours, but weekends still rely heavily on repeats of newsmagazine shows on true crime, investigative reporting and other more “evergreen” content, though “best of” segments are also common.

Whether there is heavy demand for streaming news on the weekends remains to be seen. 

Cable news channels tend to air a blend of live news analysis and talk programs during the day on weekends, so there is at least some demand for live news of some type. 

That said, streaming viewership often has unique characteristics — including heavy mobile use and users watching while at work or working from home.