And, ironically, they both hated the pointless wandering away from the desk to stand up somewhere for 30 seconds only to return to the desk right after that. I believe Diane’s tenure ended the WNT standing shots.

WNT doesn’t really need the large Times Square space. It is a one person show with an occasional in studio reporter. Doesn’t make sense to take on the additional expense of having WNT there (although Disney owns the space, the rental money comes out of ABC News’ budget). With TV3 unavailable, and only a small temporary set available, it makes sense for GMA Weekend to move there since it needs space for 3+ anchors. Same for This Week, which needs space for multiple guests and the round table.

Yes; that set was located in TV2 which is now home to Tamron Hall. I thought the election night set was extremely over the top and unnecessary.

I wonder if new graphics will come with the studio relaunch. I like the current music, but if they do change it, I’m hoping it’s something with a nod back to the Peter Jennings-era music. Not a fan of the direction ABC News music has been going lately.

The Good Morning America road trip desk was repurposed for this weekend’s “This Week” desk as the Sunday morning show broadcasted from New Hampshire.

Guess ABC is trying to figure out the difference between their definitions of “breaking news” and “special report”. Today, they used the new special report open and close but used both “special report” and “breaking news” in the L3s.

Correct. NBC originally ordered the pilot from ABC Studios. NBC declined to pick it up as a series. ABC then ordered it as a series from ABC Studios. WABC News has been featured more and more in ABC television shows the last few years. They have sometimes appeared in movies but used to steer clear of television shows up until recently.

WNT actually stuck with it for 15 minutes, and had a quick mention of it coming out of the first break before reporting on the impeachment trial showdown and the state of emergency in Puerto Rico. The final two minutes was a wrap up of the breaking news. Regardless of how long each network covered it, keep in mind that the evening news teams at ABC, CBS and NBC spend hours each day building the thirty minute newscast. For them to throw out all that work just minutes before air time and reshape the entire program on the fly, based on actual breaking news, is no small feat. Kudos to all of them.

they are still in TV3.

It is a renovation of the entire space that houses TV3. The space — which is much larger than the small studio area you see on air — has been a construction zone the last few weeks. This isn’t just a set redesign where pieces are moved out and new pieces moved in.

I imagine they have planned for that. The West End studio (former home of The View and current home of Dr. Oz) is also part of the sale of Disney’s Upper West Side properties. One thing to note, is that Disney will keep ownership of the armory it renovated on West 66th Street that currently houses ESPN offices.

Good Morning America is staying in Times Square. Disney/ABC noted that in the initial announcement about the move downtown. WABC and the rest of ABC News are moving downtown along with Disney/ABC offices currently on the Upper West Side. This includes Eyewitness News, Live with Kelly & Ryan, World News Tonight, 20/20, and The View.

The Times Square set actually looks better using the This Week graphics than it does for GMA. Assuming ABC keeps the giant TV wall behind the anchor desk, I wonder how different TV3 will look on air after the renovations.

It is a bit strange but it’s a timing preference on WABC’s part. They want a quick transition to the 5pm news to retain the 4pm audience, so they dropped the 5pm talent open years ago (they brought it back briefly during Diana’s last week anchoring). At 11, they want to retain as many primetime viewers as possible so they get right to the news. The 6pm is still seen as the signature newscast of record for the day, so it gets a talent open and “fresh start” rather than the quick transition.

Lori and Ken requested to move off the noon show after it expanded to a full hour just a few years after the morning news expanded to a 4:30am start time.