Brainstorming Sessions, Pop Culture Producers & Media Consultants At GMA

“Despite the almost-first-place trophies and the rumors of champagne chilling in the fridge and the so-strong-you-can-smell-it ratings lust of [Ben] Sherwood and his superiors, GMA didn’t do it, again, this fall. They got damn close. Then they fell far behind,” the Observer’s Rebecca Dana writes in today’s editions.

“Having fought its way to within 40,000 viewers during one glorious five-day period last spring, Mr. Sherwood’s program is now losing to Today by more than a million viewers a week. Closed-door brainstorming sessions have been convened, according to ABC staffers. New producers specializing in popular culture have been brought in. Media consultants, including at least one veteran of the women’s-magazine world, were quietly retained.”

> Also: “There are rumors now of tension” between Sherwood and Diane Sawyer…