Following an overall restructuring at Walt Disney Television Studios, veteran ABC executives Vicki Dummer and William Burton have been laid off as part of an ongoing round of major layoffs across the entertainment conglomerate’s television properties, reports Deadline.
For those unfamiliar, Dummer had been the head of current series programming at ABC Entertainment, and at one time oversaw the daytime programming lineup following the departure of Brian Frons. Dummer, who has been at the network for 24 years under various leadership positions, most recently oversaw creative aspects for “General Hospital,” among many of her other responsibilities as head of current series programming at the network.
In September 2018, Burton took on the role of senior vice president, Daytime, Sports and Syndicated Development/Production, ABC Entertainment. In his role, Burton oversaw business operations for the network’s sole remaining daytime program, “GH,” and helped in the launch of the syndicated talk show “The Tamron Hall Show,” which debuted in fall 2019. Burton also collaborated outside the entertainment and sports divisions, working closely with Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International segment’s Global Content Sales and Distribution and Disney Ad Sales divisions, as appropriate. He had been at the company since at least the early 1990s working at various ABC Owned Stations in several capacities.
Earlier this week, Dana Walden, Chairman of Entertainment, Walt Disney Television, announced a massive restructuring within the television production and original content businesses at WDTV. Karey Burke, who has had a very successful run as president, ABC Entertainment, is departing to head up operations as president of 20th Television. She will hand over the reins to Craig Erwich, whose expanded role as president of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment will streamline the combined content development operations for the streaming platform and America’s most-watched entertainment TV network.
A rep for Disney had no comment on Deadline‘s reporting, and at press time there were no updates on who will oversee the business and creative operations of “GH” from the network level. Additionally, for clarity’s sake, there’s no indication that Dummer and Burton’s exits will have any direct impact on “GH.”