ABC News has found a new leader for its Sunday public affairs show This week with George Stephanopoulos.
The network has hired Brooke Bower to serve as the program’s executive producer, reporting to ABC News president Kim Godwin, who announced the appointment in a memo Wednesday morning.
In addition, Godwin announced that Kendall Heath has been promoted to Executive Producer of Politics. Heath had served as the interim EP’s This week since December after the sudden death of top producer Dax Tejera at the age of 37.
Bower most recently worked at CNN, where he was the editor-in-chief of CNN Politics. Prior to joining CNN in 2016, he spent over a decade at MSNBC where he was CNN’s EP Meet the press spinoff MTP dailyAnd The daily overview.
An ABC News veteran, Heath began her career with the network at Good morning Americaeventually rising to senior producer of This week before taking over on an interim basis last year.
You can read Godwin’s memo below.
Good morning, ABC News –
I’m pleased to announce that Brooke Brower has been named executive producer of ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ and Kendall Heath has been promoted to executive producer of Politics. Brooke will direct all aspects of “This Week” reporting to me, and Kendall will work closely with our programs and platforms on creative and compelling political stories and series, reporting to Stacia Deshishku during election season with a dotted line in Political Director Rick Small .
Brooke Brower has more than two decades of experience as a journalist and editorial director. Most recently, Brooke led a team of digital writers and editors as editor-in-chief for CNN Politics, working hand-in-hand with correspondents and showrunners covering Washington, campaigns and elections.
Prior to joining CNN in 2016, he spent over a decade at MSNBC where he was the executive producer of two shows, “The Daily Rundown” and “MTP Daily”, the latter of which he launched as a brand extension of NBC News “Meet the press.” Brooke also began his career in politics as a member of the ABC News political unit.
Kendall Heide is an Emmy® Award-winning producer with nearly 20 years of experience covering news and politics. She first joined ABC News as a segment producer for “Good Morning America”, then moved on to “This Week” as the editorial producer booking guests for the show. Kendall was later promoted to senior producer while contributing to political network specials and election shows, covering every election since 2004.
Kendall has been the interim executive producer of “This Week” since December 2022, following the tragic and sudden loss of our colleague and friend, Dax Tejera. I want to thank her for leading the team through an incredibly difficult time and for helping us continue to produce the best Sunday political program for our viewers each week.
As the 2024 election season kicks off, I look forward to seeing Brooke and Kendall working closely with the talented teams of “This Week” and all of our wonderful reporters and producers in the Washington bureau, led by Jonathan Greenberger, and the political unit led by Rick Klein and Averi Harper, to bring straight forward political journalism to our viewers at a time when it is needed more than ever.
Please join us in welcoming Brooke and congratulating both Brooke and Kendall on their new roles.
#oneabcnews
Kim
