Change of guard at ABC: Station boss Channing Dungey takes her leave with immediate effect, with Karey Burke from Freeform a successor from her own company was presented immediately. Dungey’s farewell is related to her expiring contract and the connection of 21st Century Fox to ABC-Disney. The current personnel change was probably already prepared for several weeks, Dungey will support her successor during the induction phase. It is generally expected that Dungey will fall “on her feet”. At ABC it is the end of an era.
Next February, Channing Dungey’s three-year contract would have expired, which she had signed when she succeeded Paul Lee (TV Wunschliste reported). Lee had brought the station into increasing quota difficulties with some “interesting” creative decisions. He had also been accused of not understanding the US business as an outsider – British. Dungey came more than right as the successor from her own house: As the drama manager at ABC Studios, she had an eye on the cooperation between different parts of the company and was considered a guarantor that mastermind Shonda Rhimes felt comfortable at the station. However, Rhimes was poached by Netflix money and new creative possibilities.
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One of the reasons for Dungey’s departure is probably internal restructuring in the course of the integration of 21st Century Fox into the group. For Dana Walden, Fox’s manager, a new job was created to supervise ABC, Freeform and ABC Studios. This would have given Dungey a new “intermediate boss” in front of her nose if she had taken a step down the corporate hierarchy in the case of a seriously offered contract extension in the same job – a bad look for a so far outstanding career. Accordingly, Deadline speculates that Dungey will have no difficulty finding a prestigious follow-up job, especially as she takes her leave after 14 years at Disney in a position of strength.
Dungey’s successor is Karey Burke, also an experienced TV manager. She has been responsible for in-house productions at cable station Freeform since 2014, having previously been responsible for primetime series at NBC between 1999 and 2003. At Freeform, Burke was most recently able to achieve the following ratings successes “Grown-ish” and “Siren” (in the freeform target group of 18- to 34-year-old women) as well as the critical successes “The Bold Type” and “Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger”.