Brian Frons, the ABC executive who angered legions of soap opera fans earlier this year by canceling “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” will leave the network next month when his contract expires.
The Disney/ABC Television Group said Friday afternoon that Vicki Dummer, ABC’s senior vice president for current series and specials, would take over Mr. Frons’s responsibilities for daytime programming.
The soap opera “General Hospital” and talk shows like “The View” will be incorporated into Times Square Studios, a division of the ABC/Disney Television Group that will manage and create daytime and syndicated shows. Ms. Dummer’s title will be executive vice president of Times Square Studios.
“General Hospital,” which has an uncertain fate as ABC’s remaining soap opera, looks like the odd one out at Times Square Studios: a news release on Friday said the division would mostly develop “nonscripted lifestyle and health” programming. Along with “The View,” it will manage the two shows that are replacing the soap operas — “The Chew” and “The Revolution” — as well as the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and Katie Couric’s forthcoming syndicated talk show.
“The Chew,” which features a panel of five chefs and foodies who cook and drink and chat, began in September in place of “All My Children”; “The Revolution,” which is described by ABC as a talk show “about health and lifestyle transformations,” will begin in January in place of “One Life to Live.”
An effort to reboot the shows for the Web recently stalled.
Anne Sweeney, the president of the Television Group and co-chairwoman of Disney Media Networks, said in a statement that Mr. Frons had decided to leave the network “at the end of his contract” and added, “We’re sad to see him go.”
“We took this opportunity to rethink our business, and the result was the creation of Times Square Studios,” Ms. Sweeney continued.
Mr. Frons has headed the daytime hours of ABC since 2002. “While my decision to try something new was not arrived at easily, nine years is a long time in television terms,” he said in a statement.
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