Not As Easy as A-B-C

Busy day yesterday, as Disney blew up its ABC executive structure and reshuffled the deck.

Eisner, Iger and company brought in Disney cable exec Anne Sweeney to also oversee ABC as president, Disney-ABC Television (essentially replacing Alex Wallau and Lloyd Braun); while Touchstone TV topper Steve McPherson is now president of ABC Entertainment (taking over for Susan Lyne, who in a shocker is leaving the company).

Some sort of mass switcheroo had been rumored for months at the network, which remains stuck in fourth place and has failed to come up with a megahit in recent years. The timing is tough: We're just a few weeks away from the network upfront presentations in New York, when the broadcast nets unveil their fall wares to advertisers.

Joe and I cover the news in today's Variety here, and we profile Sweeney, McPherson and new Touchstone TV topper Mark Pedowitz here.