After the Walt Disney Co. completes its purchase of 21st Century Fox, the president of the Disney/ABC Television Group and co-chair of its Media Networks division, Ben Sherwood, will leave the company, reports Cynthia Littleton in a scoop for Variety.

Writes Littleton, Sherwood “had been considering options for a new role during the past two months after it became clear that Fox’s Peter Rice is poised to take on his duties as leader of Disney’s TV operations, with the exception of ESPN.

“Disney chief Bob Iger sought to keep Sherwood in the fold with a new position overseeing all unscripted content and news for the enlarged company, given his background as a former president of ABC News and an executive producer of ‘Good Morning America.’

“Sherwood was said to have been intrigued at the possibility of [also] overseeing an expanded Sky News, which was originally expected to come into the Disney fold through the 21st Century Fox acquisition.”

However, as previously reported, on Saturday Comcast won the auction to acquire Sky.

According to Sherwood’s official Disney bio, he “began his career in journalism in 1989 when he joined ABC News as an investigative associate producer and then producer for ABC News’ ‘PrimeTime Live.’ In 1997, he joined NBC’s ‘Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,’ first as broadcast producer, then senior producer, and ultimately senior broadcast producer. He returned to ABC News in April 2004 as executive producer of ‘Good Morning America.’”

Furthermore, according to his bio, Sherwood is the author of the 2004 bestselling novel “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud,” which was made into a movie in 2010 “starring Zac Efron and was released by Universal Pictures under the title ‘Charlie St. Cloud.’”

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Ben Sherwood