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Ben Mulroney Gets Weekend Gig with Good Morning America

Ben Mulroney Gets Weekend Gig with <i>Good Morning America</i>

From The Globe and Mail:

Canadian TV personality Ben Mulroney will juggle his etalk duties with a new on-air role on the weekend edition of ABC’s Good Morning America.

“It feels like a great new opportunity,” said Mulroney in a phone interview. “What I love most about working in television is that every day is different. This is a chance to put my skills to another use.”

Since launching his TV career as an entertainment reporter on Canada AM in 2001, Mulroney has earned a reputation as a smooth-talking host with good hair. The GMA announcement follows Mulroney’s two recent stints as co-host of the popular syndicated morning talk show Live! with Kelly Ripa.

Born in Montreal and raised in Ottawa, the son of former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney will make his debut on the New York-based program this Saturday and Sunday morning, filling in for regular anchor Dan Harris.

“The job is going to change according to their needs, and this weekend they needed someone to sit in the anchor chair,” said Mulroney. “There’s a lot of flexibility.”

Mulroney will retain his co-anchor role on the CTV entertainment series etalk while assuming his new role as on-air contributor to Good Morning America. For Mulroney, the draw of the new GMA job is the opportunity to explore new avenues of the TV-news business.

“Sometimes it will be reading the news,” he said. “It might be conducting an interview or putting a piece together. It could be any number of things. My goal is to introduce myself in the best possible way to the U.S. audience and to the ABC News team,” he said.

In a release, ABC News president Ben Sherwood called Mulroney “a terrific broadcaster,” who is “quick on his feet and excels at live television.”

For the past several years, he’s also handled CTV’s red-carpet coverage of the Oscars, Golden Globes and other events. Despite the appearances of his new position, he’s not looking to relocate south of the border.

“It was extremely important for me to stay in Toronto, which is my home base,” said Mulroney, the father of twin sons with wife Jessica Brownstein. “It’s never been my specific goal to move to the U.S. My goal is to just keep trying new things, and this new job is one of them.”

By Andrew Ryan
The Globe and Mail