"Since younger viewers aren’t watching The View, ABC has decided that the daytime talker needs a shakeup. The network has given leadership of the show to ABC News, taking it away from the ABC daytime team.

The View will now be under ABC News’ non-fiction branch, which also produces NY Med. According to Variety, which first reported the news, the show will be under the guidance of ABC News president James Goldston, who previously turned Good Morning America into a success.

“Moving The View to our non-fiction programming group now allows it to fully draw on the vast resources of ABC News and our team in New York, where the show is based right next door,” Goldston said in a memo obtained by Variety. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to work with this terrific team.”

Despite the major change, an ABC News spokeswoman told the New York Times that changes will not be immediately noticeable. Indeed, it’s not like The View is going to suddenly turn into a news show. Even while Barbara Walters was on the show, the women at the table rarely focused specifically on news topics.

The View is now drawing an older audience and is down among the key groups important to advertisers. Its audience is down 10 percent in both the women 18-49 and 25-54 groups. So, one of ABC News’ goals will have to be to change that and find some way to pull in younger viewers.

The show did encounter major changes over the summer. Walters retired and both Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd left. That left Whoopi Goldberg as the only returning co-host. Rosie O’Donnell joined, along with Nicole Wallace and Rosie Perez.

image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com"