Disney Spent More Than A Year Devising 24 Hours of July 4th Sesquicentennial Coverage

Stephanie Ramos will help the Walt Disney Co. and ABC News deliver more than fireworks during a weekend that many TV companies are devoting to celebrating the Fourth of July.

During a special Saturday telecast of “Good Morning America” on ABC, Ramos, an ABC News national correspondent who has served for many years in the nation’s military reserves, will rappel down a wall live from Fort Campbell, a U.S. Army base close to Nashville. “She’s a badass,” says Simone Swink, the ABC News executive who oversees the Disney news outlet’s morning and overnight programming.

Ramos’ wall scramble makes Swink “a little bit nervous,” but it will be one of many different spectacles being shows across ABC, Disney+, ESPN, Hulu, National Geographic, Freeform, FX and ABC News Live starting Friday night and lasting throughout Saturday. Viewers may think they are simply witnessing hours of in-the-moment programming spurred in large part by ABC News staffers fanning out around the country. What they may not know is that the programming has been part of a year-long project that in many ways will burnish the company’s expertise in offering live programming at a moment when Disney is relying more heavily on such stuff to fuel its economics.

“The first meeting I had about this was in April of last year,” says Seni Tienabaso, vice president of ABC News Live.

Disney kicks off the event with coverage Friday night at 10 p.m. with “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir offering a rare look inside the Statue of Liberty. Muir will lead coverage across the event, which will extend overnight, into Saturday morning and afternoon, then wind up with special primetime programming. MrBeast, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Brandi Carlile and Nick Jonas are among those scheduled to make appearances,

Disney has been stocking its programming pipeline with a wider array of rights to sports and specials, and is counting on the augmented power of live events in the streaming era to win larger audiences and the ad dollars that will hopefully follow them. Over the course of eight weeks in early 2027, Disney’s TV and streaming properties will feature the College Football Playoffs, the Oscars, the Grammys and Super Bowl LXI — the first time ABC will show the Big Game since 2006.

Other media companies are testing these waters as well. CNN has convened Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen to host a July 4th telecast that is likely to evoke the work they do for the Warner Bros. Discovery outlet on New Year’s Eve. Fox News Channel will deliver coverage of the 250th birthday of the U.S. from various locations around the country on Fox News, Fox Business Network. Fox News Digital and Fox Weather, among other outlets. NBC News and CBS News will also lead primetime specials on Saturday night. MS NOW earlier this week held a live event in Philadelphia that included Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki and Ali Velshi, as well as guests such as Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Personnel from across Disney have been working to put together a series of events that will unspool over the next 24 hours. Linsey Davis, Lara Spencer and Sam Champion will anchoring late-night hours from across the U.S., followed by a special “Nightline” broadcast. The overnight will be filled with footage of visits “GMA” has made in recent weeks to all 50 states. Saturday will feature an early-morning special hosted by Muir; the “GMA” special; and ESPN’s annual coverage of the “Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest,” among other programs. Ryan Seacrest will host the live “Nashville’s Star-Spangled Bash” between 8 p.m,. and 11 p.m.

For the ABC News producers, Swink and Tienabaso, the ambitious effort brings unorthodox schedules. Both will be working late into the night on Friday and have to be back in the control room early on Saturday. Tienabaso expects to be working from 5 a.m. Saturday straight through to 11 p.m.

“There is a lot more live than there is taped in this,” he says. “We are curating every live shot, every bit of tape.” he says. “With all of the people fanned out across the country,” he adds, some correspondent will undoubtedly signal “Hey, I’ve got the goods,” which may deliver an exciting live moment. “That’s one of the fun things about it as well,” he adds.

“With all the feeds and live shots,” explains Swink, “we want to be able to tear up our rundown.”

The project has been shepherded by Debra OConnell, chairman of Disney Entertainment Television and Almin Karamehmedovic, president of ABC News, who have pushed staffers from across the company to “collaborate and tell more stories together,” says Swink. If Disney’s July 4th coverage pops, there may be similar calls in the future.