Good Morning America Information

Good Morning America (abbreviated GMA) is an American morning television show on the ABC television network. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and expanded to weekends in 2004. The weekday program airs from 7 to 9 a.m. in all U.S. time zones (live in the Eastern Time Zone and on tape delay elsewhere); the weekend edition is one hour long. A third hour of the weekday broadcast aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now.

The program features news, talk, weather and special-interest stories such as pop news and play of the day. It is produced by ABC News and broadcasts from the Times Square Studios in Times Square, New York City. The current primary anchors are Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, along with newsreader Josh Elliott, weather anchor Sam Champion and lifestyle anchor Lara Spencer.

Good Morning America has generally run second in the ratings to NBC's Today since 1995. It overtook its rival for a period from the early to mid-1980s with anchors David Hartman and Joan Lunden, from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s with Charlie Gibson and Lunden, also in April 2012 with Roberts and Stephanopoulos.

Good Morning America won the first three Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning Program, sharing the inaugural 2007 award with Today and winning the 2008 and 2009 awards outright. New episodes air 7 days a week.

History

1975: The inaugural year

On January 6, 1975, ABC launched AM America in an attempt to compete with broadcaster NBC's Today. ABC's show was hosted by Bill Beutel and Stephanie Edwards, with Peter Jennings and Robert Kennedy reading the news. Because the show could not find an audience against Today (and its anchor team of Jim Hartz and Barbara Walters), ABC sought a new approach. They found that one of their affiliates, WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, was not broadcasting AM America but instead was airing a locally produced show The Morning Exchange.

Unlike AM America and Today, The Morning Exchange featured an easygoing and less-dramatic approach by offering news and weather updates only at the top and bottom of every hour and used the rest of the time to discuss general-interest/entertainment topics. The Morning Exchange also established a group of regular guests who were experts in certain fields such as health, entertainment, consumer affairs, travel, etc. Also unlike both the NBC and ABC shows, The Morning Exchange was not broadcast from a newsroom set but instead one that resembled a suburban living room.

ABC took an episode of The Morning Exchange and used it as a pilot episode. After rave reviews for the pilot, the format replaced AM America in November 1975 as Good Morning America. Good Morning America's first host was David Hartman, featuring Nancy Dussault as his co-host. Dussault was replaced in 1977 by Sandy Hill. For the first seven years, the weather was presented by former WLS-TV Chicago chief meteorologist John Coleman, who would leave in 1982 to start The Weather Channel. Dave Murray, who is currently the chief meteorologist at KTVI in St. Louis, gave the forecasts for both Good Morning America as well as ABC News This Morning from 1983 to 1985. In early 1986, he was replaced by Spencer Christian, who was fill-in meteorologist for both Coleman and Murray whenever they were away on vacation or assignment.

1976"1989: Growth and change

The program's ratings climbed slowly but steadily throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s while Today experienced a slight slump in viewership, especially with Walters's decision to leave NBC for a job at ABC News. On August 30, 1976, Tom Brokaw began anchoring Today while a search was made for a female co-host. Within a year, Today managed to beat back the Good Morning America ratings threat with Brokaw and new co-host Jane Pauley, featuring art and entertainment contributor Gene Shalit.

Good Morning America continued to threaten Today into the 1980s, especially after Brokaw left Today to become NBC Nightly News co-anchor with Roger Mudd for seventeen months before being named Nightly News's sole anchor. For the first time, Good Morning America became the highest-rated morning news program in the United States as Today fell to second place.

At the outset, Good Morning America was a talk program with a main host, Hartman, who was joined by a sidekick co-host; Dussault and Hill were scripted as less-than-equal hosts. In 1980, Hill left Good Morning America and was replaced by Joan Lunden, then a reporter at ABC's New York City flagship station WABC-TV. Hartman and Lunden led the show through several years of success. Lunden's popularity led to her promotion to co-anchor. The partnership ended on February 20, 1987, when Hartman retired following 3,189 programs.

After Hartman's retirement, Lunden was paired with ABC News This Morning anchor Charles Gibson on February 23, 1987, and ratings skyrocketed for Good Morning America. They became the most-popular news partnership on television in the late 1980s and early 1990s and, for the first time, Good Morning America regularly won the ratings against Today.

At one time before Spencer Christian's arrival in 1986, forecasts were provided by meteorologist Jerry Hodak via a split screen between the WXYZ-TV studios in Detroit, where Hodak was chief forecaster, and the Good Morning America set in New York City.

1990"1998: Rise and decline

Good Morning America entered the 1990s with its overwhelming ratings success. Gibson and Lunden were a hard team to beat. But Good Morning America stumbled from its top spot in late 1995. Lunden began to discuss working less, and mentioned to network executives that the morning schedule is the hardest in the business. ABC executives promised Lunden a prime time program; Behind Closed Doors would be on the network schedule. On September 5, 1997, Lunden decided to step down after seventeen years on Good Morning America and was replaced by Lisa McRee. Gibson and McRee did well in the ratings. However, ratings sharply declined when Gibson also left the show to make way for Kevin Newman in 1998. With McRee and Newman as anchors of Good Morning America, long-time viewers switched to Today, whose ratings skyrocketed and have remained at the top spot since the week of December 11, 1995.

January 1999"May 2005: The Gibson"Sawyer period

To revive Good Morning America, which in January 1999 briefly fell to third place among the morning shows, ABC News management selected Shelley Ross from the field of executive producer candidates. As part of Ross? proposed changes, Ross ousted the McRee-Newman team and lobbied to bring in Diane Sawyer and team her with Charles Gibson, who had been reluctant to return. On January 18, 1999, Ross launched the Gibson-Sawyer team on the air which, during the first full season, had a dramatic increase in viewers while all other network news franchises saw losses. Under Ross, Good Morning America became a competitive 24/7 news operation with more exclusive bookings, west coast updates, new on-screen graphics which included a news ticker and live stock market updates in the west. Good Morning America began originating entire shows from unique locations which, according the Nielsen research, resulted in more people watching and for longer periods of time. Good Morning America became the first to originate a live show from an aircraft carrier during wartime (the U.S.S. Enterprise), from the White House (after the Columbine shootings), from the Pentagon (for the reopening of the wing damaged on 9/11), from the Vatican (for the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II) and from the Tower of London (on the 50th anniversary of the Queen Elizabeth?s accession to the throne.) Viewership during this time increased by nearly 1,000,000 households, and income revenue soared. Although the Today Show remained the king of the morning, the Sawyer, Gibson and Ross team inched close. According to Linda McLoof, executive director of News research at ABC News from 2001 to 2009, "When Shelley left, her viewing momentum was initially sustained, but a season later, the audience began to decline. It is like passing the baton in a relay race." Antonio Mora anchored the team until March 18, 2002 when he left to anchor at WBBM-TV in Chicago. He was replaced by Robin Roberts, a former ESPN anchor.

The show moved from the ABC News headquarters in Lincoln Square to its present home at the Times Square Studios on September 13, 1999. The new location made it possible for the program to feature a live audience outside the studio.

May 2005"June 2006: The Gibson-Sawyer"Roberts period

On May 23, 2005, ABC News announced that Roberts, the show's news anchor, would be promoted to co-anchor. Previously, she had been regularly substituting for Gibson and Sawyer.

On November 3, 2005, Good Morning America celebrated its thirtieth birthday with recaps to 1975 and by decorating Times Square. Former co-hosts Hartman and Lunden, along with former meteorologist Spencer Christian were among the guests of honor. Hartman signed off the show that day with his trademark close "From all of us, make it a good day." On that day Good Morning America became the first morning news show to broadcast in HDTV.

On December 2, 2005, weatherman Tony Perkins left the program; he had been the weather personality since 1999. The last ten minutes of the day's show was dedicated to Perkins, during which he gave thanks to one of the show's producers and a heartfelt goodbye to the three anchors, Gibson, Roberts and Sawyer. Perkins announced that he was going to go home to his family and would be living in Washington, D.C., where he would go back to WTTG-TV, where he was previously a weather personality. He affectionately said to his young child on the air, "Connor, if you're watching, daddy's comin' home." Perkins was replaced by Mike Barz, former morning sports anchor for WGN-TV in Chicago.

Gibson left Good Morning America on June 28, 2006. The program was dedicated to his nineteen years as its anchor and celebrated his move to the anchor chair at ABC World News. Gibson ended his tenure by stating, "For nineteen years, my mornings have been not just good "? they've been great."

June 2006"December 2009: The Sawyer"Roberts period

There had been speculation that Sawyer would leave Good Morning America when her contract expired in 2007 because she was coveting the ABC World News anchor job which was given to Gibson. In August 2006, Chris Cuomo was named news anchor. He has since continued his anchoring duties on ABC News's Primetime as well as remaining as ABC News's senior legal correspondent. Meanwhile, Sam Champion was named Good Morning America's new weather anchor as well as ABC News weather editor. Both Cuomo and Champion began their respective duties on the program September 5, 2006, when Good Morning America instituted a new graphics package, and new news area for Cuomo to report the news. Also, beginning on September 13, 2006, Good Morning America introduced a new logo "? this time with gold font on a blue background. This logo bore a resemblance to the initial Good Morning America logo that was used up to early 1987, and coincided with the show's conversion to HDTV, the first morning show to convert.

On June 29, 2007, movie critic for the show, Joel Siegel died, at age 63, from complications from colon cancer. The July 9 episode was dedicated to Siegel, with former cast members Hartman, Hill, Lunden, Newman, Christian, Perkins and Gibson all appearing to share their memories.

On July 31, 2007, Roberts announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and that she had discovered the lump in a self-examination while preparing the Siegel tribute episode. She remained as anchor while going through chemotherapy and completed radiation treatments as of March 28, 2008.

On October 22, 2007, Good Morning America introduced its new on-screen appearance. Using much of its old on-screen appearance design features, it went from a basic blue setting to a more orangish-gold setting. Good Morning America's opening changed from the camera zooming in on the hosts while introducing the host, to an opening with new music (by the New York City-based music production company DreamArtists Studios) and a background with the Good Morning America logo falling onto the screen. It also changed its on-screen ticker and bug for the first time in years. The ticker features an orange background with the modified ABC News logo. The bug still featured the time to the left but with an orange back drop with the letters GMA and ABC News.com logo to the right.

On January 15, 2008, during an interview with Sawyer, the actress Diane Keaton admired Sawyer's beauty, stating that if she had lips like Sawyer's, "then I wouldn't have worked on my fucking personality!" She said that she would also be married by now. Keaton quickly apologized for the remark and Sawyer threatened to have her mother "work on your personality with soap in your mouth." FCC officials declined to take action for the inadvertent expletive. Following the death of Michael Jackson, Gibson returned to the Good Morning America anchor desk with Roberts on June 26, 2009, while Sawyer was away.

In September 2008, Good Morning America's anchors rode an Amtrak train to tour the United States as part of ABC News's "50 States in 50 Days", in which the program was broadcast from different locations around the U.S. each day throughout that month. The tour's first telecast stop was in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

December 2009"present: The Roberts-Stephanopoulos period

On September 2, 2009, ABC announced that Sawyer would replace Gibson as anchor of ABC World News at the end of 2009. Speculation had been swirling that either Stephanopoulos, news anchor Chris Cuomo, weekend anchor Bill Weir, or World News Saturday anchor David Muir would serve as Sawyer's replacement. ABC News signaled that it wanted to return the show to the original male-female format. On December 10, 2009, it was announced that Stephanopoulos would replace Sawyer and Juju Chang would replace Cuomo, effective December 14, 2009.

On March 17, 2011, ABC News President Ben Sherwood announced that former Good Morning America National correspondent Lara Spencer would be rejoining the show as "Lifestyle" anchor. On March 29, 2011, it was announced that Josh Elliott would be promoted to news anchor following the departure of Juju Chang.

In the summer of 2011, Good Morning America decided to vacate the first floor of the Times Square studios because of costs. On September 6, 2011, Good Morning America began broadcasting from an entirely new set located on the first floor of the Times Square studios.

Good Morning America beat Today for the first time in 16 years when it brought in 31,000 more viewers than the NBC program during the week of April 9, 2012. Good Morning America beat Today once again during the week of April 16, 2012, by a much larger margin of 166,000 viewers. In mid-July, Good Morning America defeated Today by its largest total viewer margin in over 17 years, and came within a few thousand viewers of scoring its first demographic win in 17 years.

During the week of April 1, 2012, Katie Couric, also a member of ABC News, filled for Robin Roberts on Good Morning America. Couric had hosted NBC's Today from 1991 to 2006; her Good Morning America stint marked her return to morning news.

Since August 30, 2012, Roberts has been on medical leave after a bone marrow transplant. Good Morning America correspondent Amy Robach and 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas have served as the primary substitutes, typically switching off every other week. Others have also served as special guest anchors during this time, such as Kelly Ripa, Barbara Walters, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. On January 14, 2013 Robin Roberts announced she hopes be returning sometime in February of 2013. She will be in the Times Square Studio the week of January 21 for a dry run but will not go on air. She and her doctors will evaluate her body's reaction to the makeup, lighting, hair, and how many people she comes in contact with to avoid getting sick. Robin Roberts returned permanently on Good Morning America on February 20, 2013.

Good Afternoon America

From July 9 to September 7, 2012, a special summer afternoon edition of Good Morning America, titled Good Afternoon America, aired at 2:00 pm Eastern/1:00 pm Central weekdays, replacing the canceled talk/lifestyle show The Revolution.

Good Afternoon America was taped immediately after the morning program and focused on lighter fare, except when the July 20 Aurora Century 16 theater shooting required live coverage. Like its morning counterpart, Good Afternoon America originated from Times Square Studios. The limited-run program was hosted by Good Morning America news anchor Josh Elliott and lifestyle anchor Lara Spencer.

On-air staff (weekday editions)

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Robin Roberts, anchor (2005"present)
• George Stephanopoulos, anchor (2009"present)
• Josh Elliott, news anchor (2011"present)
• Sam Champion, weather anchor (2006"present)
• Lara Spencer, lifestyle anchor (2011"present)

Contributors and correspondents

• Dan Abrams - legal analyst (2011"present)
• Marty Becker - veterinarian (1997"present)
• Richard Besser - senior medical and health editor (2009"present)
• Abbie Boudreau - Los Angeles bureau correspondent (2010"present)
• Katie Couric - special correspondent (2011"present)
• Nancy Grace - legal analyst (2011"present)
• Mellody Hobson - financial contributor (2006"present)
• Dr. Tim Johnson - medical correspondent (1975"present)
• Tory Johnson - workplace contributor (2007"present)
• Elisabeth Leamy - consumer correspondent (2005"present)
• Emeril Lagasse - food contributor (1996"present)
• Cameron Mathison - correspondent (2009"present)
• Sara Moulton - food contributor (2006"present)
• David Muir - correspondent (2006"present)
• Reena Ninan - correspondent (2012"present)
• Alex Perez - correspondent (2012"present)
• Alexandra Petre - special correspondent (2013-present)
• Wolfgang Puck - food contributor (1990"present)
• Amy Robach - correspondent (2012"present)
• Brian Ross - investigative reporter (1994"present)
• Melissa Rycroft - correspondent (2009"present)
• Claire Shipman - senior national correspondent (2006"present)
• Becky Worley - technology editor (2005"present)

Former on-air staff

Anchors

• David Hartman, anchor (1975"1987)
• Nancy Dussault, anchor (1975"1977)
• Sandy Hill, anchor (1977"1980)
• Joan Lunden, anchor (1980"1997)
• Charles Gibson, anchor (1987"1998 and 1999"2006)
• Lisa McRee, anchor (1997"1999)
• Kevin Newman, anchor (1998"1999)
• Diane Sawyer, anchor (1999"2009)

News anchors

• Steve Bell, news anchor (1975"1986)
• Margaret Osmer, news anchor (1975-1979)
• Kathleen Sullivan, news anchor (1985"1987)
• Jed Duvall, news anchor (1987"1988)
• Paula Zahn, news anchor (fill-in, 1987"1990)
• Forrest Sawyer, news anchor (1988"1989)
• Mike Schneider, news anchor (1989"1993)
• Aaron Brown, news anchor (fill-in, 1992"1993)
• Morton Dean, news anchor (1993"1996)
• Elizabeth Vargas, news anchor (1996"1997)
• Kevin Newman, news anchor (1997"1998)
• Antonio Mora, news anchor (1998"2002)
• Robin Roberts, news anchor (2002"2005)
• Chris Cuomo, news anchor (2006"2009)
• Juju Chang, news anchor (2009"2011)

Weather anchors

• John Coleman, weather anchor (1975"1982)
• Dave Murray, weather anchor (1983"1985)
• Spencer Christian, weather anchor (1986"1998)
• Tony Perkins, weather anchor (1999"2005)
• Mike Barz, weather anchor (2005"2006)

Contributors and correspondents

• Jack Anderson, commentator (1975-1984)
• Taryn Winter Brill, features correspondent (2008"2010)
• Pat Collins, film correspondent (1975"1981)
• Geraldo Rivera, correspondent (1975-1977)
• Nancy Snyderman, medical correspondent (1987"2002)
• Joel Siegel, movie critic (1981"2007)
• Jake Tapper, political correspondent (2003-2012)

Weekend editions

The first weekend edition of Good Morning America aired on Sundays only from January 3, 1993, to February 28, 1999, hosted by Willow Bay, Aaron Brown, John Hockenberry, Dana King, Lisa McRee, Antonio Mora, Kevin Newman and Bill Ritter.

ABC found that it needed to start a weekend edition of the program after several incidents between 2001 and 2003 where the network was the last to break news because of its commitment to airing the ABC Kids block on Saturday mornings, the most-serious incident being the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, where the network had to balance the need of breaking the tragic news with the cartoons and teen sitcoms being aired for a young audience while the news broke and federal E/I requirements. The network's affiliates were disappointed in ABC News not providing full coverage, and had to depend on feeds from CNN and APTN News.

The current version debuted September 4, 2004 with Bill Weir and Kate Snow as co-anchors, Ron Claiborne as the news anchor and Marysol Castro as the weather anchor. Castro also reported on a wide range of subjects from lifestyle trends to breaking news and entertainment. In March 2010, Kate Snow left GMA Weekend for NBC News. Various female personalities of ABC News filled in as co-anchor following her departure. It was not until two months later in May 2010 that Bianna Golodryga officially succeeded Snow as the new weekend co-anchor. In August 2010, Bill Weir left GMA Weekend for the network's late-night news program Nightline. His former seat was officially taken over by Dan Harris in October 2010. A month following Weir's departure, Marysol Castro left the show. After her departure, meteorologists from various ABC affiliates across the country step in to give the weather report. It was not until over a year later, in November 2011, that the weather anchor position was filled by Ginger Zee, coming from the NBC owned-and-operated station in Chicago. As of early November 2011, Ron Claiborne is the only original cast member remaining from the inception of the current version of GMA Weekend in 2004.

The start time for the Saturday and Sunday editions of Good Morning America vary between ABC affiliates, though the standard timeslot for the program is the same as its weekday editions at 7 a.m. in all time zones, and most ABC affiliates air the Saturday edition of Good Afternoon America immediately before the Litton Weekend Adventure block and the Sunday edition before This Week. Many ABC stations also air a weekend morning newscast immediately after (and in some cases, before) the weekend editions of Good Morning America, this has become fairly common since ABC ceded one hour of its Saturday morning children's program lineup and turned it over to its affiliates in August 2010.

World News Now co-anchor Paula Faris subbed for Golodryga while she was on maternity leave in the spring of 2012.

On the weekend of September 15, 2012, the current weekend edition of Good Morning America topped the weekend edition of Today in the ratings for the first time ever.

On-air staff (weekend editions)

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Bianna Golodryga, weekend anchor (2010"present)
• Dan Harris, weekend anchor (2010"present)
• Ron Claiborne, weekend news anchor (2004"present)
• Ginger Zee, weekend weather anchor (2011"present)
• Rachel Smith, weekend entertainment anchor (2012"present)

Former on-air weekend staff

Anchors

• Willow Bay (1994–1998)
• Bill Ritter (1993–1994,1997–1998)
• Lisa McRee (1993–1994)
• Dana King (1993)
• Antonio Mora (1994–1995)
• John Hockenberry (1995–1996)
• Kevin Newman (1996–1997)
• Aaron Brown (1998–1999)
• Bill Weir (2004–2010)
• Kate Snow (2004–2010)

Weather anchors

• Marysol Castro (2004–2010)

International broadcasts

In Australia, the Nine Network, and regional affiliates WIN and NBN, air Good Morning America on Tuesdays through Fridays from 3.30-5:00am. Friday's edition airs on Saturday mornings from 4.30-6:00. The Sunday edition airs on Monday mornings from 4:00-5:00, and the Saturday version is not broadcast. A national weather map of Australia is used during cut-aways to local affiliates for weather information. Good Morning America airs at the same time as NBC's Today on the Seven Network and Network Ten's CBS This Morning. It is unchallenged, ratings- wise, in some regional areas where other affiliates preempt their networks' US breakfast programs with paid and religious programming.

Orbit Showtime airs Good Morning America on its OSN First channel from Mondays through Fridays live at 11:00 GMT / 1300 CET in the Middle East and Europe.

Awards

In 2010, Good Morning America was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding TV Journalism Segment" for the segment "Total Transformation: Why Chaz Bono Decided to Change" during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards. 1992-1993 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk/Service Show

See also

• ABC News
• Breakfast television

• Good Morning America Weekend Edition
• List of years in television