Everything about Good Morning America totally explained
Good Morning America is a
weekday morning news show that's broadcast on the
ABC television network. The show was adapted from
The Morning Exchange, a morning show created by and airing on the ABC affiliate in
Cleveland, Ohio,
WEWS, and was launched nationally as
Good Morning America in
1975.
The show features news, talk, weather, and special interest stories. It is produced live from
Times Square Studios in
New York City and fed to all network affiliates. It was the first network morning news program to broadcast in
HDTV (rival
Today began broadcasting in HDTV beginning on
September 13,
2006). The program is currently hosted by
Diane Sawyer and
Robin Roberts. Longtime anchor
Charles Gibson left the program on
June 28,
2006 to become the lead anchor at
ABC World News. When major events happen in Washington or anywhere else in the world, during the morning hours, then the show is often broadcast from Washington, D.C. or wherever the place is.
History
1975: The Inaugural Year
In
January 1975, ABC launched
AM America in an attempt to compete with the
The Today Show on
NBC, hosted by
Jim Hartz and
Barbara Walters. ABC's show was hosted by
Bill Beutel and
Stephanie Edwards, with
Peter Jennings reading the news. The show couldn't find an audience against
The Today Show, so ABC started to look for a new approach. While looking around, they found that one of their affiliates,
WEWS in
Cleveland, Ohio, wasn't broadcasting
A.M. America but instead was airing a locally produced show called
The Morning Exchange.
Unlike
A.M. America and
The Today Show,
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 wasn't 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 A.M. 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.
1976-1989: Growth and Change
Good Morning America ratings climbed slowly but steadily throughout the
1970s and into the
1980s while
The Today Show experienced a slight slump in viewership, especially with Barbara Walters' decision to leave NBC for a job at ABC. On
August 29,
1976,
Tom Brokaw began anchoring
The Today Show while a search was made for a female co-host. Within a year,
The Today Show 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
The Today Show into the 1980s, especially after Brokaw left
Today to become
NBC Nightly News co-anchor with
Roger Mudd for two years before being named sole anchor. For the first time,
Good Morning America became the highest rated morning news program in the United States as
The Today Show fell to second place.
In the beginning of
Good Morning America, it was a talk program with a main host, David Hartman, who was joined by a sidekick co-host.
Nancy Dussault and Sandy Hill were scripted as less than equal hosts. In
1980, Hill left
Good Morning America and was replaced by
Joan Lunden, an anchor for
WABC in New York. Hartman and Lunden led the show through several seasons of success. Lunden's popularity with viewers made the format to two equal co-anchors become necessary. David Hartman was no longer the main host of the program. The partnership ended on
February 20, 1987 as Hartman retired. Hartman had hosted 3,189 shows upon his exit .
After Hartman's retirement, Lunden was paired with
Charles Gibson on February 20,
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 won the ratings battle against NBC's
The Today Show.
CBS joins the fray
In the 1970s and 1980s, the
CBS television network, aired only
hard news stories during the morning time slot shared by
Good Morning America and
The Today Show.
CBS became more competitive in the morning news talk show ratings battle, and later launched
CBS Morning, using the same format used on
Good Morning America and
The Today Show. It was hosted by
Charles Kuralt and
Diane Sawyer. In
1983,
CBS This Morning beat
The Today Show and took the second place spot after
Good Morning America.
1990-1998: Rise and Decline
Good Morning America sailed into the 1990s with its overwhelming ratings success. Joan Lunden and Charles Gibson were a hard couple to beat. But
Good Morning America would stumble from its top spot in late
1995. Lunden began to discuss working less, and mentioned to network execs that the morning schedule is the hardest in the business. ABC executives promised Lunden a
prime time show,
Behind Closed Doors, would be on the network schedule. On
May 23,
1997, Lunden decided to step down after 17 years on the show and was replaced by
Lisa McRee. The show was almost killed when Gibson, too, left the show to make way for
Kevin Newman in
1998. With McRee and Newman at the helms of
Good Morning America, long time viewers switched to
The Today Show, whose ratings skyrocketed and have remained at the top spot since the week of
December 11,
1995.
1999-2006: The Gibson-Sawyer tenure
On
January 18,
1999, ABC became desperate to revive
Good Morning America, which viewers disfavored. It negotiated Gibson's return, teaming him up with
Diane Sawyer. The team was meant to be temporary until ABC could find permanent replacements. However,
Good Morning America ratings once again increased and battled
The Today Show for viewership, though it hasn't yet proclaimed a victory in weekly viewership over
The Today Show. ABC stuck with the Gibson and Sawyer team as anchors of
Good Morning America for 7 1/2 years. Until
March 18,
2002, the news was anchored by
Antonio Mora. When he left to anchor
WBBM-TV in
Chicago,
Robin Roberts, a former
ESPN anchor, replaced Mora.
The show moved from the
ABC News Headquarters in
Lincoln Square to its present home at the Times Square Studios on
August 30,
1999. The new location made it possible for the program to feature a live audience outside the studio (a la
Today).
In
May 2005, ABC announced that Roberts, the show's news anchor, would be promoted to co-anchor. She had been regularly filling in for Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson up until then.
As of 2005,
Good Morning America has still not prevailed over
The Today Show in the ratings, though it has had a few one-show victories on the day after
Pope John Paul II's funeral, and then a
Mariah Carey concert in 2005.
Good Morning America has won in timeslots in large markets like New York, which might have been an indication that the audience was migrating from
The Today Show. Recently, however, the viewership gap between
Today and
GMA has widened again.
On
November 3,
2005,
GMA celebrated its 30th birthday with recaps to
1975 and by decorating Times Square. Former co-hosts David Hartman and Joan 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
Good Morning America, where he's been the weather personality since
1999. The last ten minutes of the day's show was dedicated to Perkins, where he gave thanks to one of the show's producers and a heartfelt goodbye to the three anchors, Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, and Robin Roberts. Perkins announced that he was going to go home to his family and would be living in
Washington, D.C., where he'd 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 former
Chicago WGN-TV morning sports anchor
Mike Barz.
Charles Gibson ended his run on
Good Morning America on
June 28,
2006. The program was dedicated to Gibson's 19 years as anchor on
GMA and celebrated his move to the anchor chair at
WNT. Gibson ended his tenure by stating,
"For 19 years, my mornings have been not just good — they've been great."
2006-present: The Sawyer-Roberts era
There had been speculation that
Diane Sawyer would leave her seat at
Good Morning America when her contract expired in 2007 due to the fact that she was coveting the World News Tonight 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's Primetime as well as ABC News Senior Legal Correspondent. Meanwhile, Sam Champion was named GMA'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
GMA instituted a new graphics package, and new news area for Cuomo to report the news. Also, beginning on
September 13,
2006,
GMA introduced a new logo this time with gold font on a blue background. This logo bore a resemblance to the initial
GMA logo that was used up to early
1987.
On
June 29,
2007, movie critic for the show,
Joel Siegel died at age 63 after a battle of cancer.
July 9 was the day in remembrance of Joel. Former hosts David Hartman, Sandy Hill, Joan Lunden, Kevin Newman (his first appearance on the show since his 1999 departure), Spencer Christian, Tony Perkins, Charles Gibson, all came together in remembrance.
In
2007, GMA won the first Outstanding Morning Programming Emmy Award with the Today Show.
On
July 31,
2007, co-anchor
Robin Roberts announced that she'd been diagnosed with
breast cancer.
On
October 22,
2007, Good Morning America introduced their new on screen appearance. Using much of their old on screen appearance design features, they went from a basic blue setting to a more orangish-gold setting. Their opening changed from the camera zooming in on the hosts while they introduced the host, to an opening with new music (by the New York based music production company,
DreamArtists Studios) and a background with the Good Morning America logo falling onto the screen. They also changed their 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 and ABC News.com logo to the right.
After a couple of appearances on
Good Morning America, British fashion advisers
Trinny Woodall and
Susannah Constantine reported on the fashion at the
80th Academy Awards especially for the show.
On
January 15,
2008 during an interview with
Diane Sawyer,
Diane Keaton admired Sawyer's beauty, including her lips and if she'd lips like that, "then I wouldn't have worked on my fucking personality!" She said that she'd 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." While this would formerly have been in violation of the
Federal Communications Commission's decency laws, incurring a fine for Good Morning America producer and distributor
ABC, officials of the FCC have stated that recent legal action and resultant policy changes may confound any action it chooses to take.
Logos
Image:Gmalogo1995.jpg|GMA logo 1995-1999.
Image:Gmalogo1999.gif|GMA logo 1999-2002.
Image:ABC - Good Morning America.jpg|GMA Opening Sequence from Times Square in 2004
Image:2006gmablue.jpg|GMA logo used from September 5, 2006 - October 21, 2007. This could be considered an early version of their current logo.
Good Morning America Radio
In
January 2006,
Good Morning America launched a radio edition of the program on
XM Radio's
Take Five. The show would incorporate features and news from the television edition as well as allow fans to discuss these topics. The radio edition of the show is hosted by
Hilarie Barksy and airs Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to Noon Eastern Time.
Good Morning America: Now
On
September 4,
2007, Good Morning America extended their broadcast by an hour, now airing a third hour of the program which can be seen only on their 24 hour news channel,
ABC News Now. The program is mainly hosted by Chris Cuomo, but also includes the main Good Morning America anchors. Other ABC News personalities featured as correspondents for the show are Claire Shipman, Juju Chang, Deborah Roberts, Elizabeth Vargas, Kate Snow, Marysol Castro, Ron Claiborne and Bianna Golodryga.
Hosts/Anchors
Current hosts
Past hosts
David Hartman (1975-1987)
Nancy Dussault (1975-1977)
Sandy Hill (1977-1980)
Joan Lunden (1980-1997)
Charles Gibson (1987-1998; 1999-2006)
Lisa McRee (1997-1999)
Kevin Newman (1998-1999), News Anchor (1997-1998)
Contributors, Past and present
Hilarie Barksy (Radio Edition - as of 2006)
Mike Barz (2005-2006), correspondent/weatherman
Glenn Beck (as of 2007)
Steve Bell (1975-1985), news anchor
Hilary Brown, foreign correspondent
Spencer Christian (1986-1999), weatherman
Don Dahler (as of 2006)
Morton Dean (1993-1996), news anchor
Jed Duvall (1987-1988), news anchor
Megan Glaros (as of 2007), freelance meteorologist
Bianna Golodryga (as of 2007)
Ron Hazelton (as of 2006)
Mellody Hobson (as of 2006), financial contributor
Gregory Hunter (as of 2006)
Rebecca Kolls (as of 2006)
Tory Johnson (as of 2007), workplace contributor
Timothy Johnson (as of 2006), medical editor
Emeril Lagasse (as of 2006), food contributor
Antonio Mora (1998-2002), news anchor (now with WFOR-TV)
Sara Moulton (as of 2006), food contributor
David Muir (as of 2006), correspondent
Ann Pleshette Murphy (as of 2006)
John J. Nance (as of 2006)
Tony Perkins (1999-2005), weatherman
Wolfgang Puck (as of 2006), food contributor
Forrest Sawyer (1988-1989), news anchor
Claire Shipman (as of 2006), senior national correspondent
Martha Raddatz (as of 2006)
Gloria Riviera, foreign correspondent
Mike Schneider (1989-1993), news anchor
Joel Siegel (1981-2007), film critic
George Stephanopoulos (1997-2002), political analyst, host of This Week, and chief Washington correspondent
Kathleen Sullivan (1985-1987), news anchor
Elizabeth Vargas (1996-1997), news anchor
Bob Woodruff (as of 2006), correspondent and ABC News anchor
International broadcasts
In Australia, the Nine Network and regional affiliates WIN and NBN air Good Morning America Tuesdays through Fridays from 4am and Saturdays at 4.30am. The program is condensed into a 90-minute format. A national weather map of Australia is during cut-aways to local affiliates for weather information. GMA airs at the same time as the NBC Today on the Seven Network and Network Ten's CBS Early Show. It is unchallenged, ratings wise, in some regional areas where other affiliates preempt their networks' US breakfast programs with paid and religious programming.
Orbit Satellite Television Network air "Good Morning America" on the channel "America Plus" Mondays through Fridays live at 1100 GMT in the Middle East and Europe.
In the Philippines, GMA's weekday edition is aired Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30 local time on Velvet. The weekend edition is aired live.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Good Morning America'.
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