Good Morning America

Good Morning America (GMA for short) is the weekday morning news talk show of the American Broadcasting Company television network (ABC). The show was launched in 1975. The show features news, talk, weather, and special interest stories. It is recorded live from Times Square Studios in New York City and fed to all network affiliates. It is the only network morning news program to broadcast in HDTV. The program is currently hosted by Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts. Longtime anchor Charlie Gibson left the program on June 28, 2006 to become the lead anchor at ABC News. When major events happen in Washington during the morning hours, then the show is often broadcast from Washington D.C.

Since 2004, ABC has also aired Good Morning America Weekend Edition.

Early years

In January 1975, ABC launched A.M. America in an attempt to compete with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network production of The Today Show 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 could not 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, was not 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 was not broadcast from a newsroom set but instead one that resembled a suburban living room. The show's creators, Donald L. Perris and William F. Baker, felt the living room set would make viewers feel more comfortable. The result of all of this was ratings of nearly 70% for The Morning Exchange.

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, taking its title from the chorus of the Steve Goodman song "City of New Orleans". Good Morning America's first host was David Hartman, featuring Nancy Dussault as his co-host. Dussault was replaced in 1977 by Sandy Hill.

GMA 1976-1980

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 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.

GMA 1980s

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 2 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.

Format evolves

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 Daussault 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. The partnership ended in February 1987 as Hartman retired.

Lunden was paired with Charles Gibson 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 _.22The_beauty_and_the_grouch.22 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 Morning beat The Today Show and took the second place spot after Good Morning America.

Lunden's popularity with viewers made the format to 2 equal co-anchors become necessary. David Hartman was no longer the main host of the program.

GMA 1990s

Good Morning America sailed into the 1990s with its overwhelming ratings success. Lunden and 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. In 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.

GMA 1999-Present

In 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 has not 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.

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 has 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 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 has since been 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."^*

There is speculation that Diane Sawyer will leave her seat at Good Morning America when her contract expires in 2007 due to the fact that she was coveting the World News Tonight anchor job which was given to Gibson. Current GMA Weekend co-host Bill Weir is speculated as a top candidate to replace Charlie Gibson this year.