Good Morning America
Good Morning America, often abbreviated as GMA, is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. The Sunday edition was canceled in 1999; weekend editions returned on both Saturdays and Sundays on September 4, 2004. The weekday and Saturday programs airs from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all United States timezones. The Sunday editions are an hour long and are transmitted to ABC's stations live at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, although stations in some media markets air them at different times. Viewers in the Pacific Time Zone receive an updated feed with a specialized opening and updated live reports. A third hour of the weekday broadcast aired from 2007 to 2008, exclusively on ABC News Now.
The program features news, interviews, weather forecasts, special-interest stories, and feature segments such as "Pop News", the "GMA Heat Index" and "Play of the Day". It is produced by ABC News and broadcasts from Studio C at 7 Hudson Square in New York City's Hudson Square neighborhood. The primary anchors are Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, and former New York Giants defensive end and former Live co-host Michael Strahan with Rebecca Jarvis Friday co-host, entertainment anchor Lara Spencer and weather anchor Ginger Zee.
Good Morning America has been the most watched morning show in total viewers and key demos each year since summer 2012. GMA generally placed second in the ratings, behind NBC's Today, from 1995 to 2012. 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 Charles Gibson and Lunden, and 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.
History
1975: The inaugural year
On January 6, 1975, ABC launched AM America in an attempt to compete with NBC's Today. The program was hosted by Bill Beutel and Stephanie Edwards, with Peter Jennings reading the news. Because the show could not find an audience against Today, ABC sought a new approach. The network found that one of its affiliates, WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, had been pre-empting AM America in favor of airing a locally produced show called 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 using 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, including health, entertainment, consumer affairs, and travel. 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.
In the process of screening the Cleveland morning program as a creative source, ABC also began looking at another local show, Good Morning!, which was produced by Boston ABC affiliate WCVB-TV. Good Morning! was very similar in format to The Morning Exchange, but with a lesser emphasis on news and weather. In fact, once the revamped ABC morning show took to the air late in 1975 under the title Good Morning America, WCVB station manager Bob Bennett accused ABC entertainment president Fred Silverman of deliberately stealing the title of Good Morning!; no legal cease and desist action was finalized against ABC in the matter, however. The launch of Good Morning America did result in the Boston morning show changing its name—to Good Day!. Currently, WCVB's morning news program is titled EyeOpener.
ABC took an episode of The Morning Exchange and used it as a television pilot. The format replaced AM America on Monday, as Good Morning America. The first cohosts were actor David Hartman and actress Nancy Dussault. Dussault was replaced in April 1977 by previously at KABC-TV The show's title is the same as the beginning of the chorus of Steve Goodman's song City of New Orleans.
For the first seven years, weather forecasts were presented by John Coleman, former chief meteorologist for ABC owned-and-operated station WLS-TV in Chicago, who left GMA in 1982 to start The Weather Channel with Landmark Communications CEO Frank Batten. Dave Murray provided the forecasts for both Good Morning America and ABC's early morning news program ABC News This Morning from 1983 to 1986. In August 1986, he was replaced by Spencer Christian, who worked at WABC-TV in New York City and served as fill-in meteorologist for both Coleman and Murray whenever they were away on vacation or assignment.
1976–1989: Growth and change
The program's Nielsen ratings climbed slowly, but steadily throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s while Today experienced a slight slump in viewership, especially with Walters' decision to leave NBC for a job at ABC News. On August 30, 1976, Tom Brokaw began anchoring Today while the program began a search 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 Todays ratings dominance into the 1980s, especially after Brokaw left the latter program to become co-anchor of NBC Nightly News with Roger Mudd for 17 months before being named sole anchor of that program. 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, an exasperated Hill left Good Morning America after run-ins with Hartman, who was said to have "had a problem with strong women." She was replaced by Joan Lunden, then a reporter at ABC's New York City flagship WABC-TV. Hartman and Lunden led the show through several years of success. Lunden's popularity led to her promotion to co-anchor in 1986, and to more equal footing with Hartman than any woman before her. The partnership ended on February 20, 1987, when Hartman retired after 3,189 broadcasts.
After Hartman's departure, Lunden was paired with ABC News correspondent Charles Gibson on February 23, 1987, which ultimately resulted in ratings for the program skyrocketing. The team of Lunden and Gibson 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 point prior to Spencer Christian's arrival in 1986, forecasts on the program were provided by WXYZ-TV chief meteorologist Jerry Hodak via a split screen between the WXYZ studios in Detroit and the Good Morning America set in New York City.
1990–1998: Rise and decline
Good Morning America entered the 1990s with continued overwhelming ratings success. Gibson and Lunden became a hard team to beat; however, the program stumbled from its top spot in late 1995, falling to second place behind Today. 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 that a prime time program; Behind Closed Doors would premiere on the network in 1996.On September 5, 1997, Lunden decided to step down as host of Good Morning America after 17 years and was replaced by ABC News correspondent Lisa McRee. The pairing of Gibson and McRee fared well in the ratings. However, ratings sharply declined when Gibson also left the show to make way for Kevin Newman on May 1, 1998. With McRee and Newman as anchors, longtime viewers of Good Morning America switched to Today, whose ratings skyrocketed.
January 1999 – May 2005: Gibson–Sawyer
To improve Good Morning Americas ratings performance, which briefly fell to third place among the morning shows in January 1999, ABC News management selected Shelley Ross from the field of executive producer candidates. As part of Rossʼs 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, the Gibson-Sawyer team paired by Ross debuted on-air, which during the first full season resulted in a dramatic increase in viewership while all other network news franchises saw losses.File:First Lady Laura Bush speaks with Charlie Gibson during a Good Morning America live interview at the ABC Studios in New York City.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Charlie Gibson interviewing First Lady Laura Bush in 2004
The show moved from the ABC News headquarters in Manhattan's Lincoln Square district 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 inside the studio, similar to the "Window on the World" set used by Today. Under Ross, Good Morning America became a competitive 24/7 news operation with more exclusive bookings, news and live stock market updates for West Coast viewers and new on-screen graphics that included a news ticker. Good Morning America began originating entire shows from unique locations, which, according to Nielsen Media Research, resulted in more people watching the program and for longer periods of time. GMA became the first to originate a live show from an aircraft carrier during wartime, from the White House, from The Pentagon, from The Vatican, and from the Tower of London. Viewership during this time increased by nearly one million households, and revenue soared.
Although Today remained the top-rated morning news show, the Sawyer, Gibson and Ross team inched close, creating a viable rival. 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 served as newsreader for the program until March 18, 2002, when he left to become an anchor at CBS owned-and-operated station WBBM-TV in Chicago. He was replaced by former ESPN anchor and correspondent Robin Roberts.