Good Morning America

Good Morning America or GMA 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, 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 Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, and Robin Roberts. When major events happen in Washington during the morning hours, then the show is broadcast from Washington.

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, 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 took less of a straightfoward news approach by offering news and weather updates only at the top and bottom of every hour and used the rest of the time discussing 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 Gene Shalit.

GMA 1980's

Good Morning America continued to threaten The Today Show into the 80's, especially after the abrupt removal of Brokaw from his anchor desk in 1981. 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 1980, Hill left Good Morning America and was replaced by Joan Lunden. Hartman and Lunden led the show through several seasons of success. The partnership ended in February of 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. Gibson and Lunden prevailed over The Today Show. 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. But CBS decided it wanted to get aggressive in the morning news talk show ratings battle, and it 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.

GMA 1990's

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 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. By this time, The Today Show was hosted by Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. News and weather were anchored by Ann Curry and Al Roker. The Today Show ratings skyrocketed and remained at the top spot into the mid 2000s.

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 where they remain today as anchors of Good Morning America. Until March 18, 2002, the news was anchored by Antonio Mora. When he left to anchor WBBM-TV in Chicago, Robin Roberts replaced Mora.

In May 2005, ABC announced former ESPN anchor Robin 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, 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 shortly after in 2005. Good Morning America has won in timeslots in large markets like New York, which may give an indication that people may begin to choose them over The Today Show.

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.

Perkins affectionately said to his young child on the air, "Connor, if you're watching, daddy's comin' home."

It has not yet been announced who the new weatherman (or woman) will be. One possibility could be current GMA Weekend weatherwoman Marysol Castro.

Contributors

• Charles Gibson (as of 2004)
• Diane Sawyer (as of 2004)
• Tony Perkins (1999-2005)
• Robin Roberts (as of 2004)
• Kate Snow (as of 2004)
• Bill Weir (as of 2004)
• Don Dahler (as of 2004)
• Ron Hazelton (as of 2004)
• Mellody Hobson (as of 2004)
• Gregory Hunter (as of 2004)
• Rebecca Kolls (as of 2004)
• Timothy Johnson (as of 2004)
• Emeril Lagasse (as of 2004)
• Sara Moulton (as of 2004)
• David Muir (as of 2004)
• Ann Pleshette Murphy (as of 2004)
• John J. Nance (as of 2004)
• Claire Shipman (as of 2004)
• Joel Siegel (as of 2004)
• Wolfgang Puck (as of 2004)
• George Stephanopoulos (1997-2002)
• Bob Woodruff (as of 2004)