Good Morning America (GMA) is an American breakfast television news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network, debuting on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour, available exclusively on ABC News Now, was introduced in 2007. The current one-hour weekend edition debuted in 2004.
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Good Morning America (GMA) is an American breakfast television news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network, debuting on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour, available exclusively on ABC News Now, was introduced in 2007. The current one-hour weekend edition debuted in 2004.
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. 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 of ABC World News.
GMA has traditionally run second in the ratings to NBC's Today, but overtook its rival for a period from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s under its most popular anchor team of Gibson and Joan Lunden. GMA has won both of the first two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning Program, sharing the 2007 award with Today and winning outright in 2008.
1975: The Inaugural Year
On January 6, 1975, ABC launched AM America in an attempt to compete with the The Today Show on NBC. 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 and its anchor team of Jim Hartz and Barbara Walters, 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.
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 30, 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.
