Starting Monday, Michael Strahan and Sara Haines will be co-hosting/co-anchoring a new hour of “Good Morning America”… in the afternoon. The news of “GMA Day” in May coincided with ABC canceling their lifestyle show “The Chew” after 7 years.
Will “Good Morning America” at 1pmET work? Actually, this isn’t the first time the network tried an afternoon edition of their popular morning program. Lara Spencer and Josh Elliott co-hosted “Good Afternoon America” during the Summer of 2012. It aired at 2pmET (following “The Chew”).
Over the course of the hour, Spencer and Elliott covered the day’s entertainment and lifestyle-related topics. They brought in analysts, celebrity guests to talk about movies and played games. And they were equipped to handle Breaking News if it emerged.
I attended a taping of “Good Afternoon America” that August, when the show had a few weeks to go in its summer run. I met Elliott (I had met Spencer earlier in the summer), as well as guests Carson Kressley and D.L. Hughley. A producer told me everyone had their fingers crossed that the network would want to continue the show into the fall. That didn’t happen.
While “GAA” didn’t light the biggest TV spark, there was clearly something there. Spencer knows entertainment and design like the back of her hand, and she had a strong rapport with Elliott (who had a background in news along with years of on-air experience at ESPN). If ABC had given the show even more time, it could’ve evolved into a semi-big “LIVE” competitor (at the time, Kelly Ripa was just days away from announcing her new co-host… Strahan).
Elliott’s own saga post “GMA” and “GAA” has been dissected in the headlines. He went to NBC Sports in 2014, but only stayed there for two years. His move to CBS in 2016 only lasted a year when he was fired for an odd on-air blunder (only to be revealed months later that Charlie Rose was behind it).
Spencer has stayed with “Good Morning America”, though a recent contract update states that she only has to work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This allows her to focus on other projects, including her hit HGTV and Great American Country series “Flea Market Flip”.
Clearly, she did not want to be a part of “GMA Day”, so Strahan and Haines got the gig. For Haines, it’s a casual next step from her recent stint on “The View”. For Strahan, it’s a chance at talk show redemption following his meltdown of an exit from “LIVE”.
Will it work? ABC certainly loves Strahan (he also hosts “The $100,000 Pyramid”). But remember – “GMA Day” is still, technically, a news show. If there’s major Breaking News in that 1pmET hour, is former NFL player Michael Strahan going to be the one who delivers it to the nation – or is he going to automatically send it to David Muir, George Stephanopoulos or Robin Roberts in another studio?
That could get a little repetitive… and awkward.