Lara Spencer was named a Good Morning America co-host on Friday. This puts her in the same playing field as both Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos and means she will have far more exposure during the first hour of the show. This is just another of a string of changes at GMA. Sam Champion was replaced by Ginger Zee in December and Josh Elliott was replaced by Amy Robach just a few weeks ago. Sources expect Spencer’s promotion is the last of the big changes for the show. Her promotion was announced publicly just a month after she signed a new ABC News contract.
Spencer’s big news was announced by James Goldston, president of ABC News. In an internal memorandum he told those who work on the show that “Lara is clearly an essential ingredient in the success we have enjoyed.”
Lara Spencer hosted the entertainment news magazine The Insider before she became part of Good Morning America back in 2011, as “lifestyle anchor,” a job was was created just for her. Her signature segment has been the “Pop News Heat Index,” a one-hour summary of entertainment and pop culture news stories running from 8:00 to 9:00 A.M.
It was two years ago this very week that Good Morning America overtook The TODAY Show in the morning news program ratings. That ended a 16-year streak TODAY had of being the winning news program. They have yet to regain that status. Just last week GMA led TODAY by 279,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. This age group denotes a key demographic for news advertisers.
It was announced just a few days ago that Live with Kelly and Michael star Michael Strahan will also be joining Good Morning America as a special correspondent. He won’t be leaving the show he co-hosts with Kelly Ripa, however. He and Lara Spencer are shown in her Instragram photo as she tells him he will need extra caffeine in order to be part of the morning news show.
Congratulations to Lara Spencer on her promotion at Good Morning America. How do you suppose Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos feel about sharing the limelight with a third party? Do you suppose they are on board with Spencer’s promotion or are they feeling as though they’ve been thrown under that proverbial bus?
Image via Wikimedia Commons
