Everyone Is Thrilled This Correspondent Is No Longer On GMA
ABC's "Good Morning America" continues to enjoy its status as the most watched morning show for the tenth year in a row, according to Adweek, beating out NBC's "TODAY" and "CBS Mornings." Though its ratings have fallen a bit since it overtook "TODAY" for the top spot in 2012, per Deadline — unsurprisingly, given the alternate avenues and changing attitudes in news today, with competition from cable news, social media, streaming video, and other means — "GMA" remains in first place, bringing in 3.45 million viewers in December 2021, compared to 2012's 5.3 million.
Part of that success is due to its current hosts, co-anchors Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, and former football defensive-end-turned-broadcaster Michael Strahan. Roberts helped make television history when she replaced Charles Gibson in 2006, per ABC, joining Diane Sawyer to become the first female co-anchor team. Sawyer departed in December 2009 and was replaced by Stephanopoulos, who still maintains the desk with Roberts. The two were joined by Strahan as a contributor in 2014, and Strahan was named co-anchor in 2016. In September 2021, Variety reported that Strahan signed a new four-year contract with "GMA," solidifying his popularity with the show.
But, while we can see how popular these current and past hosts are, there is at least one correspondent who viewers are quite happy is no longer with the program. Nicki Swift conducted a survey of more than 600 people, asking which former "GMA" correspondent they miss the least. The answer may not surprise you.
More than 50% of respondents are glad Geraldo Rivera left the network
The results of our survey — "Which former GMA correspondent do you miss the least?" — are overwhelming, with more than half of the respondents voting for the "winner." Among the choices, Diane Sawyer received 15.37% of the vote, Joan Lunden, who co-hosted the show from 1987 through 1997, had the lowest score with 12.89%, and Charles Gibson received 20.5% of the vote. But the correspondent respondents said they miss the least, with 51.24%, was Geraldo Rivera.
Though not one of the official anchors, Rivera was associated with "Good Morning America" in the early days of both the show and his career. Rivera joined WABC-TV in New York as a reporter in 1972, after his first career as a lawyer doing television interviews in support of Puerto Rican activists gave him a taste of the spotlight, per Britannica. He appeared as host of the late-night talk show "Good Night America" in 1973, which led to the popular morning show. Rivera was part of the "GMA" family when it debuted on November 3, 1975, per Boston.com, but he was fired from the network in 1985 after he criticized then-ABC News president Roone Arledge.
Rivera has been a correspondent with Fox News since 2001, per his website, where his well-known reputation for controversial, sensationalist stories is welcomed, and he has since become a much more conservative voice than in his early "GMA" days. The "GMA" audience definitely looks for different kinds of stories now.