“GMA3” is the lowest-rated of the “GMA”-branded hours, according to Nielsen data, and is lower rated than any hour of NBC’s “Today” show and CBS morning show “CBS This Morning.” This quarter-to-date, “GMA3” is averaging 1.566 million total viewers per day, with 314,000 of them between the ages of 25-54, which is the key demographic for news programming. The two morning hours of “Good Morning America” average more than twice that: 3.178 million overall viewers, 732,000 from the demo. “Today” from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. does better than regular “GMA” in the key news demo, but not overall. “CBS This Morning” ranks third of three. The third and fourth hours of the “Today” show also outperform “GMA3.”
“GMA3,” which now has the subtitle “What You Need to Know,” does better in its own time slot. The ABC News production ranks fourth overall at 1 p.m., behind just CBS (“The Bold & the Beautiful”), Fox News Channel (“America Reports”), and Fox’s broadcast network (local programming prior to the World Cup). In the demo, NBC (“NBC News Daily”) jumps ahead of the ABC series, but Fox News falls to sixth (behind Telemundo’s various programming, too), so “GMA3” remains in fourth place. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/New York Road Runners via Getty Images) Holmes and Robach were suspended from “GMA3” on Monday following reports of an affair between the co-hosts. Gio Benetiz and Stephanie Ramos have served as the first fill-in anchors. “These decisions are not easy, they are not knee jerk, but they are necessary for the brand and for our priority which, you guys know, are all of us — the people here at ABC,” Kim Godwin, ABC News president, said during a Monday morning conference call informing staff of the decision. Holmes and Robach, who have worked together since September 2020 when Holmes joined “GMA3,” were reported to be in a relationship with each other in November, when The Daily Mail published 65 photos of them on a “romantic weekend” trip in upstate New York. The relationship has not violated any ABC News policies, one insider told IndieWire. Both Holmes and Robach are married to other people, but reportedly estranged from their respective spouses. “GMA3: What You Need to Know” is a spinoff of the “Good Morning America” morning talk-show franchise. The afternoon program began as “GMA Day” in 2018, an entertainment and celebrity-focused program hosted by Michael Strahan and Sara Haines. In 2019 it was rebranded “GMA3;” Keke Palmer joined the program as a co-host later that year.
The following year, “GMA3” was temporarily rebranded again as “Pandemic: What You Need to Know” with Robach and Ashton as anchors. The “What You Need to Know” branding became permanent that summer; Holmes joined the show months later. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.