GMA Stars George Stephanopoulos, Michael Strahan, Robin Roberts, Ginger Zee, Lara Spencer… Say GOODBYE – Fans Moved to Tears!
The Good Morning America team are preparing to bid farewell to their decades-long home in Manhattan’s bustling Times Square for Hudson Square, joining the rest of ABC in Disney’s new headquarters.
The hosts of GMA are celebrating their final week in the heart of Manhattan, and on the latest episode of the morning news show, George Stephanopoulos already started with some predictions for what’s to come — including some chaos.
After 25 years on the lot, GMA is moving to its brand new studio at the Robert A. Iger Building, joining other ABC News properties and various shows on the network like LIVE with Kelly and Mark and The View.
When LIVE moved there in April, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos shared further details of the space, which sits on an entire city block and boasts 22 stories, with their show filmed on the 10th floor. 7 Hudson Square houses more than 5000 Disney and ABC employees, with Mark mentioning that some of the amenities include outdoor terraces, wellness centers, screening rooms, reading rooms, a bike room, showering facilities and nursing stations.
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“Good Morning America” will join the rest of the ABC News team at Disney’s new headquarters
GMA first started broadcasting from Times Square in 1999, with the studio’s very first guest being none other than tennis legend Serena Williams. Earlier this week, French Open winner Coco Gauff’s appearance marked a nice “bookend” for the studio, per Robin Roberts.
“Serena Williams — she just wins the U.S. Open. Our studio is brand-spanking-new, and she comes in, and she talks with us,” she recalled. “She had a little dog. I think her dog’s name was Jackie. Jackie’s all up in my face. But I just remember… the energy and just looking around, going, ‘This is our home?’ All these years later, it still feels that way.”
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Kelly and Mark in their new LIVE studio at 7 Hudson Square
Speaking with ABC News, Michael Strahan also recalled feeling “overwhelmed” at first by the bright lights of the Times Square studio when he first joined full-time in 2016. “The bright lights, the personality, the energy, how intimidated I was when I walked through the door. A lot of thoughts were going through my mind.”
George, who began co-anchoring with Robin in 2009 (an on-air partnership that has broken records), also remembered: “One of my first interviews was with [former senior adviser] David Axelrod, who was working in the White House at the time with President Obama. They sent me a big alarm clock for my first day.”
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The GMA team will bid farewell after nearly 26 years at their studio
Ginger Zee, GMA’s chief meteorologist and the head of their weather and climate department, looked back on her own first days in the studio in 2011, proudly dubbing it an “honor.”
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They’re not the first morning show to move base from Times Square, with CBS News reportedly doing the same
“I am this woman who grew up on a small farm, rural Michigan, suburban at best in some places, and to be working and that this was going to be my temporary home really meant something to me,” she noted. The show’s very first broadcast from their shiny new studio space will be on Monday, June 16.
