Joan Lunden will be there, old favorite David Hartman, Diane Sawyer (of course) and some “surprise guests.” The gang is coming together tomorrow to wish Charlie Gibson well as he departs from the anchor desk at ABC’s “Good Morning America.” But don’t expect Wednesday’s farewell block party to be anything like the pull-out-all-the-stops-and-don’t-forget-the-Kleenex extravaganza that NBC threw Katie Couric when she departed from the Today show in May.
Why? Well, first of all, Gibson is not really going anywhere. He is merely changing time slots from mornings to evenings. A few months ago Gibson was named primary anchor for ABC’s “World News Tonight.” But, because ABC didn’t (still doesn’t) have a replacement for him on “Good Morning America,” Gibson has been pulling double duty. (More on that later.)
Secondly, Gibson has been through this drill before. He originally departed “Good Morning America” in 1998, only to come back to the show less than nine months later. He says the only reason he came back then was because ratings had plummeted with the inexperienced team of Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman at the anchor desk and he heard rumors that ABC News President David Westin was thinking of scrapping the “Good Morning America” name and format altogether. That led to talks that resulted in the “Gibson-and-Sawyer salvage team.” (Incidentally, except for the brief time away in 1998, Gibson has logged 19 years as a morning television show host.)
Then last fall, the network was hit with the tragic death of Peter Jennings. That was when Gibson started doubling up on his anchor duties; filling in for the late Peter Jennings and still waking viewers up on “Good Morning America.” The workload caused him to develop walking pneumonia. Gibson was initially bypassed to replace Jennings when ABC decided to split the evening anchor duties between Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas. Months later, Gibson eventually got the evening anchor gig after Woodruff was injured in a bomb blast and Vargas announced she was pregnant and would not be returning to the news desk after the birth of her baby.
For the foreseeable future ABC plans to keep the team of Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts as hosts of the morning show, and the summer will be filled with on-air tryouts for a new male anchor. Front-runners to replace Gibson, include Bill Weir, Chris Cuomo and Bill Ritter. I wish Gibson well, but must say I will be happy when Wednesday comes and goes as I am growing weary of having to watch and hear the “Simply the Best” commercial ABC has been airing every 15 minutes to promote Gibson’s farewell party.