In an effort to jump start “Good Morning America,” ABC yesterday axed co-hosts Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman and replaced them with “20/20” superstars Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson.
“‘GMA’ has been a wonderful and treasured franchise for ABC as a network for many years … but has frankly wandered away from its core values over the last two years,” ABC News President David Westin told reporters.
“We need to return the show to its core values, which are warmth with intelligence and a sense of family. We need to be a program … with the intelligence and sophistication our viewers require.”
The moves take effect Jan. 18, although McRee, who is pregnant, is already gone. Elizabeth Vargas is filling in for her this week.
Gibson will be returning to “GMA” a scant eight months after being replaced by Newman, who now joins ABC’s “Nightline.”
Ironically, Gibson and Sawyer co-hosted “GMA” for a low-rated week in 1997, when then-co-host Joan Lunden took a week’s vacation.
Westin said McRee will head back to Los Angeles to be with husband Don Granger, a Paramount Pictures executive.
McRee, a Lunden lookalike, was paid between $1 million to $2 million in September 1997 when she replaced Lunden, who left “GMA” after 20 years with the early-morning broadcast.
But McRee, a former L.A.-based news anchor, never caught on with viewers and never meshed with Newman.
Insiders say that, as “GMA’s” ratings steadily declined, the relationship between McRee and Newman grew frosty, with the co-anchors barely speaking to each other off-camera.
McRee will remain on the ABC News payroll as a “special correspondent” filing occasional reports from L.A., Westin said.
Disney-owned ABC is labeling the Sawyer-Gibson team as “transitional.” Insiders expect the pair to co-host “GMA” for six to eight months.
An eight-month stint would allow the network to debut permanent hosts when the show moves to a new Times Square studio in September.
ABC hopes Sawyer and Gibson can breathe some life into the once-mighty “GMA,” which has lost nearly 25 percent of its viewership over the past three years.
It lags far behind NBC’s juggernaut “Today” show – with upstart CBS News’ “This Morning” nipping at its heels.
Westin said he’s “not expecting miracles” with the Sawyer-Gibson team – and shot down any plans to keep the co-hosts together permanently should “GMA’s” ratings rise dramatically.
“This will give us time to groom the next generation, and ratings aren’t going to determine that for us,” Westin said.
Sawyer and Gibson will stay with “20/20” and won’t be paid extra for their new “GMA” gig.
“We need to restore [‘GMA’s’] soul and bring stability back to the broadcast,” Gibson said.
Sawyer agreed: “Everyone in the [ABC News] division has a stake in ‘GMA.'”