Michael Strahan Signs a New Multi-Year Deal with ABC to Remain GMA Co-Anchor

By A.J. Katz 

ABC has signed two of its most high-profile on-air hosts to new contracts: Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Strahan.

Strahan, the New York Giants Hall of Famer-turned-on-air TV personality, has signed a new multi-year deal to remain co-anchor of Good Morning America. Strahan was named GMA co-anchor in 2016 alongside Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos.

During his time at ABC’s morning show, in addition to covering major breaking news stories, Strahan has also conducted interviews with a wide range of newsmakers including former President Barack Obama, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, former NFL star Deion Sanders, first lady Dr. Jill Biden, and exclusive interviews with Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Tom Brady, Ariana Grande and Jason Wright, the first-ever black NFL team president, among others.

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In addition to his role at GMA, during the NFL season Strahan co-hosts Fox NFL Sunday, one of the most popular programs on sports television. Prior to joining GMA, he co-hosted of ABC’s syndicated daytime talk program Live! alongside Kelly Ripa from 2012-2016.

GMA has been making a number of important staffing moves as of late, not limited to Strahan. Simone Swink, formerly the show’s 8 a.m. producer, was promoted to executive producer last month. Christine Brouwer, another veteran producer at the show, was made executive broadcast producer of the program (the second in command) earlier this month.

These moves were made not long after news broke that the broadcast’s former executive in charge Michael Corn had been accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed by a former GMA colleague (Corn continues to deny all charges).

According to Variety’s Brian Steinberg, who broke the news of Strahan’s new deal, GMA captured $293.6 million in advertising in 2020, according to Kantar, a tracker of ad spending. “The show provides a massive promotional platform to the company, which relies on it to get word out about many of its movies and initiatives,” he adds.

GMA is TV’s most-watched morning show, and has held that title for the past nine seasons (NBC’s Today is No. 1 among adults 25-54). The ABC morning show has also managed to trim its deficit with its NBC rival in adults 25-54 demo to its closest margin in six seasons (-86,000 A25-54 viewers). That said, GMA, Today and CBS Mornings (formerly known as CBS This Morning) all continue to lose linear viewers on an annual basis.

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