Media Decoder Blog: Roberts Leaves ‘Good Morning America’ for Medical Treatment

Fred Lee/ABCRobin Roberts, second from left, on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Ms. Roberts signed off from the show on Thursday.

Starting Friday, ABC’s “Good Morning America” — which has surged ahead of the “Today” show in recent weeks to become the No. 1 morning television show in America — will be without its biggest star, Robin Roberts.

Ms. Roberts, who received a diagnosis of a rare bone marrow disorder in April, is about to undergo a bone marrow transplant that will leave her hospitalized or homebound for four months or more. The break presents clear challenges, not just for Ms. Roberts, who must regain her health, but also for ABC, which earns huge profits from the morning show. It will have to find a way to maintain its nascent winning streak without her.

Ms. Roberts signed off from the show on Thursday, a day earlier than expected, because she needed to visit her 88-year-old mother, who is ill, in Pass Christian, Miss. “I love you and I’ll see you soon,” she told viewers, many of whom have gravitated to “Good Morning America” because of her.

There are few if any precedents in the television industry for an extended leave of absence by a host, even on an ensemble show like “Good Morning America.” ABC thus finds itself in an extraordinarily difficult position: it has to keep viewers informed about Ms. Roberts’s condition and encourage them to keep watching the program while she is away, but not appear to be exploitative or insensitive.

News coverage and public sympathy for Ms. Roberts could help “Good Morning America,” or her absence could lead viewers to try other morning shows. Ms. Roberts has been on the program for a decade, longer than any of her co-hosts; research by both ABC and NBC has indicated that she is widely admired by viewers.

“We are determined to maintain the momentum of the program, but we’re also very realistic about the challenge we face,” Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, said in an interview on Thursday. Since Ms. Roberts’s announcement in June, he has emphasized internally at ABC News that the co-host chair will remain hers. “Robin is irreplaceable,” he said.

In February, back when “Good Morning America” was No. 2, Ms. Roberts felt abnormally tired while covering the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She followed up with doctors and, after some blood tests, underwent her first bone marrow test before a vacation at the end of March. (Katie Couric filled in for her, causing a media whirlwind.) When Ms. Roberts came home, the week of April 9, the doctors told her they suspected she had M.D.S., short for myelodysplastic syndromes, a rare blood and bone marrow disorder. She could barely pronounce it.

Further tests were done. On April 19, the same day the Nielsen ratings company confirmed that “Good Morning America” had defeated the NBC “Today” show for the first week in 17 years, Ms. Roberts’s doctors confirmed the diagnosis.

A photo taken of Ms. Roberts and her co-hosts celebrating the ratings victory on April 19 now sits, framed, in her dressing room.

“I look at that picture so differently than everybody else,” she said in an interview last month. “Because that is the day that it was like, ‘Yeah, it’s M.D.S. Yes, you’re going to have a bone marrow transplant. Yes, you’re going to be out for a chunk of time. We don’t know when.’ It was all this — it was such a gray area. It was just maddening.”

Ms. Roberts kept the disorder a secret for weeks. Almost no one at ABC knew that she had been at the doctor’s office when she was invited to interview President Obama in May — an interview that made international headlines for his changed view of gay marriage. On June 11, she told viewers of the diagnosis and said her older sister Sally-Ann, a television anchor in New Orleans, would be her bone marrow donor.

Morning television hosts have let viewers in on their personal struggles before. After her husband died in 1998, Ms. Couric, then at “Today,” drew attention to colorectal cancer and was credited by researchers with a nationwide increase in colonoscopies. (Ms. Roberts has similarly campaigned on behalf of Be The Match, a national marrow donation program.)

But the circumstances now are unique. Ms. Roberts’s leave of absence is taking place in the age of social media, when she can post updates to Twitter and Facebook. And it’s taking place at a time when “Good Morning America” has, for the first time in a generation, tasted victory over “Today.”

Since NBC removed Ann Curry from the co-host chair on “Today” at the end of June, that show has lost to “Good Morning America” every week with two big exceptions during the highly rated Summer Olympics, which were broadcast by NBC. Last week, “Good Morning America” had half a million viewers more than “Today,” one of its best performances to date. The two shows were effectively tied in the crucial demographic of viewers ages 25 to 54, with “Today” winning by just 5,000 last week. Two weeks ago, with Ms. Roberts on vacation, “Good Morning America” beat “Today” by about 200,000 viewers.

Neither Mr. Sherwood nor Tom Cibrowski, the senior executive producer of “Good Morning America,” would predict how the ratings race might change in the months to come. But Mr. Cibrowski said, “We feel that the show has a great amount of confidence and a great amount of buzz around it and that the viewers are going to keep coming.”

They have a detailed plan for fall and winter. Other female ABC News anchors will fill in for Ms. Roberts, one week at a time, beginning with Amy Robach on Friday and Elizabeth Vargas next week. Mr. Cibrowski said Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and Ms. Couric would also fill in.

Many days, they will be joined by celebrity co-hosts in the 8 a.m. hour, including Oprah Winfrey and the cast of the ABC sitcom “Modern Family.” When Ms. Roberts is ready — though they know there is a risk of death from M.D.S., people at ABC never say “if” — she will call into the show via Skype, Mr. Cibrowski said, in a nod to new technology.

Ms. Roberts is scheduled to enter the hospital on Tuesday; the transplant is likely to take place the week after.

Inside the “Good Morning America” studio on Thursday, some members of the staff teared up as the singer Martina McBride played “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” for Ms. Roberts, who remained remarkably composed. After the show ended, Ms. Roberts stood up and said to the staff, “God bless, God speed, and I’ll get back to you just as soon as I can,” emphasizing the word “soon.” Then she sought out Mr. Sherwood, who hugged her and wiped away a tear.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/roberts-leaves-good-morning-america-for-medical-treatment/?partner=rss&emc=rss