Robin Roberts spoke to fans behind the scenes at Good Morning America amid recent news about an ABC News program layoff shakeup.
Roberts appeared in a social media video dressed up in her outfit for the show, walking through backstage hallways and carrying a tiny microphone.
She stopped by a dressing room and greeted her GMA co-star, Lara Spencer.
“Good morning. Good morning, Lara,” she said as the person filming Robin panned over to show Lara getting her makeup and hair done for GMA.
Robin asked her if she was ready for their early morning program on ABC.
“I’m ready for the morning!” Lara shouted enthusiastically with her arms raised.
Robin says ‘We’re getting fancy’ during a backstage GMA teaser
“We’re getting fancy. We have little microphones now,” Robin told her co-star before kicking her foot back and walking away from the dressing room entrance.
“And good morning to you,” she told GMA fans, adding, “Oh, it’s a very busy morning here on GMA.”
Robin gave a rundown of some of the show’s upcoming news stories and segments.
“A lot of folks are going online and asking questions about how the tariffs will affect their bottom line,” she said, mentioning colleague Elizabeth Schulze would be there to discuss the situation.
“We’ll have those questions and the answers to those questions,” she said.
Wednesday’s trio of anchors also included Michael Strahan and George Stephanopoulos. As changes come at GMA, Robin and her co-stars might present more behind-the-scenes footage on social media, such as the Instagram video above.
GMA shakeup includes layoffs and restructuring various programs
According to The New York Post, ABC News is laying off employees and restructuring its programming.
The announcement comes as The Walt Disney Co. is laying off almost 200 people from its ABC News Group division and Disney Entertainment Networks unit.
According to The Post’s report, dozens of “staffers” would be laid off from the ABC News programs.
The restructuring will include merging Good Morning America with GMA3, the afternoon “third hour” program at 1/12c on ABC. In addition, ABC News will reportedly merge its evening programs, 20/20 and Nightline.
“As we’ve often talked about, streamlining our operation to best serve our viewers and continue to position ourselves as a leading news organization has been a goal for some time,” Almin Karamehmedovic, president of ABC News, said in part of his memo to employees on Wednesday morning.
“Rethinking the way we work to future-proof our team regrettably includes reductions to our extraordinary staff,” Karamehmedovic wrote.
“These decisions are incredibly challenging and today will undoubtedly be difficult for our organization,” his memo also said.
GMA is considered a flagship program for ABC, and executives are reportedly working to improve the morning program’s ratings as it recently trailed NBC’s Today.
With that, ABC News is looking for ways to shift its resources away from the decline of traditional television and toward today’s digital media landscape, which features streaming platforms.
In addition to airing on ABC throughout the week, GMA is available on demand for streaming on YouTube and Hulu several hours after the show first airs.
Good Morning America and GMA3 merging
Per The Post’s report, the restructuring with Good Morning America and GMA3 merging will reportedly consolidate the programs into one production unit.
Michael Strahan previously hosted and co-hosted the third hour of Good Morning America, initially called GMA Day, in 2018.
In 2019, The View’s Sara Haines joined him as a co-host for GMA3: Strahan & Sara. Keke Palmer began filling in as a co-host for Haines during her 2019 maternity leave, and it ultimately became GMA3: Strahan, Sara & Keke.
While the show was confirmed as canceled in 2020, it earned an Emmy nomination for Strahan, Haines, and Palmer that same year.
GMA3: What You Need to Know eventually returned with different hosts. Anchors Eva Pilgrim and DeMarco Morgan host the network’s current version of GMA3.