Former NFL player Michael Strahan is making the move from smiling morning talk show chatter to smiling morning talk show chatter with just the slightest hint of news, jumping from his spot at Live! With Kelly And Michael to the less exclamation-prone environment of ABC’s Good Morning America. ABC—which has a deep relationship with Live!, stretching back to its Regis and Kathie Lee days—made the announcement earlier today.
Strahan will move into a co-anchor spot on the morning talk show, presumably alongside current hosts George Stephanopolous, Robin Roberts, and Lara Spencer. The New York Giants veteran has been a member of the wider GMA team for two years, appearing as a correspondent and occasional fill-in anchor. (He also still regularly appears on Fox’s NFL Sunday, because you can’t keep Michael Strahan in your simple network boxes.) Good Morning America is still the highest-rated of the morning news shows, but has struggled in recent years to match the demographic reach of NBC’s Today (co-hosted by another Live alum, smiling morning overlord Kathie Lee Gifford.)
Strahan joined Live! back in 2012, after an extensive, post-Regis talent search that mimicked the one that landed Kelly Ripa her own job back in 2001. At the time, Seth Meyers and Josh Groban were put forward as other contenders for Philbin’s butter-disbelieving throne. But they’re both pretty busy at the moment—Meyers over on NBC late night, and Groban with some sort of comet-based Broadway musical—so it remains to be seen who’ll be taking Strahan’s place once he makes the move to GMA in September.