Early to Rise, Last to Stay

While most of the headlines about morning talk shows have been directed at the likes of Jane Pauley, Deborah Norville and Kathleen Sullivan, Joan Lunden has quietly built up 10 years as co-host of ABC’s top-rated “Good Morning America” (weekdays, 7-9 a.m.)

Lunden joined “GMA” in 1976 as a consumer reporter. She replaced Sandy Hill as co-host four years later, first opposite David Hartman and for the last three years with Charles Gibson.

Lunden, the mother of three daughters, has become a spokeswoman for working mothers and has hosted two programs on parenting--the Lifetime series “Mother’s Day” and the syndicated “Everyday.”

She recently took on the National Enquirer on “Good Morning America” when she heard it was going to publish a bogus story about trouble in her marriage with producer Michael Krauss. “It was a scary thing to do,” she says, “but I had to do it.”

Lunden talked about her life as the longest-reigning co-host on early morning television with Susan King.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary.

Thank you. Can you believe that? The show is going to have its 15th anniversary in November, and when I came here to New York to be a reporter on (WABC-TV’s) “Eyewitness News,” this show had just gone on the air in its present form. I watched it that first year, and the following fall they came to me. That was one of the good things about being on the news in New York--all the network executives live here.

They said, “We want someone to keep us up to date on new products and new ideas and lifestyles.” That was kind of up my alley. I was a consumer reporter in California. I started working for “Good Morning America” 14 years ago this September. It was something I could do while still working at “Eyewitness News.” I did both shows for almost five years.

When did you start hosting?

At that time, Nancy Dussault was the hostess. When she would be away, I would sit in for her. They didn’t have me sit in completely. They would have me come in and do a segment called “People in the News” and maybe an interview.

After Sandy Hill got the job, I continued to sit in, and I started doing more and more reports. The first time I really sat in for her was a morning when they called me at home half an hour into the show. I was asleep because I hadn’t been scheduled to be on that morning, and they said, “Are you up?” They said David and Sandy both have laryngitis, and it hurts to listen to them. Fortunately, I lived right across the street from the studio so I was there within 10 minutes. They quickly put some blush and makeup on me, and I was thrown into it. You didn’t have time to get scared.

“Good Morning America” has been No. 1 in the ratings much of the year.

When it first came on it was like this new kid on the block, and over about a five-year period it built and built and built. I would attribute that to the program itself. It was a good format and a nice, comfortable, warm set. David Hartman was everyman’s man. By the time I came on full-time, the program had been solidly No. 1 for quite some time.

It wasn’t until the end of David’s tenure here that the ratings slipped. ABC’s prime time took a nose-dive, and we are affected by what people watch at night.

That also was a time when our society was really changing, and we (women) were not willing to accept the dominant male and the subservient female, and that was clearly how our program was set up. David Hartman was supposed to be the star. I think that hurt us in the end.

It was important they chose a new person . . . not to go after a name of big marquee value and make them a star, but to find somebody people wouldn’t find threatening. It’s an obvious friendship between me and Charlie. What you got was this new team of 50-50 equal, and I think that was important. You weren’t getting that on the other programs. We slowly built our ratings. Now they say it’s because Jane Pauley left the “Today” show that “GMA” is winning. That’s taken some of the personal satisfaction away from it. But we have been No. 1 for 31 weeks, not that I am counting.

You get up every morning at 3:30 to do the show. It must be difficult to juggle your work schedule and find time to be a mom and wife.

For me as a working mom, I know by getting up at 3:30 a.m. I’m out of here at 10 or 10:30 a.m. and can do all the things I want to for my kids. I am that person who can get their cake and eat it, too. There are not that many women, working moms, who can say they have the kind of job I do, very high-profile, very challenging, great responsibility, and still be a full-time mother. Usually those two can’t mix; one has got to give.

What have been your most memorable moments on the show?

Flying the jet trainer (a T-34 naval flight-training plane) was definitely the highlight. It was so much fun. Interviewing people like Prince Charles, world leaders, covering the inaugurations--those are always high points.

Do you ever get tongue-tied while interviewing someone?

Sure. I asked Candice Bergen the other day about her late father, Charlie McCarthy . She said, “That’s OK. That’s a mistake that has been made a million times.” (Her father was Charlie McCarthy’s puppeteer, Edgar Bergen.) You think, “How could I have done that?” But you read reams of research before you go in and there is so much on your mind.