Lisa McRee Leaving for ‘GMA’

Lisa McRee, a news anchor at KABC-TV Channel 7 for the last three years, was named Tuesday to replace Joan Lunden as co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” this fall.

McRee, 35, known for her poise and statuesque good looks, will start on the ABC morning information show in September, when Lunden, 46, steps down after a 20-year run.

“Good Morning America” has been losing the ratings battle to NBC’s “Today” show and Lunden is leaving to work on prime-time projects for ABC News, as is “GMA” news reader Elizabeth Vargas.

“Lisa is a tremendous talent,” ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge said in making the announcement about McRee from New York. “She combines the skills of a serious journalist with an unmistakable warmth and sense of humor--an ideal combination.”

At her home in Hancock Park, where she lives with her husband, Don Granger, a production executive at Paramount, McRee sounded equally excited, punctuating her remarks with short bursts of happy laughter. She had just come from walking her puppies.

McRee said it was Granger, also 35, whom she married a year-and-a-half ago, who insisted that she accept ABC’s offer--even though it means she must move to New York while he remains here.

“Don and I talked and talked, and thought about it. I’m married to a wonderful and really secure guy. He said, ‘Look, this is the most fun professionally you’ll ever have. We’ll be OK.’ ”

Asked how it felt to replace Lunden, she replied, “Exciting and scary”--though she didn’t sound the least bit scared.

“[Joan] has done a wonderful job,” McRee continued. “Joan and [co-host] Charlie [Gibson] have been part of my mornings. I was lucky enough to fill in for her when I worked in New York.” She added that it was “scary in a good way. You just want to go and do a good job.”

McRee, who grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from UC San Diego, where she majored in communications, had worked for the NBC affiliate in San Diego, the CBS affiliate in Bakersfield and the ABC affiliate in Dallas. In 1992, she gained national exposure as one of the original anchors of ABC’s “World News Now.” Before coming to Los Angeles, she hosted the ABC-produced “Lifetime Magazine” and did some reporting for the former ABC News magazine show “Day One.”

McRee, the daughter of an insurance businessman and a former elementary school teacher, said she knew she wanted to be on TV when she worked during college for a former Democratic congressman from San Diego, “and I thought it was more fun on the other side.”

Of her new position, McRee said: “It means the greatest challenge I’ve ever had. I just want to go and do a good job, to go and really work hard. But it’s hard to leave here. This is such a nice place to live. I love the people I work with, and I love the people I work for. If I’m at the Pasadena swap meet, I’ll stop over at [weatherman] Johnnie Mountain’s house. . . .”

Nevertheless, she and Granger will keep their Los Angeles home, which she said was undergoing substantial reconstruction. She will take an apartment in New York.

“Sherry Lansing, [Granger’s] boss [at Paramount], has been very kind. She told him he could work out of New York a week a month. And I will come home two weekends a month.”

McRee said she will continue to anchor KABC’s 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts with Harold Greene for the time being: “I really owe it to everyone to stay focused for the summer, because this is where I am. And I don’t want anyone to get the feeling I’ve checked out.”

Toward the end of August, however, she and her husband will take the honeymoon they never got a chance to have, she noted.

A spokesman for KABC said the station has yet to decide how it will replace McRee.