Morning shows go crazy over royal pregnancy

By Meredith Blake

Dec. 4, 2012 12 AM PT

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

Call it morning-show sickness: Both “Today” and “Good Morning America” appear to have gone a little mad over the news that Prince William and his wife Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge, are expecting a child.

“GMA” lifestyle anchor Lara Spencer was whisked off to London to cover the story, an assignment that mostly involved standing in front of Buckingham Palace while holding up British newspapers and fighting for space with gawking tourists. According to a report in the Guardian, Spencer wasn’t alone: ABC sent an 11-person production crew to London to cover the royal pregnancy. “GMA” also devoted several in-studio segments to the news, which made Spencer’s international journey seem all the more unnecessary.

But “GMA” was by no means the only show suffering from baby-induced madness – if anything, “Today” had an even more acute case of the illness. The show dispatched news anchor Natalie Morales to cover the story from London, though unlike Spencer at least she was lucky enough to score a prime spot in front of King Edward VII Hospital, where Kate was admitted Monday for treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum.

And just in case that wasn’t enough, “Today” also spent most of the broadcast speculating about the royal fetus – including the as-yet-unborn child’s name and gender, what kind of life he or she will lead and whether Kate is expecting twins.

For good measure, “Today” even had two of their own personalities, Ben Fogle and Camilla Tominey, camped out in front of Buckingham Palace, where they weighed in with some truly expert analysis.

Fogle suggested the royal couple probably would have preferred to wait to break the news about the pregnancy – you don’t say – while Tominey offered up this gem: “We’ve had royal engagement fever, we’ve had royal wedding fever, and now we’ve got royal baby fever.”

Indeed.

ALSO:

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant: Royal baby time!

Prince William visits pregnant Kate at the hospital

Will and Kate’s firstborn could now be queen, if they had a girl

Twitter.com/MeredithBlake