After all the drama he caused with his exit from Live!, you would think Michael Strahan would have picked a new job where he could settle in easily.
According to insiders at Good Morning America, though, his arrival there has been far from smooth sailing. Even now, months later, Strahan isn’t being welcomed by everyone on the show, sources there say.
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According to Page Six, other anchors on GMA are tired of the special treatment Strahan has received since he arrived.
“They roll out the carpet for [Strahan] while seasoned talent is treated like dirt,” one insider said. “He’s been given a lot of opportunity, flexibility, when the others who have been working there longer don’t get that kind of treatment.”
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The deal that Strahan signed did have a lot of flexibility. He was allowed to continue to work for Fox NFL Sunday analyzing pro football, and he stayed on as host of ABC’s $100,000 Pyramid. He was, however, required by his contract to drop most of his endorsement deals.
According to the source, the deal frustrated GMA‘s other anchors. The insider said pop anchor Lara Spencer “feels like her role has been minimized with Strahan. There’s not a lot of love between the two. They know how to put it on for the cameras, but he’s doing a lot of what Lara should be doing [on the show] and she’s not happy. She’s the pop person.”
And the source said George Stephanopoulos is “bored with the fluff. He goes into work, does the show and leaves by 8:57 a.m. He doesn’t interact. He’s been phoning it in for quite some time.”
An ABC exec said the exact opposite, though.
“That’s just bullshit. They get along great,” the exec told Page Six. “And as for Lara, she has far more airtime in the 8 a.m. hour and is loving the studio audience.”
An ABC rep added, “We’ve tripled our lead over the Today show [in total viewers]. The show has never been better.”
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