GMA3: What You Need To Know

Between July to September 2012, ABC aired an afternoon version of Good Morning America titled Good Afternoon America.[1] Hosted by Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer, the program filled the 2:00 p.m. schedule until September 10, when General Hospital was moved up into the timeslot, and ABC gave the 3:00 p.m. hour back to its affiliates.[2] ABC promoted the limited-run series as primarily focusing on celebrity and pop culture topics.[3][4][5] The show broke format once on July 20 to cover the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting live.

Former logo as GMA Day

On May 23, 2018, ABC announced that it had canceled The Chew, and that the program would be replaced by a new third hour of Good Morning America.[6][7] In July 2018, the title of the program was announced as GMA Day, with Michael Strahan and Sara Haines serving as co-hosts.[8]

On January 28, 2019, the show was rebranded as Strahan & Sara, with a new logo and updated studio. Variety reported that the decision was meant to partially downplay its ties to Good Morning America by placing a larger emphasis on its hosts, in a similar manner to Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda. The show's initial ratings in the first half of the season had been slightly weaker than those of The Chew, declining from a 2 million viewer average to between 1.7 and 1.9 million viewers.[9]

With Haines going on a maternity leave after the birth of her third child in June 2019, actress Keke Palmer began filling in as a co-host in the same month.[10] On July 31, 2019, it was reported that Palmer would join the show full-time as a third host, as the network said viewers had found Palmer to be an appealing co-host with good chemistry with Strahan and Haines. On August 26, 2019, it was announced that the series had been renamed once more to GMA3: Strahan, Sara & Keke to reflect her new role.[11][12]

On March 11, 2020, ABC announced that the series along with its morning counterpart would suspend in-studio audiences "for the time being" due to the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a similar decision made by the network and Disney–ABC Domestic Television for their other talk shows, including The View, Live with Kelly and Ryan, and Tamron Hall.[13] It was soon decided to suspend production on GMA3 entirely and place the program on hiatus, as a domino effect of cancellations followed with the spreading of the disease. Following the news of the show going on hiatus, Haines began guest co-hosting on The View.

With a lack of current guests coming in and the noon hour being used by multiple levels of government to disseminate updates about the pandemic resulting in preemptions, on March 18, ABC News replaced GMA3: Strahan, Sara & Keke repeats temporarily with a daily live hour entitled Pandemic: What You Need To Know (later changed to GMA3: What You Need to Know in order to encompass news about the George Floyd protests), anchored by Amy Robach and chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton and produced by ABC News Live, which will feature interviews and question/answer segments with medical experts, along with breaking news updates.[14] Ashton had to self-quarantine due to exposure to a COVID-19 patient and appeared via videoconferencing starting on March 23 but has since returned. Like Strahan, Sara & Keke, the program is recorded live on weekday mornings on the second floor of ABC's Times Square Studio after GMA.