ABC's Morning Show Is Adding A Co-Host

(From The New York Times -- By Jacques Steinberg)

ROBIN ROBERTS, the news reader on GOOD MORNING AMERICA on ABC since 2002, is getting new responsibilities on the program. The network is expected to announce today that she is being made a co-host of the program, which gives her a rank (and duties) equal to that of CHARLES GIBSON and DIANE SAWYER, who have been the hosts since early 1999.

The promotion of Ms. Roberts was described by two people who had been briefed on it but who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose it.

The elevation of Ms. Roberts, a former anchor on ESPN's SPORTSCENTER, is something of a battlefield promotion -- under the watch of Ms. Sawyer, Mr. Gibson, Ms. Roberts and TONY PERKINS, the program's weatherman, GOOD MORNING AMERICA has been steadily chipping away at the ratings lead of the TODAY show on NBC.

But raising Ms. Roberts's profile on the program could also pay dividends on another front. Since PETER JENNINGS announced on April 5th that he would be absent from WORLD NEWS TONIGHT for an indeterminate period to be treated for lung cancer, Mr. Gibson has served as one of two principal substitutes for him, while still appearing most mornings on GOOD MORNING AMERICA. ABC news executives have acknowledged that Mr. Gibson (and the other lead substitute, ELIZABETH VARGAS of 20/20) can only do double duty so long without feeling the wear of that schedule.

Having Ms. Roberts in place in the morning could make it easier for Mr. Gibson to sleep in occasionally. And while the network has said it is not contemplating a succession plan for Mr. Jennings's broadcast, the introduction of Ms. Roberts as a morning host could make it easier to move either Mr. Gibson or Ms. Sawyer to the evening news on a permanent basis in the event that Mr. Jennings is unable to return.