'Good Morning America' Left Times Square to Join the Rest of ABC News

If you've watched Good Morning America at any point over the last 25 years, you're likely aware that the show films in Times Square. That locale, which is one of the most iconic in New York City, has helped to make the show feel in the middle of the action for decades.

Now, though, GMA is leaving its Times Square studio behind, and many want to know why ABC made the decision to pull the show from its location. Here's what we know.

The move seems to have been part of a gradual transition and consolidation of ABC studios into the Robert A. Iger building in 7 Hudson Square. The building will host all of ABC News's programming, including GMA, as well as many of the company's corporate, technology, and production functions as well. The move is also a cost-cutting measure, and comes at roughly the same time as CBS is also abandoning its Times Square studio for similar reasons.

GMA has been hosting the show in Times Square since 1999, when Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson were hosting the program. Now, all these years later, GMA's Times Square has become something of an institution among fans who are loyal to the program.

The show will remain, and will likely have a perfectly lavish studio at its new location. Still, some fans will undoubtedly feel like they're missing out on the Times Square location.

On social media, both fans and the show's hosts are mourning its departure from a central New York landmark.

"Hard to believe it’s our final week broadcasting from Times Square before we move to our new studio downtown," GMA host Robin Roberts wrote on X. "Next this morn on @GMA…we’re looking back at when we first came here to the crossroads of the world over 25 years ago."

Robin also clarified that, unfortunately, the new digs mean that fans will no longer be able to peer through the window as they've done in the past. That approachability, and that live crowd, have long been a part of the fun of GMA, but it seems like ABC is moving away from it in favor of a different kind of live programming.

GMA is the last major news show to make the move, perhaps in part because the show has such an iconic studio at the moment. Although the move might change the look of GMA, hopefully the show's feel and content don't change much. All the hosts are really doing is moving a new space, one where they'll be in much closer contact with the rest of the GMA staff.

The move away from Times Square is certainly the end of an era, one that lasted more than 25 years and included coverage of many of the most important news stories of the decade. Thankfully, the show's hosts are not going anywhere. If you loved GMA before the move, you'll probably continue to long it for some time to come. v