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(NewsNation) — ABC News is about to save $100 million with “Good Morning America” — but it’s not by cutting the exorbitant salaries of their anchors (which will come next year when Michael Strahan, George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts’ contracts are coming up).
The good news for ABC execs: When they leave the GMA Times Square studios in January, they will be saving $100 million a year on rent.
Good Morning America to leave Times Square studio
The bad news: The new studio for the popular morning show — where anchors and correspondents often mingle with the crowds outside in Times Square next to their “windows on the world” studio — is in the basement of the Hudson Square skyscraper.
“The new studio will be surrounded by video walls, which can be cool, I guess,” said a source, “but there can’t be interaction with the public like we used to have and the ‘Today’ show still has in Rockefeller Center. People are worrying it will feel … encapsulated.
“Even if GMA wanted to do a live shot outside the building — there are challenges. It’s a low foot-traffic area and at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, so you wouldn’t be able to hear anything anyway over the horns honking at all times.”
A rep for ABC News declined to comment.