'Good Morning America 3' grows into successful weekday afternoon show

NEW YORK CITY -- What began as an afternoon spin-off of "Good Morning America" has evolved into "GMA 3-What You Need to Know."

It's a mix of information and inspiration, plus a healthy dose of news you can use. The hour will also give you a few laughs along the way.

A Variety article said "Afternoon TV viewers in a different era clicked their way through soap operas, talk shows and re-runs," but not anymore.

Instead, many of those viewers watch hosts who give them what they need to know on GMA3.

Their camaraderie helps the hosts connect with millions of viewers who tune in on weekday afternoons to watch TJ Holmes, Amy Robach and Dr.Jennifer Ashton interact with each other.

"We all have our lanes, and we all trust each other and respect each other and what we bring the show," Robach said.

A recent episode featured Dr. Jen demonstrating the best way to perform CPR.

"We put together in our hour every single day what we think viewers need to know and want to know," Ashton said.

A typical hour might go from serious to funny with stops in between.

"I think you constantly evolve and tweak," Holmes said. "I mean when the show first started you could go a full hour on nothing but COVID because that's all that was going on in the world."

Since then, the show has become more of a mix. Executive Producer Cat McKenzie is in charge of getting the balance exactly right.

The day entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon visited the set, they were filming a segment featuring a new book by one of the Spice Girls, which was taped directly after an interview about protests.

"Our benchmark is news," McKenzie said. "We are ABC News. We are of ABC News. We made a strong effort to put our correspondents on, our embeds on, our consultants on, our contributors because that's who we are."

Viewers can catch "GMA 3" every weekday on ABC.