Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty ImagesSometimes, looks just aren't that deceiving.
All is quiet on the New York front as Michael Strahan approaches the five-month mark from when he first joined Good Morning America as a full-time member of the anchor team—and that's gotta feel good, not just for Strahan, who left his previous job with a bit of a cloud over his head, but also for the execs who bet that the NFL Hall of Famer would be a welcome addition to ABC's flagship morning show.
Not that it was a blind gamble. Strahan had been contributing to GMA as a substitute anchor and correspondent since 2012, when he was also picked to be Kelly Ripa's new permanent co-host on Live—a gig that seemed to be going along swimmingly until, all of a sudden one day last April, it wasn't anymore.
But the otherwise innocuous plan that triggered that big mess was for Strahan to join GMA permanently—which he did, officially, on Sept. 6, 2016.
Since then, the morning show wars that so consumed us for the first half of 2016 have dissipated. Ripa's on fire over at Live as she continues to consider possible co-host replacements and simultaneously prove daily that Live With Kelly is what the people are tuning in to see. And Strahan is settling in comfortably at the most-watched show on morning TV—though just by a scant 104,000 viewers last week over NBC's Today, according to TV Newser.
Any sort of tension or clashing of egos that controversy junkies may have been hoping for has failed to materialize. The rumor was floated last summer, before he even got there, that longtime co-anchor Lara Spencer was mad because Strahan would be infringing on her promised spot at the table—but a source insisted to E! News that she and Michael were "very close friends" and talk of hard feelings just wasn't true.
Strahan was certainly given a warm welcome by GMA's core weekday morning team of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Spencer, Amy Robach and Ginger Zee—and GMA seems to suit Strahan, who had been excited to do more one-on-one interviews and in-depth pieces on subjects that spoke to him.
Moreover, the show also introduced along with its new co-anchor last September a new set that allows the hosts to interact with a live audience for part of the broadcast—studio audience interaction being something Strahan obviously already excelled at.
"It's great," he told E! News at a benefit for the GOOD+ Foundation in October, after he'd been on the job for a little over a month. "I don't know if you ever adjust to getting up, waking up so early—I don't know if that's possible, but I enjoy going in there."
He added, "I look forward to being there. It's fun, because it's new, it's exciting, and I'm learning so much, and I work with great people."
"Talk about somebody who's the real deal," Roberts, whose opinion presumably carries considerable weight (or at least it should) when it comes to who gets to sit at the GMA table, told People when it was announced that Strahan was coming aboard. "He's pure talent," as well as a "gentleman."
Fast-forward to today, and E! News is hearing that Roberts loves Strahan—and he loves her right back.
Which is nice, because who really wants their morning coffee with a side of animosity?
"We are very committed to the team we have," Tom Cibrowski, senior VP for ABC News programs, told the Los Angeles Times in December. "Robin is the most trusted person in America. George's interviews made the most news throughout the presidential campaign. And we think Michael Strahan is an amazing force of nature in anything he does."
Cibrowski brushed aside questions about the initial qualms industry watchers had about whether Strahan would fit in with the harder news focus of GMA's first hour. "We did not hire him to be a journalist," the executive said. "Michael can ask all kinds of questions. He's a curious, engaging human being and a fantastic television broadcaster."
Meanwhile, Strahan continues to not be content to just have one plum job, albeit one that requires waking up before dawn.
The former New York Giants star has also been an on-air analyst for Fox NFL Sunday since 2008, meaning for the past five years he's been in New York on weekdays and Los Angeles on weekends during football season.
When he was just starting out on Live in 2012, he was asked if any lessons he'd learned from his playing days and sports broadcasting could be applied to doing a morning show.
"They are very different worlds, but I think teamwork applies to any job that you're in in the business world," he told Ad Age. "I definitely apply teamwork. This job, too, in a lot of ways is more different than Fox, because over there, they don't expect us to do anything physical, because we're all beat-up football players, whereas here, you have to do physical things. It forces me to work out and stay in some shape, because I never know when I might be running around in a leotard."
But though the season is about over (he's picked the Atlanta Falcons to go all the way in Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5), Strahan will still be burning the candle at both ends.
He also hosts The $100,000 Pyramid on ABC and his SMAC Entertainment is executive-producing a pilot for a CNBC series to be hosted by Alex Rodriguez called Back in the Game (working title), which hooks retired pro athletes up with financial and business experts who can help them in thrive in life post-sports.
Oh, and not that you couldn't guess just by looking at him, but Strahan has become a fashion icon, too.
He was honored with the Future of Fashion Award at the Geoffrey Beane National Scholarship Awards dinner in NYC earlier this month for his foray into affordable menswear last year, Collection by Michael Strahan and MSX by Michael Strahan.
"Fashion is like football," he joked to the audience. "We all wear tight pants and run around screaming."
Not at all like morning TV, where all is—these days at least—quite civilized.
(E! News and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)