Amy Robach and TJ Holmes join Olivia Wilde and John Mulaney in the group of celebrities whose careers have recently been marred by cheating scandals. But this one hits a little bit differently. Rather than suffer backlash in the form of scathing tweets, TikToks, and Instagram comments from those mired in parasocial relationships (one-way bonds between a fan and their object of affection) with the new couple, Robach and Holmes were taken off the air by Disney’s Morality Police. And for what? For being two light-footed, hot (and yes, adulterous) people who couldn’t keep our hands off each other and got lazy about covering our tracks?
The two Good morning America Anchors had theirs affair revealed by The Daily Mail on Nov. 30, which reportedly got ABC executives into a frenzy. Robach was absent from the show that same day but returned on December 1 to take her place alongside Holmes and her third presenter, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, without mentioning the surrounding drama.
The situation changed yesterday, Monday December 5, when TMZ reported that both presenters were “taken off the air” and would be replaced by two other correspondents; When the show was supposed to air, it actually did. The outlet reports that ABC President Kim Godwin said Robach and Holmes had not violated company policy, but their absence was seen as the “best thing for the ABC News organization.”
She continued by lecturing her staff, saying they needed to stop the “whispering in the hallways” because the “gossip, speculation and rumor” was affecting operations.
There’s so much to unpack here, but the biggest points are: given that Robach and Holmes didn’t break any policies of the network, why are they being treated as rule-breakers? And why are they blamed for ABC’s flawed work environment? If a cheating scandal — centered on a personal relationship — that has boosted interest in the show through both ratings and word of mouth has been able to affect operations at ABC News, it shouldn’t reflect badly on the network, and not on the individuals throw ?
Something seems to have been lost in translation.
Operated under Disney’s “family friendly” company, ABC’s Good morning America Franchise has seen its fair share of changes over the past few years. Show of Robach and Holmes (GMA3) came into being in September 2020 following the pandemic-related cancellation of the previous programme, which ran under the same name but was hosted by Keke Palmer, Michael Strahan and Sara Haines. Since its inception, the show has been liked but not well liked, but viewership has skyrocketed in the days since its co-hosts’ affair was revealed. On November 17 and 18, the show attracted a total of 1.497 million viewers and 1.544 million viewers, respectively, while viewership rose to 1.91 million the day (November 30) after the unveiling history, per TMZ.
This is good right? As a Twitter user put it“What worries me most about the TJ Holmes/Amy Robach scandal is that apparently I’m the only one who hasn’t heard of TJ Holmes or Amy Robach” — well you do now, kid!
The jump in ratings apparently wasn’t good enough for Kim Godwin, nor for newly installed Disney CEO Bob Iger, who recently returned to the Mouse House after a brief one-year retirement and the ill-fated run of Bob Chapek.
Many boasted that with Iger’s return, Disney and the companies under its parent label would return to a sense of normalcy and stability; but no one seems to be able to decipher what that actually means.
Over the years, Iger has been caught in the midst of some culture wars, with some praising him for his progressive ideologies — like direct publishing and his clashes with Georgia and Florida for criticizing states that support anti-women and anti-LGBT+ rulings — while others blast him for creating content that is “too awake”.
He went in the same direction in his speech Upon his return, he said that “inclusion” is valued by the company, but Disney also needs to “listen to its audience.” While there’s no confirmed correlation between Iger and ABC’s treatment of the cheating co-hosts, this is shaping up to be his first major misfire since his return – one that will win conservatives over to his side.
The decision to temporarily fire Holmes and Robach, two colleagues with equal power at the company, from their on-air positions because they had a consensual relationship outside of the workplace — and so did we knows They were outside when The Daily Mail has tons of photos of them at NYC bars, local shops, and an upstate country house — showing the network is more intent on upholding Puritan values than driving viewership.
Others say that keeping the hosts on the air would go against “moral clauses” and the brand’s “family-focused programming” – the latter ignoring that most news streams experience a constant cycle of Hollywood scandals, health crises and the booming recession (many of which were recently featured on the talk show) and the show’s lunchtime Monday through Friday, all of which set the show’s “this is for grown-ups” message.
It seems like there are two ways for viewers to get involved when scandals like this get wind, one is to join in as an underdog — and enjoy the embarrassment second-hand — and the other is to respond with purpose to control and change. Studio manager options are similar: ignore it and let it fade away, or cling to the faltering control you left behind.
But not all situations are that easy and get the attention they need. Check out Matt Lauer, who has been fired from his longtime job as a presenter The Today Show after multiple reports of sexual misconduct. Years before his shameful and involuntary departure from NBC for “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace,” he was simply branded a “womanizer.” Colleagues making fun of him for connecting with his female staff. The same colleagues got away with feigned innocence when the real allegations came to light. ABC’s handling of the Robach and Holmes affair erases the nuance between these situations (a consensual relationship of equals vs. gross abuse of power) and chooses the fail-safe option of supporting an unhealthy narrative obsessed with orthodox families and women.
The network’s leap to end the gossip is a wet blanket on the already dying celebrity culture, which is now spawning endless (and totally not funny!) scandals about politics and human rights and the like instead of letting hot people do it what hot people do best: getting laid and messy. It seems like a “mountain out of a molehill” situation where it all boils down to: Can you? Yes, really fire someone for cheating? Especially When are the reviews so good?