Robin Roberts Getting Ready For Medical Leave From ‘Good Morning America’

Robin Roberts will be taking some much-needed time off from Good Morning America starting sometime next month, while she undergoes a bone marrow transplant to treat a rare blood disease, myelodysplastic syndromes.

E! Online reports that Roberts, who was diagnosed with the rare blood disease earlier this year, stated of the transpllant that:

“It’s fascinating-slash-scary how to prepare yourself for something like this.”

The 51-year-old Good Morning America co-anchor admitted that she has been having “moments of fatigue,” but also said she’s excited about the show’s recent gains against rival morning show Today in the mornings ratings race. Roberts stated:

“The run that we’ve had has truly energized me. It’s pretty good medicine, I gotta say, to be taking!”

According to The Washington Post, Robin Roberts will have some pretty interesting fill-ins as well, as she listed Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, and Katie Couric among her “wonderful, wonderful friends at ABC News” who will be subbing for her during the bone marrow transplant process. Others have also mentioned talk-show host Kelly Ripa, as well as panelists from “The View,” another ABC talk show.

Robin Roberts was not the only one excited about GMA’s recent gains in the ratings race. Ben Sherwood, President of ABC News, was so inspired by the victory that he likened it to Olympic terms. He stated that, “For 852 straight (weekly) races, the ‘Today’ show won the gold medal, going back to 1995.” But then, GMA snapped Today’s winning streak, “and stood there alone for the first time in 16 years to get its own gold medal.” Sherwood went on to say that:

“And after 879 weeks running behind in younger viewers, 25-to-54….[GMA is] standing there at the gold-medal podium, unbelievably in an actual statistical tie with the previous champs.”

ABC News executive producer Tom Cibrowski spoke about Robin Roberts’ medical leave as well, according to Zap2it, saying:

“We also have the great resources of our entire company, and we have people like Kelly Ripa. The women of ‘The View’ have all offered as well to join us on any given day while Robin is gone. So we are looking forward to them, and to a lot of other great offers of support we are getting all the time because we have so many people who love Robin so, so much, love our entire team so much. Everyone is willing to come in and join us for a little bit.”

Will you miss Robin Roberts when she takes her medical leave from Good Morning America in late August?

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