The early mornings of Michael Strahan on ‘Good Morning America’
TV Personality Michael Strahan attends AT&T Audience Network Celebrates the "Religion of Sports" at St. Bart's Cathedral on November 3, 2016 in New York City. Credit: Getty Images for DirecTV / Dave Kotinsky
Michael Strahan spent four years schlepping on autumn weekends from Los Angeles, where on Sundays he appears on Fox’s NFL studio show, to New York, where he had to be on set at 9 a.m. Monday for “Live! With Kelly and Michael.”
If that was difficult, how is he managing the commute now that he is a full-time cast member of “Good Morning America,” which begins at 7 a.m.?
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have a thing with ABC that on Mondays, outside of a few Mondays that I’ve chosen to come back, that on Mondays I have the opportunity not to come in,” the former Giant and Pro Football Hall of Famer said Thursday night in Manhattan.
He was at an event to promote the new Audience Network documentary series “Religion of Sports” for which he and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady are producers. It premieres Nov. 15.
“There have been a few [Mondays] that I’ve come in because I knew that it was important to the show and to the team so I’m willing to do that. But that has been a lifesaver for me, big time.”
From Tuesday through Friday, though, Strahan must endure early wakeup calls.
“I just get up earlier,” he said. “I get up about 5, 5:30. It’s not that you ever get used to it, but I’ve got to say, if you enjoy what you do, when you get there you’re fine. So for me, when I wake up I’m like everybody else, 5 o’clock in the morning I’m thinking maybe I should have gone to bed a little bit earlier. But by 5:30, 6 I’m fine.
“I love being there. I love the people. I love the job. It’s interesting. It reminds me a lot of football. Because of not growing up [in Germany] playing it and not growing up in the [TV] business, every day I go and I want to learn and I’m learning and I’m eager and I’m interested and that’s always been the thing for me.
“I never wanted to get bored at anything, because once I did I just wouldn’t be able to put my heart into it.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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