What is probably hardest about the "GMA" job, though he does not say so, is that he and [Joan Lunden] will be under pressure to wrest the No. 1 in-the- morning title away from "Today." Lunden has just signed another one-year- contract with the show and remains on maternity leave, having given birth to her third daughter. Once she returns and autumn settles in around them as a team, Gibson and she expect to feel the pressure. (They'll reteam for a nighttime version of "GMA" at 10 p.m. on Sept. 11).

What is supposed to work is that he and Lunden have chemistry and there is no resentment between them. It's no secret that Lunden bridled under [David Hartman]'s dominance. Hartman made the show his own over 11 years, and once gone, Lunden was widely quoted as saying about Gibson: "It's nicer working with someone who's working with you, instead of next to you."

"Then Joan came in and was accepted very well. But I think she always felt the frustration. Joan has said to me and to others that she didn't like the fact that the program would begin with 'Good morning. I'm David Hartman and I'm here with Joan Lunden and this is what we're going to do this morning.' That kind of stuff hurt.