The Strange Way Former GMA Anchor Joan Lunden Got Her Start On Television

While she's since settled into a role as a special correspondent for the "Today" show on NBC, Joan Lunden is perhaps best known for her 17-year stint co-anchoring "Good Morning America" on ABC. During her time as one of the faces of "GMA," Lunden made quite an impressive name for herself, interviewing numerous presidents and first ladies, including the Reagans, the Bushes, and the Clintons. Not only that, but when Lunden eventually departed the show in 1997, ABC spared no expense, bringing in Celine Dion to play her off. So, given her illustrious career in front of the cameras, it may surprise you to learn that Lunden got her start in television in a rather strange way: being offered a weathercaster job in a parking lot at a time when women in broadcast journalism were few and far between.

As Lunden recalled during a February 2026 interview with Woman's World, she hadn't even considered going into TV until 1973 – when she was already about 23 years old. In fact, her original plan was to become a surgeon, just like her father. Before too long, however, she realized that she wasn't really cut out for it. "I graduated from high school and couldn't wait to go to work in a hospital that [my father] had helped found," Lunden shared, adding, "I found out quickly — scalpels and stitches were not part of my storyline."

It was a family friend who pitched the pivot to TV news, and although she was skeptical that she could land a job in such a male-dominated field, Lunden decided to go for it. Her first big audition was seemingly a failure when she exited the building that day, but it ended up being a success by the time she got to her car.

When Joan Lunden first auditioned at KCRA-TV in Sacramento in 1973, it didn't exactly go as planned. As we previously alluded to, she probably wasn't particularly surprised by that. "I mean, Barbara Walters was on 'The Today Show' at the time, but I don't know if I could name another woman who was on TV in 1973," she said in her 2026 Woman's World interview. While the news team passed on Lunden, the station's weathercaster saw potential and approached her in the parking lot. "I just saw your audition, and I'd like to make you Sacramento's first weather girl," he said, according to Lunden. The rest was history.

Well, actually, there's a bit more to the story. In just two years, Lunden worked her way up to the co-anchor spot, which rubbed her co-workers the wrong way, given her lack of a journalism background. While Lunden was able to sympathize with where they were coming from, she made no apologies for taking opportunities as they were presented to her. "Be so good they can't ignore you," she told Woman's World regarding her mindset, and boy, did the opportunities come.

Lunden swapped coasts to take a job at New York's WABC-TV in 1975. Another year later, she landed a gig as a reporter on "Good Morning America." By 1980, she was co-anchoring the show with David Hartman. Recalling her first day on the job in an August 2016 Facebook post, Lunden wrote, "I'll never forget 36 years ago today ... I was only 30 years old! And, I had an 8 wk old baby in my arms as I entered the studio." To think, a parking lot chat in Sacramento started it all.