a co-host of the show was only meant to be temporary, but Griffith remained a co-host throughout the remainder of the program's history. In August 1972, the program's producers decided to replace the news desk set with a set that resembled a suburban living room; Griffith, Richards, and Rose would instead recline on couches. Producers felt that this would make viewers feel more relaxed and comfortable. This idea seemed to work, as the format became more relaxed as the hosts developed chemistry on screen. As a result, many viewers felt that the on-air set was an extension of their own living room and that the personalities were a part of their families. MX quickly became extremely popular, with an average of 67% of television viewers tuning in each day. The format was so successful that ABC used The Morning Exchange as the pilot for its national morning program Good Morning America, which replaced the struggling A.M. America in 1975. The format quickly caught on and soon GMA beat NBC's Today in the ratings. Soon thereafter, both NBC and CBS adopted the format for their morning shows. On March 16, 1979 in an emotional episode, a tearful Richards left the show in order to care for her children. This followed years of her personal life and her volatile marriage to Cleveland disc jockey Gary Dee spilling over into the headlines on other news outlets. She was replaced by Jan Jones. In 1983, Jones became a consultant for WEWS and left the show. Joel Rose left WEWS-TV in 1984, to devote himself full-time to his talk show on radio station WJW (850 AM, now WKNR), and Randi Hall became the new co-host of the show for a year-and-a-half. Rose would return to the show in 1986 and remain until 1990. The news segment updates were now delivered by either Jenny Crimm or Lou Maglio. Unlike Rose, however, Crimm and Maglio simply read the news and were not co-hosts. In 1987, Lee Jordan became the new co-host, filling the void left by Hall's earlier departure. From 1976 to 1982 and then again from 1988 until the show's end, Lynda Hirsch provided recaps and previews of soap operas. She developed such a reputation on the show that she was given her own nationally syndicated newspaper column. David Moss (now with WJW, channel 8) served as entertainment reporter from 1985 to 1993. In 1990, Jon