two hours of Good Morning America. By 1994, WEWS was the only ABC station remaining among the 25 largest television markets in the country that did not broadcast the full two hours of GMA. That move proved devastating to The Morning Exchange. Its timeslot was pushed back to 9–11 a.m., missing the commuter rush hour audience. Additionally, the show's original target audience, stay-at-home housewives and mothers, had nearly disappeared since the show's debut, as more women entered the workforce, and those that remained began to regard the show's format as antiquated. In addition, other stations also began increasing the amount of local programming it aired in the early morning hours. Most notably, WJW easily and successfully compensated for the loss of the perennially low-rated CBS This Morning as a result of the Fox switch by expanding its weekday morning newscast to 9 a.m., and later, beyond. The only remaining advantage for WEWS was that ABC's late morning programming at the time, including Home, Mike and Maty, and Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends, was wholly uncompetitive nationwide, had no ownership stake by ABC, and was easily pushed into the late night graveyard slot, as WEWS did with all three series in favor of MX. At the end of 1996, WAKR ended its ABC affiliation, leaving WEWS to be the area's only ABC affiliate, but also removing a buffer that allowed the station to direct viewers to pre-empted network programming, placing additional pressure on the station to air ABC programming in pattern. In 1997 as part of another Scripps/ABC deal, WEWS began airing Live with Regis and Kathie Lee during the 9 a.m. hour, bumping The Morning Exchange to the 10 a.m. to noon slot (the station had been airing Live from 11 a.m. to noon, two hours later than most stations that carry the program, ever since it debuted in national syndication in 1988). In an unusual move, WEWS slotted the syndicated (and at the time, half-hour) Martha Stewart Living program in the middle of the MX broadcast, making it appear as if it was an extended segment of the show. In 1998, major changes occurred to the program: it was retitled Today's Morning Exchange and was soon reduced to one hour, in an attempt to save the declining show. Viewers and ABC had also begun to clamor for The View, which premiered in 1997 to acclaim and success compared to