“Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts received a standing ovation as she accepted her George Foster Peabody Award Monday. Roberts is the first journalist since Walter Cronkite to get a standing ovation at the awards lunch, held annually at the Waldorf Astoria.

Roberts, pictured here with ABC News president Ben Sherwood, was honored for reports on her bone marrow transplant, which successfully raised awareness for Be the Match, an organization that registers potential bone marrow donors.

“As journalists we want to cover stories that cause a reaction that leads to action,” Roberts said in her speech. “We had no idea chronicling my journey would cause such a catalyst for action … many becoming bone marrow donors.”

Scott Pelley emceed the event. CBS News, PBS and CNN were among this year’s other winners.

Several television news journalists have landed on Reader’s Digest list of “The 100 Most Trusted People in America.” At #12, “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts is the most-trusted television news personality on the list.

In addition to Roberts, the morning shows are well represented: “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos is #57, while “Today” show co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer are #85 and #97, respectively.

The three evening news anchors make the list –ABC’s Diane Sawyer at #25, NBC’s Brian Williams at #29 and CBS’ Scott Pelley at #63. ABC’s Barbara Walters (#34), Katie Couric (#37) and Christiane Amanpour (#56) are also among the most trusted.

From the cable news landscape, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta is #17 and  Anderson Cooper is #50. HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky is #90 and Fox News anchor Shepard Smith rounds out the list at #100.

Midway through her Key West vacation last week, “GMA” anchor Robin Roberts started not feeling well. Her doctors advised her to return to New York and be admitted to the hospital. On her Facebook page, Roberts writes, “Seems my young immune system needed a little boost to fight off ‘opportunistic infections.’”

My doctors assured me that this was NOT because I was working or doing too much, too soon. It’s extremely common, post bone marrow transplant, to have complications. I’m blessed that mine have not been severe. I’m feeling MUCH better, and will relax at home for the rest of the week. I’ll be back on GMA next week…as my sweet momma would say: “Good Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise!”

It was a year ago this week that ABC’s “Good Morning America” learned it had unseated “Today” as the leading network morning show. While “GMA” has gone on to win most weeks since, the race is still tight. That’s why ABC News president Ben Sherwood tells his team to play like they’re still behind.

In a B&C cover story, Sherwood tells Andrea Morabito, “My message to them repeatedly is when you knock the champs down who’ve been champs for 16-17 years, they get back up and they throw even tougher punches.”

“GMA” Senior EP Tom Cibrowski doesn’t think the morning shifts are over yet. He’s spent most of his 10 years with the “GMA” in “Today’s” shadow: “I think if you spend a long time at No. 2, you build those genes, the DNA becomes part of your structure that you’ll never lose, you’ll never stop being scrappy, you’ll never stop looking at your show as coming from behind.”

A year ago ABC’s “Good Morning America” was rapidly gaining on NBC’s “Today” show which had held the crown of morning show leader for more than 16 years.

During this week last year “GMA” lost to “Today’ by 190,000 viewers. This year, “GMA” has a 702,000 viewer advantage on “Today,” even widening their lead from last week.

For the week of April 1, “GMA” wins in both total viewers and younger viewer and is up +8 in viewers and up +7 in the demo. The biggest gainer of the week is “CBS This Morning” which is up +13% in viewers and flat in the demo. “Today” is down -9% / -11%, respectively, vs. last year.

The averages for the week of April 1, 2013:

• Total Viewers: ABC: 5.338M / NBC: 4.636M / CBS: 2.787M

• A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.952M / NBC: 1.889M / CBS: 1.011M

For the first time in 19 years “Good Morning America” has won a Q1 in Total Viewers and for the first time in 20 years, “GMA” has taken the A25-54 demo in Q1. The ABC morning show won last week in both measurements as well, though “Today” got close in the demo.

#3 “CBS This Morning” showed the most year-over-year growth in the quarter: +13% in total viewers and +4% in the demo. This is the closest CBS has gotten to NBC in a first quarter in total viewers since 1995, and in A25-54 viewers since 1994.

“GMA” was also up: +9 / +1%, respectively for the quarter. “Today,” which lost its 16-year reign as the morning leader at the start of Q2 2012, was down double digits: -12% in total viewers / -17% in the demo.

For the week, “GMA” was the only show to grow in both measurements: +6% / +11%. “CBS This Morning,” was up in total viewers compared to the same week last year: +12%, but was down -2% in the demo. “Today” was down -9% / -16%, respectively, but got within 4,000 younger viewers of “GMA.”

The averages for the week of March 25:

• Total Viewers: ABC: 5.159M / NBC: 4.511M / CBS: 2.711M

• A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.837M / NBC: 1.833M / CBS: 991K

The averages for Q1 2013:

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• ABC’s Robin Roberts, FNC’s Bill Hemmer CNN’s VP of programming Janelle Rodriguez have been named to Variety’s Daytime TV Impact Honorees List.

• The Writers Guild of America has negotiated a new three-year agreement with CBS News, covering approximately 325 newswriters, editors, desk assistants, assistant producers and production assistants in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

• Meghan McCain won’t be doing a TV show with Bristol Palin called McCain-Palin, at least according to McCain. FishbowlDC has the tweets.

ABC News has promoted a pair of executives charged with wrangling tough interviews. Eric Avram has been promoted to Senior EP of division-wide interviews, reporting to ABC News president Ben Sherwood. In that role Avram will be in charge of interviews for ABC’s Medical, Business and Law & Justice teams as well as the Woodruff unit and the investigative units.

Santina Leuci, “Good Morning America’”s chief booker, will become executive editorial producer, while retaining her “GMA” duties. She will continue to report to “GMA” senior EP Tom Cibrowski.

Avram has been the man charged with booking big guests for many of ABC’s primetime specials. As the network moved away from paying for interviews via license fees, it has been able to book big guests by promising maximum exposure on multiple platforms and shows. Leuci has been at the forefront of “GMA’”s revival, particularly during Robin Roberts‘ absence from the program, when a number of big names stepped in to help fill her shoes.

Sherwood’s note to staff, after the jump.
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• Fox Business Network has hired Jo Ling Kent as a business reporter, based in New York. Kent joins FBN from NBC O&O WVIT in Hartford, CT. Kent previously worked for ABC News, CNN and as an embed for NBC News during the 2012 election.

• Speaking of FBN, Lou Dobbs is profiled by the Palm Beach Post. Dobbs has a home in the Palm Beach area. He talks about Palm Beach, but also his show on FBN.

• Newsweek/The Daily Beast has released its “125 Women of Impact” list, and a few TV personalities made the cut, including ABC’s Robin Roberts,  former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien and Oprah Winfrey.

• “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts will be filling in for Kelly Ripa on “Live with Kelly and Michael” next Monday. Roberts will join Michael Strahan in interviewing Laurence Fishburne, among other guests.

• Fox News anchor Bret Baier talks to Delta Sky magazine (you know, the free one you get on Delta flights). His topic of discussion: political hotspot Naples, Florida.

• Al Jazeera is pushing back against the report yesterday that they would be shipping dozens of jobs from London to Doha. Rather, the company says a handful of jobs in the UK will temporarily shift to Qatar, which is short-staffed as they launch Al Jazeera America. Staffers will move back to London in a few months.