Robin Roberts Plans February Return to 'Good Morning America' On Monday, Robin Roberts got to say "Good morning, America" on television for the first time in more than four months. And she said it with gusto, practically shouting it at the start of her first live appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America" since undergoing a bone marrow transplant last September. While still recovering in relative isolation at her New York apartment, Ms. Roberts announced on "G.M.A." that she had been cleared by her doctors to gradually come back to work. "We're talking about weeks, not months," Ms. Roberts said in a televised interview, signaling a likely return to the show sometime in February. When Ms. Roberts revealed last year that she had been diagnosed with MDS, short for myelodysplastic syndromes, a rare blood and bone marrow disorder, ABC News executives were careful not to predict how long she would be away. Some said they assumed she would be absent for six months to a year. But her body is responding well to the transplant from her older sister, Sally-Ann, according to her doctors. Though the doctors and executives remain cautious, the news is a huge relief for ABC's news division, which depends on "G.M.A." - and on Ms. Roberts, the show's biggest star - for several hundred million dollars in advertising revenue every year. "G.M.A." is now solidly the No. 1 morning show among total viewers, having defeated NBC's "Today" show in the ratings after 16 frustrating years in second place. But the race remains very close among the 25- to 54-year-old viewers that advertisers covet. Ms. Roberts's return may help tip the scales further in ABC's favor. Her return is surely to be heavily promoted by ABC, just as her announcement on Monday was teased on social networking Web sites for days in advance. "The greatest day in 'G.M.A.' history will be the day Robin returns to 'G.M.A.,' " said Tom Cibrowski, the show's senior executive producer, during a commercial break on Monday. The announcement on Monday came on the same day that "Today" pulled out all the stops with coverage of the Golden Globe Awards, which NBC televised the night before. All four co-hosts of "Today" were live in California for a morning-after show. ABC denied that Ms. Roberts's appearance was counterprogramming. Mr. Cibrowski said on Monday that ABC was being careful to follow the lead of Ms. Roberts and her doctors. "This is a part of her recovery," he said, just as returning to work is a normal part of recovery for many patients. There was no precedent in morning television - a time of day that calls for consistency and intimacy - for a long medical leave of absence by an anchor. The producers of "G.M.A." tried to lessen the possible impact by incorporating Ms. Roberts's Facebook and Twitter messages into the show and by making sure that her co-hosts mentioned her every half-hour. They also booked a number of special guests, including Oprah Winfrey and Ann Romney, and had two other ABC anchors, Elizabeth Vargas and Amy Robach, take turns filling in. On Monday, Ms. Roberts began the "process of re-entry," as she described it, by waking up at 4 a.m. for the live interview, about the same time she used to wake up for the show. She said she would continue the process next week by doing a "dry run": coming into the studio and getting dressed for the show, but not actually co-hosting it. "My doctors want me to see how many people I actually come into contact with," she said. Her interactions with staff members and fans outside the show's street-level studio in Times Square are a concern because she remains at risk of infection. But her eagerness to return was evident. "I can't wait to get back," she told her co-hosts. Ms. Roberts met with her doctors last Wednesday and received a thumbs-up to begin the re-entry process, according to staff members. She quickly called Mr. Cibrowski and told him the good news. On television, Ms. Roberts did not give a specific date for her return to the co-host chair. But she has told colleagues she has a date in mind: Feb. 26. That is the date in 2012 when she co-hosted ABC's coverage of the Academy Awards in Los Angeles and noticed that she felt exhausted. The feeling prompted her to visit her doctor, which in turn led to the MDS diagnosis.