ABC’s “This Week” is bringing back George Stephanopoulos little more than a year after Christiane Amanpour replaced him and sent him to NYC for their morning show. There were rumors of Amanpour’s departure for some time, that the shakeup came from both parties with Amanpour longing to do more field reporting as opposed to sitting behind a desk.
NEW YORK — George Stephanopoulos is returning to Sunday mornings at ABC News, replacing Christiane Amanpour as host of the political talk show “This Week.”
ABC said Tuesday that Stephanopoulos, who returns Jan. 8, will remain as host of “Good Morning America,” although likely on a four-day schedule.
Amanpour, meanwhile, enters an unusual job-sharing role where she will become ABC’s global affairs anchor, contributing to prime-time shows on world news, while also being host of a daily show on CNN International.
[…]
Critics wondered from the start whether the Iranian-born Amanpour, a veteran foreign correspondent for CNN, was a good fit for a panel show dominated by American politics. It hasn’t budged from third place behind NBC’s “Meet the Press” and a resurgent “Face the Nation” on CBS, with the ABC show down 1 percent in ratings from last year.
That seems about right. Amanpour is very good in an international role; the American political spectrum is beyond the construct in which viewers are used to seeing her. Audiences tend to gravitate to old standbys during an election cycle, and Stephanopoulos fits that bill better than does Amanpour — whereas he would not fare as well if his scope consisted of international reporting.
This should do better for ABC’s morning ratings and it still keeps Amanpour in the ABC family.
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