George Stephanopoulos to co-host 'Good Morning America'

written by Howard Kurtz
story by Washington Post

George Stephanopoulos has accepted ABC's offer to co-host "Good Morning America" and will start Monday, while Chris Cuomo will remain with the network as the co-anchor of "20/20."

The network plans to formally announce Thursday that Stephanopoulos will succeed Diane Sawyer on the morning show, and that Emmy Award-winning ABC correspondent JuJu Chang will take Cuomo's spot as news anchor. Chang also writes a blog about balancing work and family called "JuJu Juggles."

The Washington Post reported last week that ABC News President David Westin had offered Stephanopoulos the job, picking him over Cuomo to co-host GMA with Robin Roberts.

ABC has essentially come to terms with Cuomo, son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo, to co-anchor "20/20," according to network sources who would not be quoted by name discussing internal personnel matters. But the final contractual details remain to be hammered out, those sources say.

Cuomo, who was being courted by other networks, was considering leaving ABC unless he got an offer to be an anchor on the newsmagazine show.

The sources say Stephanopoulos will continue to host "This Week" for an unspecified period of time while the network figures out who will succeed him. That means Stephanopoulos will essentially be working seven days a week, in New York for "GMA" and back in Washington for the Sunday show.

Stephanopoulos, now ABC's chief Washington correspondent, had told network executives he wanted to inject "GMA" with a harder-news focus as a condition of taking the job. Once those concerns were worked out, he accepted and is making plans to move his family to New York.

Some ABC staffers have questioned whether the program is the right fit for the former Clinton
White House aide.