Sunday morning host will slide in for Diane Sawyer
By Toni Fitzgerald Dec 10, 2009
ABC finally confirmed today that the host of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" will replace Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America" as Sawyer moves on to anchor "World News," starting next week.
While this solves the immediate problem of Sawyer's succession, Stephanopoulos' move raises a whole string of questions.
The most immediate question is who will eventually succeed the former Clinton White House aide as host of "This Week," ABC's Sunday morning show, at a point when it has been gaining on NBC's long-dominant "Meet the Press" this season.
But there are more critical questions regarding ABC's daily news shows.
How will Stephanopoulos handle morning news' lighter fare? Can "GMA's" ratings hold up without Sawyer? And does the move designate Stephanopoulos as the likely successor to Sawyer when she eventually steps down?
In fact, succession seems to be a major issue for ABC News, more than three years after the death of Peter Jennings set off a game of musical chairs whose repercussions are still playing out.
ABC did not have a successor in place when Jennings died of lung cancer in 2005. It took five months for the network to install Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff as his replacement, but that lasted only a few weeks. Woodruff was seriously injured while on assignment in Iraq and Vargas became pregnant.
A few months later, Charles Gibson stepped into the anchor seat, but when he informed ABC management several months ago that he was ready to leave, the network again seemed caught off guard.
While Sawyer was the immediate and obvious choice as Gibson's successor, there was no one ready to slip into her seat at "GMA." Anonymous staffers groused to the press about the protracted search for her replacement, which grew longer as ABC News and Stephanopoulos tussled over whether he could stay on at "This Week" as well.
He wanted to. The network felt it was impossible. He will remain until a successor is named, but likely only for a matter of months rather than years.
Just who that successor will be is unclear. It will not be Chris Cuomo, the popular "GMA" newsreader considered Sawyer's likely replacement if Stephanopoulos turned down the job. Cuomo's consolation prize is a co-anchor seat with Vargas at "20/20."
But ABC's talent pool has fewer big names than NBC, the No. 1 network news operation, which considered seemingly half a dozen serious candidates for the "Press" job after Tim Russert died.
The frontrunner for "This Week" is ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper, a well-regarded Washington veteran. "Nightline's" Terry Moran is another candidate should the network decide to stay in-house.
One name that popped up during the "Press" search and could be a possibility for "Week" is PBS's Gwen Ifill. She's smart, tough and unafraid of controversy, all traits that served Stephanopoulos well during his "Week" tenure.
As for Stephanopoulos, his focus now is segueing from asking tough questions of Washington politicians to lobbing softballs at the latest "Dancing with the Stars" reject. He has yet to show that he has the humor and humility to handle the morning job.
While he has filled in for Sawyer in the past, that's not the same as sitting in that chair week in and week out, and "GMA" has become ABC's proving ground for future anchors.
Both Sawyer and Gibson co-hosted the show before moving to the evening news, and that seems to be the logical next step for Stephanopoulos when Sawyer, who is 63, retires.
Stephanopoulos will also have to establish chemistry with current co-host Robin Roberts to ensure that viewers stay tuned.
Whenever a new anchor joins one of the morning shows there's some degree of viewer churn. Meanwhile, morning shows have been losing audience for years as viewers have more and more choices.
If "GMA" can simply continue in second place behind NBC's "Today" while losing only 2 percent or 3 percent of its audience during Stephanopoulos' first year, that's probably an accomplishment. These days staying flat is a challenge in itself, to say nothing of gaining audience.
There would appear little risk that ratings would suddenly take a huge tumble. ABC's worry is that they decline in the double digits.
