After months of rumors speculating who would fill George Stephanopoulos' seat at ABC's This Week -- and a circulating roster of fill-ins -- we have an answer. Christiane Amanpour is leaving her longtime employer CNN to take over the position. Memos from both CNN and ABC below. (more...)

video After collaborating in the Jay Leno-bashing during the NBC late night wars, David Letterman and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel reminisced on the experience during Kimmel's guest spot on the CBS late show last night. Both described it as "fun," but only Kimmel was armed with a few more jabs. (more...)

In a surprise move, FishbowlDC is reporting longtime CNN anchor and foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour has been offered the ABC Sunday morning show This Week anchor job. She was initially thrown into the mix for the vacant role earlier this month. But thel hiring of Amanpour would signal a major direction shift for the future of This Week. (more...)

video Well, regardless of one's position on the current state health care reform, there should be some joy in that its finally coming to an end, evidenced by the pitched rhetoric on both sides of the debate. Earlier today we saw WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confident claim of having the votes to pass a bill in the house. And now we see Senator Lindsey Graham present the yin to that yang during an interview with host Jake Tapper on This Week. (more...)

ABC's Good Morning America weekend anchor Kate Snow is leaving the network and joining NBC. The news was first reported by TVNewser. It is the latest change at Good Morning America since Diane Sawyer left to become World News anchor. (more...)

Well that's one way to end a dispute: Tonight Cablevision will be offering their subscribers exclusive On Demand movies at no charge, including Academy Award nominees The Hurt Locker and District 9. This of course, is in response to the fact that they won't be able to show the Oscars themselves, due to a last-minute breakdown in negotiations with ABC. (more...)

video By now you may have heard that Cablevision may be unable to show the Oscar broadcast, after a fight between the television provider and The Walt Disney Company fell through. Which might not be so big of a deal, except that um, Disney has WABC, the station that showcases the Academy Awards. (more...)

The guest hosting carousel at This Week continues Sunday with political analyst Matthew Dowd. Now Politico reports on a new name added to the growing list of possible anchors - CNN's Christiane Amanpour. (more...)

video Answer: no. But Barbara Walters will be ending her 29-year run of Oscars specials when the final one airs Sunday at 7pm, And before she goes, she's going on competing networks (and cracking jokes) to promote the hell out of it. (more...)

ABC is deploying former Bush strategist and political commentator Matthew Dowd to moderate their Sunday political program This Week this Sunday, which is currently rotating hosts on a weekly basis since the departure of George Stephanopoulos to Good Morning America. With Jake Tapper, Barbara Walters, and Terry Moran among past rotating hosts, Dowd will be the first moderator since Stephanopoulos himself to have a background outside of objective journalism. (more...)

video Former CBS correspondent Bernie Goldberg was on The Factor tonight promoting his new book "A Slobbering Love Affair" (not the good kind), and helping Bill O'Reilly lament the fall of network news. "These guys who run the three networks think their title is President of the News Division," said the man who once wrote a book called 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (90 percent liberals, apparently), "their real title is "funeral director." (more...)

video ABC's George Stephanopoulos was a guest on The O'Reilly Factor late last year, and this morning the tables turned. The Good Morning America host interviewed Bill O'Reilly, who was candid and balanced in his critique of partisan politics, Sarah Palin and more. So much so, it had Stephanopoulos asking if O'Reilly might run for political office as the man in the middle. (more...)

Is it gay-baiting to call the head of the government agency responsible for surveillance and airport screening "Big Sis"?  It is--according to Huffington Post's Eat The Press Columnist Jason Linkins and Towleroad's Andy Towle--when you are referring to the never-married Janet Napolitano and you reference Matt Drudge. ABC is taking some heat for an online article that describes Napolitano as "he former Arizona governor, dubbed "Big Sis" by one conservative blogger," who "oversees more than 188,000 civilian employees, 200,000 contractors and an amalgam of 20 subagencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration." It is the reference to Drudge--who knows a little something about being gay-baited--that raises the spectre that ABC was furthering a suggestion/smear that Napolitano is a lesbian. In January, Drudge featured a picture of Napolitano and a picture of naked female scan on top of a headline that read "Big Sis Wants to See Under Your Clothes." Andrew Sullivan, and others, immediately called "foul," with Sullivan quipping "Isn't outing people something Drudge might want to avoid?" ABC's reference to Drudge is what's drawing the current heat.  Linkins said there was "no substantive reason" for ABC to include the reference, and suggested "hey just want to smirk about Napolitano's sexual back story which, I guess to their minds, has some important bearing on her ability to carry out the duties of her office." Drudge didn't invent the "Big Sis" line. There are references to Napolitano as "Big Sister" going back to the beginning of her tenure at DHS. She does, after all, run the agency responsible for snooping in luggage and setting up scanners at airports.  And it was her agency that suggested, controversially, that conservative fringe groups were a terrorism threat and should be watched. While the Big Brother/Big Sis is certainly a great parallel--especially if you worry about such things--it's less clear whether that was the reference ABC was going for when it used the name and then name-checked Drudge. While it seems fair game to accuse Drudge of gay-baiting, does that accusation extend all the way to ABC just because they referenced him?

Mediaite has learned a major round of buyouts are expected to be offered at ABC News tomorrow, numbered in the "hundreds." This comes as major changes are happening at the network in key anchor roles, with one job (anchor of This Week) still unfilled. (more...)

video California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was on ABC's “This Week” hosted by Terry Moran and dismissed the Tea Party movement. "The Tea Party is not going to go anywhere,” Schwarzenegger told Moran. “I think the Tea Party is all about just an expression of anger and dissatisfaction.” (more...)

video Barbara Walters announced on The View this week that this year's pre-Oscars interview special would be her last, after nearly 30 years. But what will she do for her next special? Jimmy Kimmel gave his take. (more...)

video The Snowpocalypse has given skeptics a reason to dance on the frozen grave of climate change, from Sean Hannity to Matt Drudge to Senator Jim Inhofe's grandkids. Needless to say, it is driving the greener-than-thou community and the scientists who actually study this material crazy. Case in point: former DNC chair Howard Dean on ABC News last night expressing complete loss of belief in the legitimacy of Republican global warming detractors and claiming they simply "don't believe in science." (more...)

video This week's This Week anchor will be someone new - no Jake Tapper or Terry Moran or even Barbara Walters. It will be ABC's Senior Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl, who has a big exclusive interview - and introduced the ABC News audience to his family in a fun snow segment last night on World News. (more...)

your moment of glenn Glenn Beck may want to consider some sort of future career as a professor...he's very good with the pointer stick. Beck set aside a segment of tonight's show to specifically address the remarks Arianna Huffington made to Roger Ailes on this Sunday's This Week. (Actually he began with a fun lesson ratings: "how can you kill something that's already dead?" SNAP). During the panel segment of This Week Huffington decried the language Beck uses on his show and asked Ailes whether he isn't “concerned about the language that Glenn Beck is using, which is, after all, inciting the American people?” (Short answer: no.) One of the phrases that particularly bothered Huffington -- "slaughtered" which she seems to understand as the slaughtering of actual people -- came from this quote from Beck from a show that aired back in November. (more...)

Remember how the Lost Season 6 Premiere was so important that President Obama made sure his State of the Union Address didn't conflict with it? Well, sometimes people on the Internet aren't as respectful of rabid Lost fans as the President. On Friday, the first four minutes of the hotly anticipated and closely-guarded Lost premiere leaked, and on Saturday, someone posted the ENTIRE premiere episode on Ustream, straight from this weekend's special screening in Hawaii. The pirated version was taken down sometime on Sunday — but not before I got a few screenshots to verify that it was, in fact, legit. I don't watch Lost — I refused to let J.J. Abrams torment me and toy with my emotions after being far too invested in Alias — despite having been an equally rabid fan of Party of Five, William Mapother being Tom Cruise's cousin, Evangeline Lilly being Canadian, and Sawyer being really, really hot. (more...)

video It was a news-making This Week on ABC today, as Barbara Walters took the helm for not just Scott Brown's first big sit-down but an epic roundtable from around the political spectrum. The two stand-out guests - CEO and President of Fox News Roger Ailes making his first appearance ever on This Week and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington. (more...)

video Newly-elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown made his Sunday morning show debut today, with a very Barbara Walters-like Barbara Walters interview on ABC's This Week. It gave millions a chance to get to know the up-and-comer Republican, and gave Brown the opportunity to come face-to-face with his Cosmo spread. (more...)

ratings The overnight ratings are in for Pres. Obama's first State of the Union, and the broadcast networks combined for 30.2 million total viewers during the 9-10:30pm speech. The winner for the night - surprisingly it was FOX, which surely benefited from its American Idol lead-in. (more...)

video Friday night's Hope For Haiti special aired across nearly 100 networks around the world - and raised more than $50 million. The initial broadcast network numbers are in, and the ratings are looking very strong. (more...)

The conventional wisdom about American news audiences is they don't care nearly as much about international news as the rest of the world. There have been studies that aimed to prove this point. But the disaster coverage in Haiti has shown in this particular case, the conventional wisdom doesn't apply. American audiences, on broadcast and cable news, are tuning in in large numbers. (more...)

Cross Ted Koppel off the list of potential anchors of ABC's Sunday morning show This Week. Broadcasting & Cable's Marisa Guthrie reports that, despite previous reports, talks have ended between ABC and the former Nightline anchor without an offer. (more...)

video FBN anchor John Stossel returned to his former network, ABC, for an interview with the women of The View. The discussion, about banks, bonuses and the government's role (you can guess where libertarian Stossel stands), was spirited, but ultimately came to some common ground. (more...)

video There have been so many powerful, heartbreaking moments in the four days of since the mainstream media converged on Haiti to cover the tragic earthquake that hit last week. We've highlighted a few from last week: Anderson Cooper, Campbell Brown, Steve Harrigan (we spoke with Harrigan today - more from him later). Here are videos from this weekend, one from each news network, that show the various sides of the incredibly sad story - and the fantastic work being done by journalists in the region. (more...)

video On the night rumors swirled over whether Ted Koppel may be heading back to ABC News as anchor of This Week, he was on BBC America in his commentator role to talk about the response to the Christmas Day attempted terror attack. And the former hard newsman did not hold back on making his very strong opinions known. (more...)

Ted Koppel has been offered ABC's This Week job, reports Politico's Mike Allen 'exclusively' and definitively this morning. Except, the story has already changed - and ABC News President David Westin has delivered a strong smackdown of Allen's rushed "reporting". (more...)

Which reporter logged the most minutes of air time during from 2000-2009? The honor goes to Andrea Mitchell of NBC, according to the invaluable resource that is Andrew Tyndall's TyndallReport.com. Here's a full breakdown. (more...)

The final numbers are in for George Stephanopoulos' first week on Good Morning America. So how did he and the rest of the new ABC News morning show team do? It depends on how you look at it. (more...)

The year 2009 had many media bright spots, break-out stars, dominating networks and game-changing technologies.  The Mediaite 50 collects the finest, most exemplary innovators and influencers of the year, defining a media moment in time and setting the agenda as we move forward. (more...)

Q&A With Diane Sawyer's "smooth" debut last night as anchor of ABC's World News, the transitions taking place at the network are beginning to come to light. Executive Producer Jon Banner says it was a "solid" start - and talked to Mediaite about ratings, how Sawyer is different from Charlie Gibson and more. (more...)

Now that 2009 is coming to a close, it's time to start thinking about 2010. Specifically, November 2010. ABC News' Deputy Political Director Teddy Davis takes a look at 10 important races to watch - and races the media is getting ready to cover very closely. (more...)

video Stanley Tucci, along with his former "Devil Wears Prada" co-star Emily Blunt, was a guest on The View today to talk about his new movie, "The Lovely Bones." Things got awkward as Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked Tucci about whether his wife had seen the film - his wife who passed away in April. (more...)

George Stephanopoulos' debut on Good Morning America Monday morning did not do much to help the show cut into NBC's Today show lead. The difference between the two programs was even wider than the previous week. (more...)

video Ashley Dupre made a stop at The View today to talk about her new New York Post column, cheating men and more. Soon-to-be departing ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson was there too, but he was the 2nd guest (priorities). Also, she poked fun at how little the Post pays (it's no prostitution, that's for sure). (more...)

video Sunday morning on This Week, George Stephanopoulos announced his move to Good Morning America tomorrow, bright and early. At the end of today's broadcast, Stephanopoulos took a moment to address his job switch, thanking the viewers and noting that he would continue as host "until a successor is named." As previously reported by Mediaite, accepting the GMA position meant that Stephanopoulos would vacate the This Week job, a trade-off that seemed to initially be a question mark for the Washington-savvy former Clinton staffer. For now, it seems Stephanopoulos can have his cake and eat it, too, at least on a temporary basis. Below is a transcript of the host's remarks, followed by the video clip:

That's our show for today. You may have heard that tomorrow I start at “Good Morning America." It's going to be a great challenge for me, and I hope you'll tune in there too. My only regret as I head to New York is that I won't be able to continue our Sundays on “This Week” for very much longer. As all of you know, this has been a special and important forum for discussing politics and public affairs ever since David Brinkley began the program almost thirty years ago. It's been a big part of my life too -- and an honor to anchor these last seven years. I'll continue until a successor is named, so for now, I'll just say thanks for sharing part of this Sunday with us. We'll see you next week.

Q&A With ABC's Good Morning America line-up finally set in stone - led by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts as well as Sam Champion and Juju Chang - the show can begin to focus on Monday's debut and what the future holds. Executive Producer Jim Murphy tells Mediaite GMA sees this as a major opportunity. (more...)