George Stephanopoulos Becomes Lead Contender For GMA Job

The rumblings about the soon-to-be vacant anchor seat at ABC’s Good Morning America are now focused on one name as the lead candidate – George Stephanopoulos.

While a spokesperson for ABC says no decision is close to being made, TV insiders say the This Week anchor has become the lead contender for the job. But there may be more to the story.

Insiders at ABC say Stephanopoulos has expressed concerns about doing the 8am hour as well, which is generally reserved for lighter news. If ABC makes the 7am hour more politically focused to suit Stephanopoulos’ strengths, the 8am hour could get a different tone entirely, maybe even with a different host. One potential name that has arisen is soap star Cameron Mathison, who has guest hosted the show before, although we hear it’s very unlikely he would be named to a permanent anchor role.

An ABC News spokesperson tells Mediaite, “It doesn’t surprise me that those who don’t know anything are talking a lot, and those who do know aren’t.”

Stephanopoulos has been raising his profile at the network, and was named last week as the primary replacement on World News when Diane Sawyer takes over in January (which is the role she currently occupies). He has also been making more frequent appearances on cable news juggernaut Fox News, which has allowed him to gain greater exposure to the FNC audience as well as shows FNC as a welcome outlet to a member of the mainstream media.

ABC is still on the timetable it originally laid out for making the decision, and made clear from the start no decision is slated to come until December.

When we were placing odds on the position last month after it was announced Diane Sawyer takes over as anchor of World News we gave Stephanopoulos 15:1 odds to win the job, since, “He’s got a great gig as anchor of ABC’s Sunday show This Week, and is consistently edging closer to first-place NBC’s Meet the Press.” But if he can keep the This Week gig as well, this could be a win-win for ABC. Now we’re putting those odds much higher – in the words of one top TV insider “it’s 90% certain.” Another name that has to be on the short list would be Chris Cuomo, currently an anchor at GMA who remains well-regarded there and could be due for an expanded role.

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