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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Chris Cuomo to Leave ‘Good Morning America’

 New gig for Stephanopoulos starts Monday. 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 wChris Cuomorites a blog about balancing work and family, called Juju Juggles.

Network sources, who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters, say Stephanopoulos will continue to host "This Week" for an unspecified period 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 talk show.

The Washington Post reported last week that ABC News President David Westin had offered Stephanopoulos the job, picking him over Cuomo to be Robin Roberts's partner on "GMA." Sawyer is leaving to become the anchor of "World News."
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ABC has essentially struck a deal with Cuomo, son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo, to co-anchor "20/20," serve as a roving correspondent for all its programs and be the primary substitute for Stephanopoulos. They added that the final contractual details have yet to be hammered out.

Chris 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.

Stephanopoulos, now ABC's chief Washington correspondent, had told network executives he wanted "GMA" revamped with a harder-news focus as a condition of taking the job. Now that those concerns have been resolved, he is making plans to move his family to New York.
ABC is said to be in negotiations with Mr. Cuomo about a new position. He could become the co-anchor of the Friday night newsmagazine “20/20.” The program is currently anchored by Elizabeth Vargas. If he stays at ABC, Mr. Cuomo, the son of Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, would also flex his reporting muscles more often.

Over the weekend, ABC was forced to deny an online report that Mr. Cuomo had tendered his resignation.

On Twitter, where he has almost a million followers, Mr. Cuomo wrote Monday morning, “Yes, change is coming. I invite it, honestly. All is good. Will tell more soon.”

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