ABC Names Amanpour 'This Week' Moderator

CNN veteran will leave the cable news network to join ABC News in August

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/18/2010 5:44:45 PM

Christiane Amanpour will leave CNN to join ABC News as moderator of Sunday public affairs program This Week beginning in August, the networks announced Thursday (March 18).

Amanpour will replace George Stephanopoulos who left This Week in December to join Good Morning America.

ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper will be the regular interim anchor until Amanpour starts this summer.

Tapper and Nightline anchor Terry Moran were internal candidates for the position. ABC News also held discussions with Ted Koppel, who left ABC News in 2005 after 42 years at the network.

In making the announcement, ABC News president David Westin concludes a series of anchor transitions that began last year when Diane Sawyer left Good Morning America to take over World News.

Amanpour broke the news to the staff of her CNN program this afternoon. In an e-mail to ABC News staff, Westin described Amanpour as a "respected journalist" with a "deep commitment to bringing news of the world to the American people."

Amanpour will bring that foreign news focus to This Week, said Westin. She will also contribute to other ABC News programs and front primetime documentaries.

This Week will continue to originate from the Newseum in Washington, D.C. with Ian Cameron as executive producer. But Amanpour will commute to Washington from New Work where she lives with her husband Jamie Rubin, a former Assistant Secretary of State, and their son.

In an e-mail to CNN staff, Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, wished Amanpour well in her "new opportunity."

"Since 1990 when Christiane became a CNN international correspondent, she has covered the defining news events of our time," Walton wrote. "Her work burnished our news brand and gave it authority. In turn, the CNN imprimatur opened doors for her around the world and provided a global platform for the intelligent, courageous, principled reporting that is her signature."