Stephanopoulos Signs Off

George Stephanopoulos bid a low-key farewell to This Week viewers this morning (Jan. 10) while also thanking the staff.

“It is …my last regular Sunday here at This Week,” he said at the close of the program.

“Thanks to all of you for watching so faithfully all these years. And thanks to the staff and crew here for making This Week the special program it will always be.”

ABC News executives are in the thick of their third anchor transition - set off when Diane Sawyer left Good Morning America for World News and Stephanopoulos took over for her on GMA.

Frontrunners for the This Week post include chief White House correspondent Jake Tapper and Terry Moran, who covered Washington for ABC News before being named Nightline co-anchor in 2005.

ABC executives are also talking to Ted Koppel about a short-term contract to take over This Week, according to industry sources.

Koppel, a 42-year veteran of ABC News and the original anchor of Nightline, left the network in 2005 when executives instituted a three-anchor format for the late-night news program. At the time, he was offered the This Week chair but he demurred.  

This Week will continue to have rotating anchors until a permanent replacement is settled upon. Tapper is scheduled to anchor Jan. 17 with Moran on the docket for Jan. 24.