Christiane Amanpour Out at ‘This Week’?

Christiane Amanpour, who's losing audience share for ABC's "This Week" Sunday show, may be on her way back to CNN.

Christiane Amanpour, who’s losing audience share for ABC’s “This Week” Sunday show, may be on her way back to CNN.

New York Post (“Cold seat at ‘This Week’“):

Christiane Amanpour may soon be giving up the anchor chair on ABC News’ “This Week.” Sources say network honchos are mulling who might replace the award-winning journalist, who has struggled in the ratings since she jumped from CNN to take the reins of the public affairs show in August 2010. “There are discussions of Amanpour’s role changing to that of a global affairs anchor,” a source said. Possible names to fill her seat include ABC’s Jonathan KarlTerry MoranMatthew Dowd and Jake Tapper. “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos, who hosted the show for eight years, may take back his role and “pull double duty” by hosting the morning show and the Sunday political talk show. Page Six first reported that Amanpour reconnected with Turner CEO Phil Kent over the summer about returning to CNN to cover international affairs. Sources said she’s been “miserable” at ABC and clashed with network executives. Other sources say the DC bureau never warmed up to Amanpour, who was seen as an outsider, commuting to Washington every week to host the show. An ABC rep said, “Christiane is an incredibly valuable member of ABC News team.”

As I noted when she made her debut last August, Amanpour has always seemed a strange choice for the gig. From its inception under the legendary David Brinkley in 1981, “This Week” was about US politics, combining brief interviews with various guests and culminating in a roundtable discussion featuring the host, George Will, and invited guests.

Amanpour is clearly disdainful of political chit-chat, preferring instead to focus on world affairs. Which would be fine, except that there’s very little audience for that in the United States and that Fareed Zakaria and others are already filling that niche more than adequately.

During the transition period when Stephanopoulous was moving on the GMA (which I continue to think a giant mistake, despite it presumably being much more lucrative) several hosts auditioned for the role. Jake Tapper was easily my favorite.

via Don Surber and Glenn Reynolds

FILED UNDER: Media, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Hey Norm says:

    Isn’t Gregory’s share at MTP going down as well?
    Can we get rid of him too?

  2. It was clear that Amanpour had no clue what her show was supposed to be about when, in the two months leading up to the midterm elections, she seemed more interested in doing interview pieces about obscure areas of foreign affairs than the elections that everyone else was talking about.

    I’ll second a vote for Tapper, but I’d also note the show should go back to its traditional format. Lately, they seem to be interspersing roundtables throughout the show and giving them less time. For those of us who remember the good old days of This Week with David Brinkley., the roundtables (especially when George Will and Sam Donaldson were both present) was often the best part of the show.

  3. Andre Kenji says:

    Frankly, I did not like Amanpour on CNN. I thought that she was too exagerated to be a correspondent. But, frankly, in a area where every show does the same things at least she is trying to inovate. That´s not a small thing. There are panels with specialists, not partisan hacks.

    She is doing fair better than I expected. And it´s better than Fareed Zakaria, with that insuportable spoken editorials.

  4. Andre Kenji says:

    Yes, I like the roundtables, specially when both Krugman and Will are present.

  5. WR says:

    I thought hiring Amanpour was a great idea. I was wrong. She is completely uninterested in American politics, and (presumably) because of that she lets her interview subjects get away with lying and spinning unchallenged in a way she’d never allow a foreign despot.

    And whether by her choice or inability to object, she’s filled her round table discussions almost exclusively with conservatives, with the occasional Krugman appearance to break up the monopoly. If I wanted to see the the likes of George Will debating with Matthew Dowd and Torie Clarke and one other ex-Bush administration official, I’d watch Fox.

  6. Fox has partisan hacks, not conservatives. I never saw Andrew Bacevich on Fox, for instance.

  7. WR says:

    @André Kenji de Sousa: Please feel free to explain the difference between George Will, Torie Clarke, and Matthew Dowd on one hand and partisan hacks on the other. I stand ready to be convinced.