Longtime ABC Information star George Stephanopoulos has reached a brand new deal that can preserve him at ABC Information and as an anchor on “Good Morning America” for the close to time period.

The information ought to finish hypothesis that the well-paid Stephanopolous was on his approach out because the Disney-owned community, together with each information group, seems to be to trim the excessive overhead of expensive expertise offers. An trade supply with information of the deal mentioned the size of the extension was shorter than a typical multi-year on-air expertise pact — which is one other signal of the instances for the TV information enterprise.

The Los Angeles Instances was the primary to report the information of the brand new deal. Below his earlier pact, Stephanopoulos was one of many highest-paid anchors on TV, making as much as $18 million per yr. The destiny of Stephanopoulos has been on the middle of a lot hypothesis in current days, following Disney CEO Bob Iger‘s approval of a a $15 million settlement and an extra $1 million to settle a lawsuit from incoming President Donald Trump’s authorized charges, in addition to a quasi-apology on Dec. 13.

As Selection has reported, Stephanopoulos is believed to have been blindsided by the deal and unaware that Disney had determined to settle. Over the weekend, he deleted his account on X, previously Twitter, the place he had greater than 2.3 million followers, within the wake of heavy blowback to the Disney settlement. Representatives for Stephanopoulos referrred calls to ABC Information. ABC Information couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

Trump had sued ABC Information over the anchor’s remark in a March 2024 interview on “This Week” that “Donald Trump has been discovered responsible for rape by a jury.” Stephanopoulos was referring to a jury’s verdict that discovered Trump had sexually abused the author E. Jean Carroll within the Nineties.

Individually, expertise reps have been maintaining an in depth eye on exhibits like ABC’s “Good Morning America” within the wake of different current main trims within the information enterprise. “GMA” has a excessive overhead from the salaries of its three core anchors: Robin Roberts, Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan. And with Stephanopoulos’ contract up first, and it was anticipated to be a tense renegotiation.

“GMA” has lately been locked in a troublesome scores battle with NBC rival “At this time”; “GMA” averaged 2.69 million viewers final week, behind “At this time’s” 2.83 million common. “At this time” anchor Hoda Kotb opted to depart, and though wage was not cited as her purpose for leaving, most nonetheless noticed it as a high-profile instance of TV’s new austerity push relating to expertise and manufacturing prices — particularly on long-running franchises like “At this time” and “GMA.”

Stephanopoulos’ final reported deal renewal was in 2019, when he signed a four-year pact to proceed on the community. He later prolonged that contract in 2021, including new manufacturing duties, together with a brand new program on politics for Hulu and 4 hour-long specials for primetime, whereas “World Information Tonight’s” David Muir was made lead anchor for ABC Information’ particular studies and information of nationwide significance.

Stephanopoulos has been with ABC Information since 1997, when he joined the information outlet as an analyst, following a stint as communications director within the Clinton White Home. He grew to become the host of the Sunday public-affairs program “This Week” in 2002. In 2009, he joined “Good Morning America.”