Amanpour To Host ABC’s “This Week?”:Inspired Choice

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I was rooting for Gwen Ifill. After George Stephanopoulos left ABC’s Sunday morning powerhouse “This Week” for the second anchor chair at “Good Morning America,” TV news junkies speculated on who would fill his formidable seat. Internal candidates like Jake Tapper and Terry Moran didn’t seem particularly exciting. With a resume that included covering the White House for NBC, anchoring PBS’ “Washington Week” and “The News Hour” and moderating the 2008 Vice Presidential debate, Ifill, I thought, brought both substantial journalistic cred and diversity to the table. Of course, I never thought Christiane Amanpour was even in contention.

But since reports on several sites including MEDIA BISTRO and THE HUFFINGTON POST announced Monday that the CNN reporter/anchor has been offered the job, I find the prospect more and more inviting. It’s not a done deal yet, with Amanpour reportedly telling colleagues it’s still ” a 50/50 chance” she’ll sign on. Contractual details including her wish to retain New York as her home base, have yet to be finalized. But insiders say it’s doubtful the ABC deal will allow her to keep any sort of relationship with CNN–where she’s been employed since signing on as a foreign desk assistant in 1983. Why she can’t straddle both networks, forging a symbiotic relationship like both she and her colleague Anderson Cooper have with CNN and CBS, where they have been featured reporters on “60 Minutes” is not clear.

Amanpour is an inspired choice for the weekend anchor chair. By giving her the nod, ABC seems to be shifting into a more global perspective. Amanpour– CNN’s chief international correspondent –has covered myriad international stories including wars in the Gulf, Bosnia and Iraq and hosts both a daily show for CNN International and a weekend show “Christiane Amanpour Reports” for CNN. She has a decidedly international sensibility. Born in London, she moved with her Iranian father and British mother to Tehran where the family lived until fleeing Iran, and returning to England, during the Islamic revolution in 1969. She moved to the United States to study journalism at the University of Rhode Island in the ’70′s.

Amanpour has a pleasant, often disarming style, that can belie her broad knowledge, solid preparation and pointed questions. If she takes the post, she’ll become the first woman to host a broadcast network Sunday show (her CNN colleague Candy Crowley finally landed a well deserved spot as anchor of “State of the Union“) and I believe the first foreign born anchor. Such a move affords ABC a distinction in a rapidly expanding global media and may help “This Week” continue to gain ground on NBC’s Sunday stalwart “Meet the Press” which has been lagging in both ratings and prestige since the untimely death of Tim Russert two years ago. And the show will most certainly shift its focus away from domestic stories and into the international arena. This offers viewers a win-win, a chance to delve into a wider scope and breadth of issues and stories.

Let’s hope both parties can work out the contractual minutia. As for Gwen Ifill, we may yet see her on Sunday morning, too. Maybe she’ll capture “Face the Nation,” once the chair at the CBS Sunday morning staple opens up. Not pushing the great Bob Schieffer out. Just thinking ahead.

Editor’s Note: Please follow Amy Beth Arkawy on Twitter. You can also read her other News Junkie Post stories.

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