George Stephanopoulos signed a new deal with ABC News in which the Good Morning America co-host will remain with the network, a news division spokesperson said.
Stephanopoulos signed a multiyear agreement, but no other details were provided. The agreement was said to be unrelated to ABC’s $16 million settlement last week with President-elect Donald Trump, who sued in March over comments that Stephanopoulos made on This Week, the Sunday show which he also hosts. A source said that the new contract was agreed to before the settlement.
Stephanopoulos last renewed his deal with the network in 2021.
After the settlement, there had been speculation about his future at the network, with earlier reports.
ABC’s settlement with Trump included a $15 million donation to the Trump presidential foundation and library, and $1 million to his attorneys in legal fees. During an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in March, Stephanopoulos had said multiple times that Trump had been found liable by a jury for “rape.” In fact, Trump had been found liable for “sexual assault,” in a defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The judge overseeing the case, however, later wrote in another ruling that “the finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
Some in the newsroom were surprised by the settlement, believing that the network could have won the case. The network faced a bit of a backlash for the settlement, as some First Amendment warned that it would embolden Trump to file additional lawsuits.
Indeed, on Monday, Trump sued a pollster, Ann Selzer, under Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act, claiming that her pre-election poll Kamala Harris with a three-point lead was an intentional effort to interfere in the election. Selzer and the Des Moines Register, another defendant in Trump’s suit, have denied any such thing. While her poll was off, she was certainly not the first pollster to produce what is called an “outlier.”
Tim Richardson, program director of Journalism and Disinformation at PEN America, said in a statement earlier this week, “As many experts have noted, the pattern of constant, weaponized lawsuits isn’t about correcting inaccuracies, but about intimidating journalists into silence and shielding government leaders from accountability. While major networks like ABC may survive the financial blow, smaller outlets will face an existential threat from frivolous legal claims.”
But networks are wary of the unpredictability that comes from having a case go before a jury.
The settlement came just days before Stephanopoulos, as well as Trump, were to be deposed as part of the discovery process, in which both sides also produce other documentation, like emails and texts.
Good Morning America this year has fallen behind Today in the highly competitive morning show ratings, as NBC has surpassed its rival in total viewers for the past seven weeks, per the network.
The Los Angeles Times first reported on Stephanopoulos’ deal this evening.
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