This Weak: Christiane Amanpour

Baby, it should've been you.

ABC kicks respected WH correspondent Jake Tapper in the ass by replacing bitchy Iranian carpetbagger Christiane Amanpour on the Sunday spin show This Week with the former host, Bill Clinton WH spinner turned journo turned GMA anchor fluff George Stephanopoulos.

Tapper had warmed Christiane's chair after George's exit. Tapper was becoming a '"favorite son," marveled then-Wash Post TV critic Tom Shales  "even as the clock ticked his interim tenure away and the Grand Duchess Amanpour approached on her royal barge from overseas.”  The Post's Lisa de Moraes notes Jake and Christiane pulled in the same number of eyes.

Meanwhile Christiane gets to double-dip as an anchor of a new show on her old network CNN (starting sometime next year) AND spin reports for ABC News in her new position as Global Affairs Anchor (GAA), presumably to run out the meter on her ABC contract. Brian Stelter NYT

The ratings dropped in the year and a half Christiane shuttled from NYC to DC to front the Sunday show.  NYDN

Everything should be Jake.  Why ABC recycled Stephanopoulos rather than taking a chance on Tapper?  Safe.  Ratings.  Gives George a GMA out.

Related:  Amanpour proves to be wrong fit Politico: "She never became part of the Washington party circuit where journalists build relationships with sources and trade tips and takes on the news. To accommodate her, the show’s producers at one point even considered moving the show to New York, according to several sources – an arrangement that would make it much harder for in-studio interviews with political newsmakers."