George Stephanopoulos, the pugnacious politico who swapped a Clinton White House job for a career in TV, is in talks to replace Diane Sawyer on “GMA.”
Just don’t call him the frontrunner for the job — yet.
“We’re at the beginning of a process that we said was going to take a couple of months, and we’re just about a third-of-the-way through it,” says ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.
“Certainly, we have not come to any conclusions,” Schneider said.
Sawyer is taking over for the retiring Charlie Gibson as “World News” anchor in January — leaving her old job as “GMA” den mother and creating what is without question the biggest opening in TV news.
The morning show is a big moneymaker for the network and — while Sawyer was not able to knock off the “Today” show in the ratings — it has been competitive with NBC.
“GMA” has an average audience of around 4 million viewers to about 5 million for “Today.”
The respected trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported yesterday that ABC is “in talks” with Stephanopoulos.
“There’s a lot of noise out there — much of which is uninformed,” Schneider said.
Sources say several others are also in the running to co-anchor the morning show with Robin Roberts.
“GMA” newsreader Chris Cuomo, ABC News anchor/correspondent David Muir and “GMA” weekend co-anchors Bill Weir and Kate Snow have all been mentioned as possible replacements.
“They’re all reasonable choices,” says an insider.
“Dancing With the Stars” host Tom Bergeron, who’s co-anchored “GMA” in the past, told The Post last month — while he knew his name has been mentioned as a possible candidate — he wasn’t interested in the job.
Stephanopoulos, meanwhile, is getting something of a tryout this week as he subs for Sawyer on “GMA” while she is off.
There’s some question of whether the hardcore political talker with few credentials outside Washington would be comfortable handling the necessarily fluffier assignments (cooking segments, etc.) of the “GMA” gig.
On yesterday’s show, for instance, Stephanopoulos did not participate in one of those segments, “GMA’s” weekly “Dancing With the Stars” exit interview.
That segment was handled by Roberts and Sam Champion.
According to the B&C report, Stephanopoulous could “hand off” the second hour of “GMA,” where those lighter segments generally air, to another anchor.
A final decision on Sawyer’s replacement isn’t expected to be announced until mid-to-late December.