ABC hires Amanpour for Sunday morning job

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK

ABC News said it has hired Christiane Amanpour, one of CNN's best-known personalities for her international reporting over the past two decades, to host its Sunday morning political talk show.

Amanpour, who will start in August, replaces George Stephanopoulos. He left the show in December to take over as co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America."

Amanpour's hiring indicates a change in direction for a show that is concerned primarily with politics and domestic issues -- like other Washington-based counterparts "Meet the Press" on NBC and "Face the Nation" on CBS.

"With Christiane, we have the opportunity to provide our audiences with something different on Sunday mornings," said ABC News President David Westin. "We will continue to provide the best in interviews about domestic politics and policies. But now we will add to that an international perspective."

Amanpour is currently host of a weekday show that airs on the CNN International network. Highlights run as the half-hour "Amanpour" show on CNN's domestic network on Sunday.

Westin noted, in an e-mail to his staff, that he talked to Amanpour several times in the past about coming to ABC News. "Until now, it wasn't the right time or the right fit," he said.

Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, said he knows it was a difficult decision for Amanpour, who had worked as an international correspondent for the network since 1990.

"CNN and Christiane helped make each other great," he said.

After being based in London for many years, Amanpour moved to the United States three years ago to be with her husband, former U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin.