David Muir to lead ABC News' breaking news duties after George Stephanopoulos reportedly "threatened to walk to a rival network"

CNN

On Monday night, it was revealed that World News Tonight anchor Muir would become the lead breaking news anchor for special reports and other news of national importance, while Stephanopoulos may anchor similar breaking news in the morning. Muir's promotion recognizes his status as the No. 1 nightly network news anchor. Meanwhile, Stephanopoulos' unique title as ABC News "chief anchor" will be abolished. CNN's Brian Stelter reports that Muir's additional duties came with "a whole lot of drama" that included Stephanopoulos threatening to leave ABC News for a rival network. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger had to fly across the country to resolve the dispute. "At issue was a title, 'chief anchor,' and a key network news responsibility: leading special coverage of breaking news stories and special events," reports Stelter. "Those special reports have been helmed by Stephanopoulos for the better part of a decade. Now Muir will have that responsibility on top of his World News Tonight anchor role. Stephanopoulos, the co-anchor of GMA on weekdays and This Week on Sundays, will be adding a production company and prime time specials to his portfolio. Sources said that he will create new shows for Disney-owned platforms like Hulu and National Geographic. Now, no one at ABC News will have the title of 'chief anchor.'" As Stelter notes, the "chief anchor" title was invented because Stephanopoulos wanted to anchor World News Tonight, but ABC considered him too important for Good Morning America to leave the morning news show. So ABC News named Muir World News Tonight anchor and made Stephanopoulos "chief anchor" to make him stand out as the network's most important anchor.