Josh Elliott Leaving 'Good Morning America' For NBC Sports After $10 Million Contract Dispute
ABC News wasted no time in announcing his replacement: Amy Robach, who has been part of the GMA team for some time, including filling in for Robin Roberts at various moments when she was out for medical reasons.
Elliott, who had been making about $1.2 million salary at GMA, turned down an offer to stay with the show for $4-$5 million.
After his fellow anchor Lara Spencer nailed down a lucrative multiyear contract Thursday, Elliott raised his ask to $10 million a year. With Elliott, NBC is getting a strong sports guy - a next generation Bob Costas - who previously worked at ESPN.
Per the terms of Elliott's exit, he cannot appear on NBC's The Today Show for six months according to people familiar with the situation.
Elliott is the second member of the ensemble team that put GMA in first place in the morning show ratings race, and to depart for an NBCUniversal property.
In December, NBC-U successfully poached longtime GMA weatherman Sam Champion who is now a bigwig at their Weather Channel. In much the same way they did today, ABC announced Champion's replacement, Ginger Zee, minutes after it was reported that he was leaving for The Weather Channel. In the wake of Champion's departure, GMA has scored some of its highest ratings ever.
The GMA negotiations have been going on for a long time. As a matter of coincidence, four out of the five players on GMA had their contract renewals come up at approximately the same time. But has been ABC News' practice under its president Ben Sherwood (who was recently named co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group, replacing Anne Sweeney), the network always had a game plan in place for moving on.
Related: Clock Ticking For Josh Elliott At 'Good Morning America' With Lara Spencer Re-signed
GMA isn't done negotiating yet. GMA's George Stephanopoulos reportedly is paid about $6 million a year; his contract runs through this calendar year.
Sherwood sent the following note to the ABC News division today about the transition: