ABC Has $105M Reasons To Keep Stephanopoulos

George Stephanopoulos

The “Good Morning America” and “This Week” anchor renewed his contract last year for $105 million, according to The NY Post.

The seven-year deal — which dwarfs the five-year, $50 million contract scored by since-suspended NBC rival Brian Williams — was supposed to keep Stephanopoulos in front of ABC’s cameras through 2021.

But now his credibility, and future, have been called into question since he admitted Friday that he had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation since 2011, just as the presidential race gears up with Hillary Rodham Clinton the leading Democrats.

In his second mea culpa delivered Sunday on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos, who was also a top aide in Bill Clinton’s White House, said the gifts “were a matter of public record, but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation.”

Sources have said ABC News execs were blindsided by Stephanopoulos’ largesse, and one TV insider noted Monday that “ABC really has all their money on Stephanopoulos.”

The Post quotes a source saying ABC network execs didn’t announce the figure publicly because they didn’t want George to get the kind of backlash that Matt Lauer got over his huge NBC contract, which pays him $20 million a year to host the "Today" show.