Two of ABC’s biggest stars at war, with ‘historic tension’ between them revealed

ABC News legends David Muir and George Stephanopoulos secretly loathe each other and are locked in a “historic” feud, it is claimed.

The two newsies are known to have tension and are now barely seen together on screen, as Oliver Darcy revealed in a holiday edition of the Status newsletter.

“There’s definitely been a historical tension — to put it mildly — between the two anchors,” Darcy wrote in response to a question about the dynamic between Muir and Stephanopoulos.

“This has led to headaches for network bosses. But viewers may notice that in recent years, Stephanopoulos has been absent during special political coverage such as Election Night. These duties now fall directly to David Muir.

The two news anchors reportedly had a years-long professional rivalry that escalated when Joe Biden’s aides tapped Stephanopoulos to conduct the president’s first interview after his disastrous debate performance.

The US Sun reported in September that as the presenters moved into a new studio in New York City, Stephanopoulos “wanted a dressing room as big as rival David Muir’s”.

“George was interested in making sure he got whatever David Muir got,” the insider told the outlet.

“He asked people on his team to find out what David was getting to make sure his was comparable.”

Earlier this year, DailyMail.com reported on a Radar Online story that gave some insight into the alleged feud.

“The rivalry between David and George is real and creates tension behind the scenes…”

This rivalry apparently goes back to Muir’s rise at the network and Stephanopoulos’s resistance to being replaced by a younger journalist.

In 2021, Disney chief Bob Iger flew from California to New York to negotiate a deal with Stephanopoulos after he threatened to leave ABC because younger rival Muir had been promoted to Chief Anchor.

Stephanopoulos was angered when Muir was given responsibility to lead the network’s special coverage of breaking news and special events—a role Stephanopoulos had held since 2014.

The Good Morning America host was White House communications director in the early 1990s for Bill Clinton. He joined ABC in 1997 and was given the role of Chief Anchor in 2014. The network had never had one before.

When he learned that Chief Anchor responsibilities were being handed over to Muir, 47, though the title was not, he threatened to walk.

The rivalry between the two men dates back to 2014, when Muir replaced Diane Sawyer at what was then known as ABC World News. It is now called World News Tonight.

At the time, the World News anchor role was the most coveted in the organization and whoever held it was considered a top dog.

Stephanopoulos was already hosting GMA and leading it to enormous commercial success, but he wanted the World News Tonight role. He stayed on the morning schedule.

Muir got the World News anchor job. He was considerably less experienced than Stephanopoulos at the time, so the role of Chief Anchor went to the latter, as did the higher salary.