Amanpour out at 'This Week;' Stephanopoulos back

CNN just announced that Christiane Amanpour will return to the network to anchor a nightly newscast on CNN International. She'll be replaced at "This Week" by George Stephanopoulos starting Jan. 8.  Nothing official yet from ABC -- there rarely is -- but The Associated Press is reporting this as a done deal. She'll continue to anchor a series of prime time documentaries for ABC as well.

Surprised? If so, ask yourself this: When was the last time you watched "This Week?" When was the last time Amanpour actually had an interview that made enough news to broker a spot on "World News?"

That's one problem. Here's another. She cost a bundle -- upward of $4 million per year when she was hired by a former ABC News president who was busily laying off people at the time. She was a very unpopular hire internally -- nothing against her; it was the money -- and viewers never quite seemed to warm to her.