'GMA' shakeup again: Josh Elliott out

Good Morning America’s winning team is about to get even smaller.

On the heels of Sam Champion’s high-profile departure to The Weather Channel, Josh Elliott is leaving ABC’s morning show to take a gig at NBC Sports. Elliott has been with the morning show since 2006.

Amy Robach will replace him, effectively immediately. Robach was already a member of the GMA team.

Elliott, whose contract was about to expire with ABC, was in negotiations when his GMA colleague Lara Spencer signed a new deal worth a reported $8 million-plus a year. Elliott was making just over $1 million a year and was apparently looking for parity, especially in light of the new, $14 million contract recently inked by Robin Roberts, Deadline reports. (George Stephanopoulos’s deal isn’t up until the end of this year).

Elliott now becomes the second staffer on the morning show to jump to an NBC-Universal-owned network.

Newly-appointed Disney/ABC TV TV Group president Ben Sherwood sent out this note Sunday to the ABC News division:

“I’m excited to let you know that we have promoted Amy Robach to News Anchor on Good Morning America effective immediately. Amy is a world class anchor and correspondent who is beloved by our morning audience and all who know her.

“Amy has become a familiar face on GMA, filling in for Robin Roberts for many of the 174 days that Robin spent recovering from her bone marrow transplant. Amy brought us moving interviews with the families of the Newtown shooting victims and she delivered a riveting report from inside the world of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. Showing her lighter side, Amy covered the birth of Prince George from London and brought us inside Downton Abbey.

“Amy began her career as a general assignment reporter in South Carolina and moved on to become a morning anchor in Washington DC where she covered 9/11 from the Pentagon. Amy is a gifted interviewer, sitting down with world leaders including Barack Obama, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prince Harry. She spent five years at NBC where she was an anchor at MSNBC and co-host of Weekend Today.

“We always knew that Amy was special and we have all been especially inspired to watch her battle breast cancer with grace and determination. Indeed, she thrilled us with two weeks of memorable dispatches from Sochi anchoring our Olympic coverage — all between chemo treatments. Amy will be a fierce and formidable full-time addition to our GMA team.

“At the same time, Josh Elliott let us know today that he is going to NBC Sports. As many of you know, we have been negotiating with Josh these past several months. In good faith, we worked hard to close a significant gap between our generous offer and his expectations. In the end, Josh felt he deserved a different deal and so he chose a new path.

“I want to thank Josh for his many contributions to GMA and ABC News. Later in the week, we will bid him farewell.”

Before joining GMA, Elliott worked for ESPN.