Michael Strahan on verge of joining 'Good Morning America'

Former NFL star Michael Strahan is already half of "Live with Kelly and Michael," which airs right after "Good Morning America."

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Strahan, the former New York Giants defensive end turned media star, won't be replacing any individual.

Instead, he'll be an addition to the top-rated show, popping up in various segments starting at 7 a.m. before shuttling one mile north to the talk show he already co-hosts at 9 a.m. with Kelly Ripa, "Live with Kelly and Michael."

The ABC News executives who oversee "GMA" have been holding talks with Strahan for months.

Strahan's role could be announced later this week, the people said. They insisted on anonymity because the news had not been made public by ABC yet.

Related: How things got ugly between ABC and Josh Elliott

Assuming the deal is announced, Strahan will inject some metaphoric testosterone into "GMA," which now has one man at the anchor desk, George Stephanopoulos, and four women.

Earlier this week "GMA" abruptly bid adieu to the show's news anchor, Josh Elliott, who is joining ABC's arch-rival NBC, initially as a host and contributor at NBC Sports. That network has scheduled a press announcement, presumably about Elliott, for Wednesday afternoon.

The other man previously on "GMA," Sam Champion, exited last winter and now hosts a three-hour morning program on The Weather Channel.

By adding Strahan, even in a part-time role, "GMA" will regain some of what it is perceived to have lost. Elliott and Strahan both have athletic backgrounds and wide appeal among the women who make up the key demographic for network morning shows.

Related: ABC's Josh Elliott leaving 'Good Morning America' for NBC Sports

Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, hinted that he would add another person to "GMA" when he announced Elliott's departure and his replacement in the news anchor role, Amy Robach. "In the days ahead, there will be more good news on the show, so stay tuned," Sherwood wrote.

The arrangement will also bring two Disney-owned properties, "GMA" and "Live with Kelly and Michael," closer together. "Live" is produced by ABC's local station in New York and syndicated by Disney's domestic distribution unit.

An ABC News spokesman declined to comment.

First Published: April 1, 2014: 7:52 PM ET

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America's most sprawling cities

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Residents in more sprawling cities were likely to have fewer economic opportunities, be less healthy and have shorter life spans compared to people in more compact areas, according to a report released Wednesday by Smart Growth America.

For example, the more compact a city, the greater the chances that a child born in poverty will become rich. Similarly, the report found a three-year difference in life expectancy between residents in the most sprawling parts of the country verses the most compact.

"How we develop has a huge connection to how healthy we are in our communities," said Ilana Preuss, Smart Growth's chief of staff. However, she stressed that just because sprawl is related to negative social conditions, it does not necessarily cause them.

Related: Where the middle class thrives

To calculate sprawl, the organization, which promotes reinvestment in existing cities, looked at four things:

-- The density of houses and jobs

-- The mix of residential and commercial buildings (the greater the mix, the better)

-- The concentration of residential and commercial developments in downtown or other "activity" areas, like a waterfront

-- The "accessibility" of streets, including the length of blocks (the shorter the better, because it means more cross walks) and the number of four-way intersections (the more the better because it means greater street connectivity)

The researchers then cross-referenced these data points with data on economic mobility, life expectancy and other similar metrics to reach their conclusions. Most of the data came from the Census Department.

On a conference call discussing the report, researchers noted that cheap land in some places encourages sprawl. Also, many cities that fared well on the list, like San Francisco and New York, are bound by water or mountains, and thus have a hard time expanding outward.

Other cities like Los Angeles and Trenton, N.J., had policies that encourage denser development or more walkability through zoning or other incentives for developers.

"We need to look in great detail in how we're making development decisions," said Preuss. "We're very much in control of these things."

The study looked at 221 metropolitan areas with a population of at least 200,000 people. The research was done in conjunction with the University of Utah's Metropolitan Research Center and prepared for the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health and the Ford Foundation. It was an update to numbers originally published in 2002.

While housing costs tend to be higher in more compact areas, transportation costs tend to be lower. When factored together, it can actually be relatively cheaper to live in a more compact city.

For example, an average household in sprawling Tampa, Fla., spends 56% of its budget on housing and transportation, while an average household in more compact Seattle spends only 48% of its budget on the same items, the report said.

First Published: April 2, 2014: 12:15 AM ET

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Big Data is secretly scoring you

Marketers, banks and others could be using secret consumer scores to rank you.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Data brokers, analytics firms and retailers are creating hundreds of "secret" consumer scores that rank you on everything from the likelihood you will keep your job to how likely you are to commit fraud, according to a report released Wednesday by nonprofit World Privacy Forum.

Marketers, financial institutions, wireless phone service providers, law enforcement agencies and others use these scores to do everything from promoting new products to investigating crimes.

Yet, while these consumer scores are pervasive, most consumers don't know they exist. Rarely are they able to view their scores, find out how they are compiled or used or correct inaccuracies like they can on a credit report, the World Privacy Forum found.

"Consumers have little to no ability to learn when their lives are affected in a major or minor way by a consumer score that they never heard about," the report's authors Pam Dixon and Bob Gellman wrote. The two are calling for more transparency and government scrutiny of consumer scores.

Related: Data brokers selling lists of rape victims, AIDS patients

Dixon and Gellman acknowledge that some scores could be used to help consumers, by providing them with targeted deals and discounts, for example. But they say some scores infringe on a consumer's privacy and can affect their eligibility for everything from a new job to affordable insurance. Inaccuracies could also cause a consumer to be mislabeled as a fraudster and shut out of important lines of credit.

"Whether a consumer receives a coupon for a free soda is not a big deal," they wrote. "Whether a consumer can complete a transaction is of significant consequence."

Here are just a few of the hundreds of scores that the World Privacy Forum uncovered:

Consumer profitability score: Using factors like your income, one company sells a score which predicts how likely you will be to pay your debts. The higher your score, the more likely you are to be a "profitable" customer (and a target of marketers).

Churn score: Many companies, such as wireless carriers and cable companies, create scores that predict how likely you are to take your business to a competitor. Get deemed a flight risk, and you may be offered a better deal. On the flip side, get labeled a stable customer and you may end up paying higher rates.

Related: What your zip code reveals about you

Job security score: One company sells a score that uses employment and unemployment data, economic trends and forecasts to predict the probability that you will lose your job, and as a result not be able to pay your bills.

Banks sometimes use these lists in order to limit their losses, according to the report.

Medication adherence score: Do you always follow your doctor's orders? Or do you skip a pill here and there? One firm sells a score that predicts the likelihood you will follow a prescription plan, based on factors ranging from age to home ownership, that is designed to let pharmacies and insurers know when a patient is at risk and needs a medication reminder.

As long as the score does not use your own protected health information, it would not be protected by privacy laws.

Fraud scores: Widely used by retailers, credit card issuers and other companies, fraud scores indicate whether a consumer may be posing as someone else or attempting to perpetuate a fraud of some sort.

Related: What information is the government buying about you?

While the scores are an important fraud and loss prevention tool, they can also create major headaches for any consumer who gets incorrectly labeled or is a victim of identity theft.

Get branded as a high risk and you could be declined on credit card purchases or rejected on loan applications, among other things. And unlike a credit score, you typically have few rights to access or contest a fraud score.

Custom scores: Some retailers create their own custom scores using sophisticated analysis of their massive databases of customer purchases and demographic information. The most famous example: Target's pregnancy predictor score, which used a consumer's shopping history to predict that she was pregnant even before she had told family members.

Law enforcement scores: A variety of government scores are used for safety, anti-terrorism and other law enforcement purposes, but very little is known about how this information is used, the report stated.

First Published: April 2, 2014: 3:52 AM ET

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Chinese tourists boost U.S. businesses

From hotels to tour operators, U.S. businesses are looking to cash in on a surge of Chinese tourists.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Later, at least 1,600 trekked to the Ranch at Ucross, some 200 miles to the east, where they feasted on burgers made from said beast, baked beans and biscuits. Following lunch, they were treated to a demonstration of rodeo-style riding by 14-year-old Katie Wilhelm.

"She takes off with that big American flag in her stirrup, and they go crazy," said ranch owner Judie Blair. "All the political issues between the two countries just evaporate."

Blair is one of a growing number of U.S. business owners looking to capitalize on the surge in Chinese tourism to the United States.

Spurred by increasing urbanization, rising levels of disposable income and relaxed travel restrictions, Chinese visitors to the United States jumped from under 400,000 in 2007 to almost 1.5 million in 2012, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The Chinese spend more traveling than any other nation: In 2012, they spent almost $9 billion in the United States.

Blair hosted over 80 buses of Chinese tourists at the three hotels she owns in Cody, Wyo., last year. It's a small but rapidly growing part of her family-run business, Blair Hotels, which also includes the ranch. This year, she's expecting 160 buses, and over 200 are already booked for 2015. The increase in Chinese tour groups has helped offset losses from other Asian countries.

Cody (founded by William "Buffalo Bill" Cody) offers easy access to Yellowstone -- which is hugely popular with Chinese tourists thanks to an Chinese television program on U.S. National Parks, said Blair.

Related: Rich Chinese overwhelm U.S. visa program

For the last five years, she's been attending tourism trade shows to meet with operators of Chinese tours and tout her properties and the local activities. Other than translate a few brochures and a local promotional video into Mandarin, she said she doesn't have to do much to cater to the Chinese crowd. She used to serve a classic Chinese breakfast -- a kind of rice porridge known as congee -- but she said her Chinese guests clamored for bacon and eggs.

"They ooh and aah over the little packs of jelly," she said. "They don't want to be treated like Chinese. They want the full American experience."

At the ranch -- three hours east of Cody -- Chinese tourists stop for lunch on their way from Yellowstone to Mount Rushmore -- part of a popular bus loop that starts in Denver or Salt Lake City and runs through parts of the Rockies. Blair hopes the Chinese tour groups will soon start spending the night at the ranch, which is a more upscale property.

Not surprisingly, other popular U.S. destinations include Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Niagara Falls, said Nick Hentschel, head of business development at AmericanTours International.

Hentschel's company is also trying to tap the Chinese tourism market, and Chinese patrons now make up nearly 20% of the tour operator's business.

The company is partnering with big Chinese-based tour operators to increase its businesses, and offers cross-country tour packages popular with Chinese customers.

Shopping is the number one activity Chinese nationals enjoy in the United States, according to the Commerce Department.

It's so popular in Los Angeles that some stores on fancy Rodeo Drive now get 60% of their business from Chinese customers, said Karissa Fowler, a spokeswoman for the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau. Some stores have even started accepting UnionPay, a credit card popular in China.

In addition to the touristy things, what the Chinese like most about coming to America is seeing the everyday stuff, said Hentschel. His company arranges visits to places like grocery stores or the homes of company executives. The Chinese, he said, love to see how Americans live.

What they complain about the most: The smoking bans.

First Published: April 1, 2014: 1:46 AM ET

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Manhattan home prices soar to median $972,000

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

During the first quarter, the median sales price for a condo or co-op in Manhattan rose 18.5% year-over-year to $972,000, according to Douglas Elliman.

That's more than four times the median U.S. home price of $205,000. Yet, in most parts of the country $972,000 will typically buy you a sprawling three or four-bedroom with a backyard and a garage. Buyers in Manhattan, however, are willing to shell out that amount for one bedrooms with less than 1,000 square feet of living space.

Nevertheless, prices are expected to continue to climb. Manhattan's home sales are still below the $1.025 million peak set in the second quarter of 2008, said Jonathan Miller, an appraiser who calculates the market data for Elliman. But he believes, "we'll probably get there in the second quarter of 2014."

Related: Hong Kong buyers send London real estate soaring

Elliman, along with brokers Halstead Property and Corcoran Group, have all reported that sales volume in Manhattan was up 25% or more in the first quarter. And inventory still remains very tight, with homes often being snapped up in bidding wars.

Miller said 38% of all sales were either at or above asking price and that has caused a big spike in prices.

All three brokers reported that they saw high demand in luxury and high-end sales.

With little new residential construction happening, there's not enough homes available to handle all of this buyer demand. Only 367 newly built apartments were sold during the quarter. Many were in ultra-luxury buildings catering to an international clientele of Chinese industrialists, Russian oil billionaires and other foreign tycoons.

Also boosting prices: Families seeking large apartments of three bedrooms or more, said Diane Ramirez, the CEO of Halstead.

"Manhattan was often for a segment of your life before you started a family or after you downsized in retirement," she said. "No longer. Now, it's where you want to raise your kids."

Corcoran reported that 31% of new development closings during the first quarter were for units that had three bedrooms or more.

Related: Million dollar housing markets

Manhattan's housing shortage has sent many home seekers further afield to the outer boroughs, New Jersey and Long Island.

Brooklyn is starting to become even hotter than Manhattan. Brooklyn's Kings County is the fastest growing county in the state, with the median price of homes rising 11.2% to $570,110 in the fourth quarter, according to Douglas Elliman, the last data available.

First Published: April 1, 2014: 1:43 AM ET

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Stocks: Signs of Spring?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

U.S. stock futures were all trading firmer Tuesday, and most global indexes were firmly in the green.

Investors will be looking to the ISM manufacturing index -- due out at 10 a.m. ET -- for the latest clues on the health of the U.S. economy, after Janet Yellen said Monday that the Federal Reserve's repair job was not yet finished.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) will also take center stage. Its shares continued to slide in extended trading Monday after the company announced another recall and set aside more money to cover the costs.

GM has been criticized for how it handled a different recall due to faulty ignition switches, linked to the deaths of 13 people. CEO Mary Barra will testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday about the problems.

Related: Fear & Greed Index

U.S. stocks ended higher Monday. The Dow rose about 135 points, while the S&P 500 is at 1872, within spitting distance of its all-time high (1883, set earlier this month). The Nasdaq jumped over 1%.

But shares of Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) fell after a report claimed it avoided $2.4 billion in taxes.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

European markets were broadly firmer in morning trading, while Asian markets ended mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei dipped 0.2% on the first day of a sales tax hike that will bring the rate to 8% from 5%, a new potential drag on the economy.

China markets ended in positive territory despite the release of muddled data on the country's factories. The Hang Seng added 1.3% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.7%.

First Published: April 1, 2014: 5:26 AM ET

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Worries persist over China's factories

China's factories are expected to continue down a rocky road.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

The government's official purchasing managers' index hit 50.3 in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, a slight improvement from 50.2 the previous month. Any number over 50 represents an acceleration in the manufacturing sector.

But analysts say the sector has not yet emerged from its recent slide.

A separate survey conducted by London-based bank HSBC showed manufacturing PMI dropped to 48.0 in March, the third consecutive monthly decline.

Most of the time, both surveys deliver results that indicate factory activity is either picking up speed or decelerating. But the results sometimes diverge, as is the case with the March data.

Part of the discrepancy can be explained because the official government gauge is heavily weighted toward large enterprises, while the HSBC survey taps a smaller sample size and places greater emphasis on smaller firms. The two surveys also use different methods to perform seasonal adjustments -- a way to smooth data and make it comparable from year to year.

Related story: Risks in focus as China's economy slows

Even though the two surveys posted different results for March, economists agree that China's manufacturing activity is indeed depressed, and there are few signs of improvement in the near-term.

March is the first month of the year that isn't adversely impacted by the lunar new year holiday, a quirk that usually produces stronger results.

"The official PMI has risen in March every year since it was first published in 2005, with last month's rise the smallest on record," said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics. "As a result, today's reading still points to weakness in the sector .... We are not expecting a significant improvement in manufacturing activity going forward."

Poor factory activity is one indicator that the overall health of the economy may also be suffering. Beijing has set a 7.5% economic growth target for the year, and economists now expect the government will adopt stimulus measures to boost the economy.

"We expect Beijing to fine-tune policy sooner rather than later to stabilize growth," said HSBC economist Hongbin Qu.

Stock markets in China reacted favorably after the manufacturing data was released, with the Shanghai Composite Index advancing about 0.4% and the Shenzhen Composite up 1.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.9% in morning trading on Tuesday.

First Published: March 31, 2014: 11:41 PM ET

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Manhattan home prices soar to median $972,000

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

During the first quarter, the median sales price for a condo or co-op in Manhattan rose 18.5% year-over-year to $972,000, according to Douglas Elliman.

That's more than four times the median U.S. home price of $205,000. Yet, in most parts of the country $972,000 will typically buy you a sprawling three or four-bedroom with a backyard and a garage. Buyers in Manhattan, however, are willing to shell out that amount for one bedrooms with less than 1,000 square feet of living space.

Nevertheless, prices are expected to continue to climb. Manhattan's home sales are still below the $1.025 million peak set in the second quarter of 2008, said Jonathan Miller, an appraiser who calculates the market data for Elliman. But he believes, "we'll probably get there in the second quarter of 2014."

Related: Hong Kong buyers send London real estate soaring

Elliman, along with brokers Halstead Property and Corcoran Group, have all reported that sales volume in Manhattan was up 25% or more in the first quarter. And inventory still remains very tight, with homes often being snapped up in bidding wars.

Miller said 38% of all sales were either at or above asking price and that has caused a big spike in prices.

All three brokers reported that they saw high demand in luxury and high-end sales.

With little new residential construction happening, there's not enough homes available to handle all of this buyer demand. Only 367 newly built apartments were sold during the quarter. Many were in ultra-luxury buildings catering to an international clientele of Chinese industrialists, Russian oil billionaires and other foreign tycoons.

Also boosting prices: Families seeking large apartments of three bedrooms or more, said Diane Ramirez, the CEO of Halstead.

"Manhattan was often for a segment of your life before you started a family or after you downsized in retirement," she said. "No longer. Now, it's where you want to raise your kids."

Corcoran reported that 31% of new development closings during the first quarter were for units that had three bedrooms or more.

Related: Million dollar housing markets

Manhattan's housing shortage has sent many home seekers further afield to the outer boroughs, New Jersey and Long Island.

Brooklyn is starting to become even hotter than Manhattan. Brooklyn's Kings County is the fastest growing county in the state, with the median price of homes rising 11.2% to $570,110 in the fourth quarter, according to Douglas Elliman, the last data available.

First Published: April 1, 2014: 1:43 AM ET

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Chinese tourists boost U.S. businesses

From hotels to tour operators, U.S. businesses are looking to cash in on a surge of Chinese tourists.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Later, at least 1,600 trekked to the Ranch at Ucross, some 200 miles to the east, where they feasted on burgers made from said beast, baked beans and biscuits. Following lunch, they were treated to a demonstration of rodeo-style riding by 14-year-old Katie Wilhelm.

"She takes off with that big American flag in her stirrup, and they go crazy," said ranch owner Judie Blair. "All the political issues between the two countries just evaporate."

Blair is one of a growing number of U.S. business owners looking to capitalize on the surge in Chinese tourism to the United States.

Spurred by increasing urbanization, rising levels of disposable income and relaxed travel restrictions, Chinese visitors to the United States jumped from under 400,000 in 2007 to almost 1.5 million in 2012, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The Chinese spend more traveling than any other nation: In 2012, they spent almost $9 billion in the United States.

Blair hosted over 80 buses of Chinese tourists at the three hotels she owns in Cody, Wyo., last year. It's a small but rapidly growing part of her family-run business, Blair Hotels, which also includes the ranch. This year, she's expecting 160 buses, and over 200 are already booked for 2015. The increase in Chinese tour groups has helped offset losses from other Asian countries.

Cody (founded by William "Buffalo Bill" Cody) offers easy access to Yellowstone -- which is hugely popular with Chinese tourists thanks to an Chinese television program on U.S. National Parks, said Blair.

Related: Rich Chinese overwhelm U.S. visa program

For the last five years, she's been attending tourism trade shows to meet with operators of Chinese tours and tout her properties and the local activities. Other than translate a few brochures and a local promotional video into Mandarin, she said she doesn't have to do much to cater to the Chinese crowd. She used to serve a classic Chinese breakfast -- a kind of rice porridge known as congee -- but she said her Chinese guests clamored for bacon and eggs.

"They ooh and aah over the little packs of jelly," she said. "They don't want to be treated like Chinese. They want the full American experience."

At the ranch -- three hours east of Cody -- Chinese tourists stop for lunch on their way from Yellowstone to Mount Rushmore -- part of a popular bus loop that starts in Denver or Salt Lake City and runs through parts of the Rockies. Blair hopes the Chinese tour groups will soon start spending the night at the ranch, which is a more upscale property.

Not surprisingly, other popular U.S. destinations include Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Niagara Falls, said Nick Hentschel, head of business development at AmericanTours International.

Hentschel's company is also trying to tap the Chinese tourism market, and Chinese patrons now make up nearly 20% of the tour operator's business.

The company is partnering with big Chinese-based tour operators to increase its businesses, and offers cross-country tour packages popular with Chinese customers.

Shopping is the number one activity Chinese nationals enjoy in the United States, according to the Commerce Department.

It's so popular in Los Angeles that some stores on fancy Rodeo Drive now get 60% of their business from Chinese customers, said Karissa Fowler, a spokeswoman for the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau. Some stores have even started accepting UnionPay, a credit card popular in China.

In addition to the touristy things, what the Chinese like most about coming to America is seeing the everyday stuff, said Hentschel. His company arranges visits to places like grocery stores or the homes of company executives. The Chinese, he said, love to see how Americans live.

What they complain about the most: The smoking bans.

First Published: April 1, 2014: 1:46 AM ET

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ABC's Josh Elliott leaving 'Good Morning America' for NBC Sports

ABC's Josh Elliott is taking a new role at NBC Sports, raising questions about morning show staffing.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The move has raised immediate questions about whether Elliott is now in line to take over "GMA's" main rival, the "Today" show.

Officially, no he's not -- the jobs that NBC will soon announce for Elliott will be at NBC Sports, not NBC News, the division that houses "Today." But behind the scenes, top NBC executives are eager to see him on "Today," even though that won't -- and can't -- happen right away, according to people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

Elliott has a non-compete clause (common in the television industry) in his contract that bars him from co-anchoring "Today" for approximately six months, according to one of the people, who insisted on anonymity because of the confidential nature of contract negotiations.

Regardless, there isn't a job opening at the "Today" show right now. "Today" is still trying to recover from the damage done by Ann Curry's tearful sign-off in the summer of 2012, and the executives who oversee the show are reluctant to reopen old wounds by forcibly replacing another member of the cast.

Related: Get ready for 'over-the-top' TV

That may partly explain why Elliott's pending deal is only with NBC Sports. The initial, informal conversations between NBC and Elliott's representatives were about both news and sports, according to two of the people with direct knowledge of the talks. One scenario would have had Elliott join the "Today" show in a news anchor role, putting him in line to succeed Matt Lauer.

But the discussions with NBC News were shelved. NBC may not have wanted to risk a destabilizing change at "Today" in the short term, and Elliott may not have wanted to jump directly from one morning show to its arch-rival.

Besides, NBC Sports is a logical next step for him. Elliott was a co-anchor of ESPN's "SportsCenter" before he joined "GMA" in 2011. He won't immediately replace anyone at NBC Sports; instead, he'll contribute to the coverage of "Sunday Night Football," soccer, horse racing and other sports.

Elliott's arrival will stoke speculation that NBC sees him as a younger version of sportscaster Bob Costas, who is famous for his decades of Olympics coverage. The chairman of NBC Sports, Mark Lazarus, told Sports Illustrated last month, "We said after Sochi we would start to think about what life after Bob might be, whether post-Rio, post-Pyeongchang, post-Tokyo, whenever he does not want to do it anymore."

Related: Disney to pay at least $500 million for YouTube video maker

A spokesman for NBC Sports declined to comment on Sunday night, but Elliott's move will be announced by the network early in the week.

In the meantime, Elliott's departure was confirmed Sunday by ABC News, in an internal memo from Ben Sherwood, president of the network's news division.

"Josh Elliott let us know today that he is going to NBC Sports," Sherwood wrote in the memo, which was unusually blunt about the negotiations that had taken place.

Sherwood seemed to affirm earlier press reports that Elliott had wanted a giant raise -- $8 million a year, by some accounts, up from $1.2 million currently.

"As many of you know, we have been negotiating with Josh these past several months," Sherwood wrote. "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."

Sherwood said that Elliott would be feted on "GMA" sometime this week. He immediately named a successor in the news anchor chair, Amy Robach, who has already been a regular member of the cast.

Related: Apple eyes partnerships in bid to reinvent TV

The departure of Elliott, who was the show's "hunk" in the eyes of many female viewers, means that "GMA" will have just one man, George Stephanopoulos, alongside four women. Morning show profits are driven by female viewership, and time will tell how the new cast is perceived.

The other man on "GMA," Sam Champion, exited in December and now hosts a three-hour morning show on The Weather Channel.

Elliott's contract was the last of four that ABC sought to renew in the past six months. Robin Roberts, who leads the show along with Stephanopoulos, re-upped a few months ago, and Lara Spencer confirmed last week that she plans to stay on the program.

Of course, defections get more attention than renewals. Champion now occasionally appears on "Today," since The Weather Channel is partly owned by NBC. Sunday's poaching of Elliott seemed, from the outside, like the continuation of a strategy to pick apart the cast of a competitor.

For the moment, though, despite Champion's departure and a temporary surge by "Today" during the Winter Olympics, "GMA" remains solidly No. 1 the morning ratings race. Sherwood internal memo asserted that "'GMA's' best days are ahead."

First Published: March 30, 2014: 9:43 PM ET

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