Former Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez has sealed a deal with ABC News, which will see him appearing in segments across the news division including for “Good Morning America” and even “World News Tonight.”
A network insider said A-Rod, 41, had been in talks with ABC News brass about appearing as an on-air contributor for sports, family and even financial segments for shows across the network, also including “Nightline.”
The source said, “This doesn’t mean that George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan should watch their backs — but ABC is talking to Alex about taking a role in the news division and expanding his appearances across a number of shows. Viewers are not going to see Alex weekly, more like once a month. But it could be more if he does well. He will be an ABC News contributor and he’ll also be doing stuff for ‘Nightline’ and ‘World News Tonight With David Muir.’ ”
Another source close to the star — who is already a full-time MLB analyst for Fox Sports — said, “Alex is interested in doing lifestyle, family-oriented programing, such as a piece on how much your kids should be working out, or business and personal-finance reports, like how to overhaul your bills.” (That might not be a home run with viewers, considering Rodriguez was paid $317 million during his time with the Yankees.)
His MLB commentary would remain exclusive to Fox Sports, meaning he likely couldn’t appear on ESPN, but the insider said, “If there’s a big World Series story to discuss, you could see A-Rod on ‘GMA’ talking about the game.”
A third ABC insider added that Rodriguez — currently dating Jennifer Lopez, who has two shows on rival NBC — was already “part of the ABC family.”
He has been announced as a guest host on “Shark Tank” and has already co-hosted “The View.” After having discussions about expanding his role, he will appear on a variety of ABC properties, including “GMA” and has ideas about what topics he’d like to cover.
Reps for ABC and A-Rod declined to comment.