GMA’s George Stephanopoulos shades Jeopardy over his surprise appearance but Michael Strahan looks at co-host ‘in awe’

GOOD Morning America star George Stephanopoulos has appeared on a popular game show.

GMA producers left George’s talk show co-host Michael Strahan speechless after they shared a clip of George being featured in a recent Jeopardy! episode.

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For the Play of the Day segment on Thursday’s show, Michael, 51, announced that George, 62, was the answer to one of the questions included in last night’s Jeopardy! Masters tournament.

The question was worth $600 and came from the category Michael J. Fox, 61.

Michael presented the clue to James Holzhauer as he competed, asking him which “advisor to former President Bill Clinton” inspired him for his role in the 1995 movie The American President.

“And who made a cameo on my sitcom Spin City?,” he asked in the second part of the clue.

James guessed: “Who is Stephanopoulos?” which was correct.

When the producers cut back to the morning show moderators, George’s co-host Michael gave him a cute compliment.

“George, you are the answer for the $600 question, [but] I think you’re a million dollar question guy myself,” Michael lauded.

He went on to explain that the Hollywood icon asked the question on Jeopardy! instead of the game show’s host Ken Jennings, 49, because he starred in The American President.

George followed up with an anecdote about how he and the Family Ties alum met in the mid-1990s when he came to visit then-Commander-in-Chief Bill at the White House.

“He [Michael] came to the White House, I guess it was 1994, and he came to the Saturday morning radio dressed to meet Bill Clinton,” George recalled.

“I met him there [and] he brought his little son Sam, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Both his co-hosts, Michael and Robin Roberts, 62, looked at him endearingly.

After Michael grew silent, she looked over at him with a smile, but he didn’t notice because he was staring at George with a huge grin.

A few moments went by before he finally expressed that he was just looking at George “in awe,” causing George and Robin to laugh.

Somewhat downplaying his part in Jeopardy!, George shadily remarked, “600 bucks,” poking fun at how much the clue was priced.

However, Michael maintained his compliment, emphasizing that George “made it.”

ON BETTER TERMS

Today’s episode reflected the progress that ABC personalities made in their relationship.

Fans were conflicted after host George revealed that he and Michael were arguing behind-the-scenes of an episode last year.

This came as both anchors returned to the morning show after lengthy absences.

After returning from commercial, George abruptly stopped the show from moving forward with the day’s headlines as he wanted to settle something with his co-anchors, as well as with viewers at home.

He explained: “I want to get to headlines, but first we have to bring our viewers into the debate we’ve been having for the last five minutes here on GMA.”

George revealed he, Michael, and Cecilia Vega were arguing behind the scenes about the correct way to pronounce “Caribbean,” as that’s where meteorologist Ginger Zee, 42, was reporting from that day.

Michael said it one way and insisted he’s committed to that pronunciation, while George thinks “it can be [said] both” ways.

To help them stop arguing, George asked viewers to jump in and settle the debate for them by tweeting in – specifically to flood Michael’s mentions with their answers.

“We went on for five minutes, I’m sure you can deal with it, as well,” George told fans about handing the debate over to them.

GMA viewers immediately began to tweet in, but they were all divided about it, as well.

One wrote: “I’m with the second pronunciation. Sorry @michaelstrahan!”

A second said they agreed with George, saying: “I think it can be pronounced both ways.”

A third viewer simply insisted: “Michael is correct.”

A fourth fan said: “I’m from the Caribbean so I’ll go with @michaelstrahan pronunciation for ‘Caribbean.’”

STILL IN THE GAME

The behind-the-scenes argument between the anchors comes just a couple of days after George returned to the show following a two-week absence.

Fans speculated that he’d “retired” from the news program after he was out for a long period of time, but he returned on Monday.

Just after the host announced the week before that she’d be taking a break from the show for a little bit, George made viewers feel a tad better by at least ending his own absence this week.

Fans rejoiced upon his latest appearance, with one writing: “So glad to have you on GMA today!!! We’ve missed you!!!!”

Another said that George should get to “pick out the music” on the show after being out for a while and just returning.

The anchor went on a vacation to Greece for a couple of weeks during his GMA absence, which fans only found out because his wife, Ali Wentworth, posted about it.

Before that, George’s co-host Robin announced her own upcoming vacation.

The GMA co-anchor made a surprising announcement about her time on the show, turning to her glamour team in a social media video and asking: “Glam fam, you ready for a little vacation?”

Once the camera panned back to Robin, she explained: “So, we are not going to be with you for a few mornings.”

“In other words, see you in September,” she sang.

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