While costly missteps, bad newsroom morale and low ratings flavored the narrative of former CNN CEO Chris Lichts firing this week, advertising intelligence company MediaRadar reveals that a precipitous recent decline in ad sales revenue for CNN probably factored into Licht's departure, as well.

According to MediaRadar data, over 2,000 companies spent $312.6 million from January through April on CNN digital and linear TV ads. That was down 39% from the same four-month period of 2022. 

April was particularly slow, the firm noted, with CNN ad sales declining 48% to just $80 million. 

“Our data analysis suggests a significant downward trend in CNN's ad revenue during Chris Licht's tenure, reflecting substantial declines both in total spend and in the number of advertisers,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar, in a statement. 

MediaRadar also said that CNN has been attracting fewer advertisers of late.

From January through April 2022, 68 companies had invested $2 million or more on CNN outlets, and were collectively responsible for nearly $236 million during that period. 

In stark contrast, for the same timeframe in 2023, there were only 17 companies investing at this level, a 75% year-over-year decrease. 

These companies accounted for a mere $95 million, marking a 60% collective spend decrease. Major corporations, including Thumbtack, Apple, Cisco Systems and The Walt Disney Company, have all reduced their ad spend with CNN by over 90% year over year, MediaRadar added.

In what seemed like a foregone conclusion in the wake of Friday's damning profile of CNN's top executive in The Atlantic, Chris Licht was fired from the cable news network. 

Also read: CNN’s Licht Apologizes to Newsroom Following Disastrous ‘Atlantic’ Profile, But Staffers Privately Say, ‘He’s Done’

According to numerous published reports, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav informed CNN staff of the unsurprising move in a regular Wednesday morning editorial call. 

A team of three executives will handle CNN's editorial operations on an interim basis: Amy Entelis, a veteran CNN exec who manages talent relations; Virginia Moseley, recently tapped to oversee editorial operations; and Eric Sherling, recently named head of U.S. programming. 

David Leavy, a longtime Zaslav lieutenant who was named CNN COO last week, will oversee business activities. 

By any measure, Licht's 13-month tenure has been disastrous: Ratings have declined to the point at which CNN, still a news giant with around 4,000 employees, now trails a small, fringe far-right competitor, Newsmax, in primetime audience performance; an attempt to turn former CNN primetime anchor Don Lemon into a morning-show personality utterly failed in a public way; and a decision to provide a town-hall forum for Donald Trump in May, complimenting it with a partisan crowd favoring the highly controversial former president, undermined Licht's already shaky credibility within the newsroom, not to mention viewers not aligned with Trump's MAGA movement. 

Then there was the decision in and of itself to give Atlantic writer Tim Alberta unfettered access over a period of months, which seems to have provided the final, fatal blow to Licht's CNN tenure. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, CNN's biggest on-air hitters, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett, have all criticized Licht to upper management in recent days. 

Licht seemed to grasp the objectives put forth by Zaslav and his boss, Liberty Media chief John Malone, who wanted to transition a cable news network known as a key resister of the Trump Administration back into a centrist linear news channel representing "both sides," regardless of how irrational, dangerous or objectionable the political agenda. 

But while he understood the game plan, Licht seemed to fumble far too often. 

One line in Alberta's 15,000-word opus seemed particularly on-the-nose: “Licht’s theory of CNN — what had gone wrong, how to fix it and why doing so could lift the entire industry — made a lot of sense. The execution of that theory? Another story. Every move he made, big programming decisions and small tactical maneuvers alike, seemed to backfire.”

Looking at Licht's tenure another way, Puck's Dylan Byers wrote this morning that the real damage wrought by Licht's rocky 13-month CNN ride was what he chose not to do. 

Licht, Byers wrote, "spent 13 months at CNN rearranging deck chairs on a declining distribution platform, moving anchors to one time slot or another and tweaking aesthetics that were invisible or irrelevant to the remaining viewers. While the New York Times was diversifying into an always-on digital lifestyle brand with great journalism and video and podcasts (and games and product recommendations and recipes), Licht was creating milquetoast television for a bygone era that miffed his own employees and alienated CNN's core audience."

Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, is out after his 13-month stint atop the news organization. He took over at CNN from Jeff Zucker, who had been fired for an undisclosed relationship, in April 2022. 

Licht’s time at CNN was rocky, including overseeing the shutdown of CNN Plus and the controversial Donald Trump town hall on May 31. CNN noted “a series of severe missteps” in a story about Licht departing. 

“I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN,” David Zaslav, CEO of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, told CNN employees at the start of the network’s daily editorial call June 7.

The Atlantic published a lengthy profile on Licht and his tenure, entitled "Inside the Meltdown at CNN", June 2, which CNN described as “devastating.”

Licht had been executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, and executive VP of special programming at the network, where he helped relaunch the morning news. He’d previously produced Morning Joe on MSNBC, which he co-created. He began his TV career in 1995 at KNBC Los Angeles.  

Last week, David Leavy was named CNN chief operating officer. He will help run things until a new leader is named, along with Amy Entelis, executive VP, talent and content development; Virginia Moseley, executive VP, editorial; and Eric Sherling, executive VP, U.S. programming. 

Puck News previously reported on Licht’s departure. 

CNN generated $750 million in profit in 2022, according to The New York Times, down from $1.25 billion the year before, with the demise of CNN Plus a factor in 2022's diminished profit.  

Chris Licht apologized to staff Monday morning after the publication Friday of a lengthy profile in The Atlantic, for which he gave writer Tim Alberta wide-reaching access, painted an embarrassing portrait of the embattled CNN chief. 

“CNN is not about me,” Licht told the newsroom during following publication of an Atlantic article titled “Inside the Meltdown at CNN.” 

“I should not be in the news unless it’s taking arrows for you,” he also said, adding that he’d “fight like hell” to earn back the newsroom's trust. 

Now more than a year into his tenure at CNN, the former Morning Joe, CBS This Morning and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert executive producer already seemed on thin ice on Thursday, when parent company Warner Bros. Discovery announced the hiring of David Leavy, longtime aide to WBD CEO David Zaslav, as CNN's new chief operating officer. 

With CNN's ratings even falling behind lightly regarded right-wing cable channel Newsmax these days, Leavy’s hiring was spun as an attempt to take the business piece off Licht's plate and allow the CNN chairman and CEO to concentrate on what he ostensibly knows best, programming. 

But now, all bets appear off. Writing in New York Magazine Monday, Brian Stelter — fired himself by Licht from CNN last August — wrote that Zaslav knew The Atlantic's 15,000-word “defenestration of Licht” was about to hit newsstands and web browsers, and he hired Leavy to ”survey and repair the damage.”

Stelter describes Leavy as besieged by high-level CNN personalities, seeking counsel and declaring their lost confidence in Licht. 

“I feel like a quarterback without a coach,” Stelter wrote, quoting one unnamed CNN anchor. 

Amalgamating conversations with what he described as three separate CNN newsroom employees, Stelter also penned these quotes: “He’s over.” “He’s done.” “There’s no coming back from that profile.”

Beyond belying Licht’s judgment (and that of CNN communications chief Matt Dornic)  for allowing Alberta to tag along with the CEO for months as he worked out with his personal trainer and performed various other daily tasks, The Atlantic piece paints a damning portrait of an executive who talks a good game, but who has fumbled or lined up offsides again and again. 

“Licht’s theory of CNN — what had gone wrong, how to fix it and why doing so could lift the entire industry — made a lot of sense,” Alberta wrote. “The execution of that theory? Another story. Every move he made, big programming decisions and small tactical maneuvers alike, seemed to backfire.”

Two days after hosting a highly controversial "town hall" interview with former President Donald Trump, CNN saw its primetime ratings drop to historic levels, with the network finishing even behind upstart far-right channel Newsmax. 

CNN averaged only 335,000 viewers from 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. Friday vs. 357,000 for Newsmax, according to Nielsen live plus same day data provided by numerous outlets, despite the fact that Newsmax lacks distribution on Frontier Communications and other pay TV platforms. 

Despite the loss of Tucker Carlson, Fox News easily won the evening with a 1.44 million viewer average, followed by MSNBC (1.08 million).

Also read: CNN Averages Only 3.3 Million Viewers for Reputation-Wilting Trump Town Hall

In the adults 25-54 demo, the coin of the realm in Cable Newsland, CNN actually performed better, averaging 87,000 viewers to finish in third place ahead of Newsmax (45,000).

But the total viewer performance highlighted, in a headline-generating way, a sustained ratings slump for CNN, which has pledged to reorient its coverage to what it believes is the political center. 

In March, CNN reported a steep 61% year-over-year total audience dip, suggesting it's not been able to replace viewer defections on the left with new watchers on the right. 

Meanwhile, now more than a year into the reign of Chris Licht, tensions are running high inside the newsroom, with the CNN president reportedly dressing down CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy for his critical coverage of the Trump town hall appearance. 

A Puck report described Darcy as being visibly shaken after the Friday meeting, during which Licht accused the reporter's coverage of being overly emotional. 

The great political sage (and former Texas agriculture commissioner) Jim Hightower once said, “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.” A progressive Democrat in a state that was rapidly turning hard-red Republican, Hightower knew whereof he spoke. 

And yet, that’s exactly where CNN sits, alongside stinky armored not-rats and sun-blasted paint, trying to find a durable and lucrative audience amid a serious ratings swoon, while also attempting to avoid that speeding semi-truck called industry-wide transformation. Short-term decisions made for financial exigencies may already be having long-term consequences. Like a five-day-old dead armadillo, CNN is starting to smell a little. 

A year after changing corporate daddies to Warner Bros. Discovery and division leadership to Chris Licht, it’s fair to wonder where the preeminent TV news brand is headed. 

As CNN showed in the early days of the Ukraine invasion, it still had the reach and bench of talented correspondents last year to thoroughly cover a big international story from multiple angles. None, and I repeat none, of its broadcast and cable competitors marshaled the same resources in such a comprehensive way. The only news organizations with anything like CNN’s global credibility are the surging The New York Times and a fading BBC. 

Its online site, CNN.com, has been a semi-secret powerhouse too. It trails only the Times and, still somehow, Yahoo.com among the top U.S. news-publishing sites, according to SimilarWeb.com. 

CNN.com had 1.78 billion visits over the past three month, with two-thirds on mobile, which made it the 34th-most popular site in the U.S. and 88th biggest on the planet, said SimilarWeb. That makes the website a force multiplier for the cable network, expanding its reach, reputation and revenue generation, especially during high-profile news cycles.  

CNN.com traffic remains nearly double FoxNews.com (No. 119 globally, 997 million visitors past three months) and miles beyond digital afterthought MSNBC (No. 4,769 globally, 55 million visits).  

Where CNN is not ahead is in, um, cable news. 

Back when the Warner Bros. Discovery deal was aborning in late 2021, power-behind-the-throne and future WBD board member John Malone said he hoped CNN would get back to doing journalism. 

That was a shot, ultimately, at all three cable news networks and their Trump-era obsessions with political divisions, partisan personalities and endless hot takes. Last summer, Malone took his journalism critique a bit further, telling the New York Times he hoped the news networks would do a better job distinguishing between news and opinion.

CEO David Zaslav and Licht duly tacked to the center. Company executives have made much of the number of Republican politicians and other conservative commentators they’ve had on air in recent months. The big-name/big-polarization personalities of primetime are largely gone. 

Licht, meanwhile, has been trying to turn the morning newscast into something more like the personality-driven Morning Joe on MSNBC or CBS This Morning, both of which Licht previously headed. 

He installed former primetime star Don Lemon into CNN This Morning with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. The initial product did not thrive, especially after the run-and-gun Lemon said GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not “in her prime,” among other on-air gaffes and off-air conflicts with co-hosts. That fueled an Oscar-night rebuke from Michelle Yeoh and a time-out for “training” for Lemon. 

Morning ratings, meanwhile, have been brutal: 360,000 total viewers/just 73,000 in the demo, versus Fox News’ 1.2 million total/170,000 in the demo. In response, two weeks ago, Licht swapped in new executive producers Laura Mensch and Chris Russell to stanch the stench. 

Licht is also unveiling a new midday news block, CNN News Central, that debuts beginning this week. Two three-hour blocks of midday programming will emanate from New York and Washington, with new sets and a graphics-heavy look designed to evoke election-night bells and whistles. 

And the suddenly personality-free primetime is being filled with one-off Town Hall programming and extended interviews. 

So, big changes all the way around. 

But there in the middle of the road, the company has mostly discovered the previously mentioned stiffening Cingulata and yellow stripes, but not much in the way of actual viewers. 

Primetime ratings are down 61% this month, Nielsen says, and in the prized 18-49 demographic, the audience is down 40% over the past year. 

That’s the worst of the Big Three, at a time when it’s tough to be a cable network, or a news operation in a non-campaign year. Cord-cutting across the industry whacks the big players such as CNN and ESPN worst because they make the most from both advertising and carriage fees. But bad numbers are bad numbers, and CNN is delivering a lot of bad numbers. 

A company spokesman told the New York Post that CNN viewers are the youngest of the Big Three and the most in the demo that advertisers covet. Most importantly, “the impact of CNN’s journalism and the reach of the brand cannot be measured by a single metric.” 

For his part, Zaslav told folks to perk up in a pep talk reported by the Post. 

“Ratings be damned,” Zaslav said. “Let’s focus on who we are. This is our mission. This is our legacy. And this is our journey together.”

But the journey Zaslav has taken CNN’s remaining viewership and staff on has been quite a rough one, with a deeply problematic potential legacy that may manifest for years to come.   

CNN lost hundreds of employees when Zaslav took over, in part because of his immediate closure of the newborn CNN Plus streaming service. WBD executives also closed CNN’s original-production division, which made documentaries, series and other projects. 

Those moves may have made sense given WBD’s crippling $55 billion in debt (now hacked to a still brutal $48 billion). But they don’t position CNN to thrive in a post-cable future. 

Subscription service CNN Plus was supposed to be the future as cable TV continued to shrivel. Whether a stand-alone niche service, particularly at the mammoth scale that launched CNN Plus, could reach sustainability is a reasonable question to ask. 

So, maybe something like CNN Plus won’t ever make sense as a replacement for the cable network. What then?

Will live CNN news programming join HBO Max, just as Discovery Plus content is doing, to create a somewhat undersized analogue for the traditional cable bundle? 

Live network news programming from NBC and CBS is already part of Peacock and Paramount Plus, respectively. Maybe that’s the next step, but will it generate the resources needed to sustain CNN operations, and at what subscription price? 

Similarly, the decision to ax CNN’s original production unit clearly saved money. But if Zaslav wants to generate more cash by selling programming to third-party outlets, it won’t be coming from CNN, whose documentaries, films and specials might otherwise continue to be attractive, award-winning, audience favorites. 

Great journalism is expensive, the opposite of evergreen, and sometimes dangerous, as demonstrated by this week’s seizure of The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by the Russian government for, basically, being an American reporter in wartime. 

But CNN matters. In its four decades of operation, the network has been an important source of reliable, in-the-moment coverage of major events in the U.S. and far beyond. It would be heartening to see Zaslav and Licht demonstrate a deeper appreciation for the public trust and irreplaceable asset they’ve been gifted to run, and to make sure it’s positioned to thrive for decades to come. ■

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav praised CNN and its president, Chris Licht, for deploying a more ideologically "balanced strategy," noting that "over 70 Republicans came on our air" in January during the cable news channel's coverage of the House GOP's chaotically protracted speaker election process. 

"We are already seeing a more inclusive range of voices and viewpoints, as demonstrated last month," Zaslav said during WBD's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. 

The comments were WBD's most declarative yet that it's following through on media mogul John Malone's desire for CNN appear "more centrist." 

The Liberty Media Chairman sits on the WBD board of directors. 

Licht, a former Late Show With Stephen Colbert CBS producer who took over the reins at CNN from Jeff Zucker a year ago, has overseen a range of cuts to high-profile on-air personalities as well as rank-and-file staff. 

But until Zaslav said it Thursday, no one at WBD or CNN had admitted to striking a more "both sides" tone. 

"Chris Licht and the team are focused on building an asset for the long term across cable and digital that is worthy of that great global brand," Zaslav added. 

CNN CEO Chris LIcht, looking to boost a low-scoring primetime lineup, is reportedly trying to get NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley to do a primetime show on the news network.

Barkley has built a career as an outspoken, award-winning commentator on TNT’s Inside the NBA. TNT and CNN are both owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to Puck News, Licht is in negotiations to get Barkley to do a news-oriented primetime show. In the show, Barkley would interview newsmakers, journalists and other guests about the topics of the day.

“The conceit is that a genuine, outspoken, often humorous figure like Barkley might be a bigger draw than the traditional self-serious newsman, and might be better suited to ask guests the kinds of questions that average Americans actually care about,” Puck’s Dylan Byers wrote.

“Chris is having conversations with dozens of culturally relevant individuals from the worlds of news, sports, entertainment, and comedy,” a CNN spokesperson told Puck.

Last year, Barkley signed a new contract to stay with Inside the NBA.

CNN has been struggling in primetime. Host Chris Cuomo was dropped after the network discovered he’d been inappropriately advising his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Another CNN primetime host, Don Lemon, has been moved to CNN’s morning show. ■

Political analyst Chris Cillizza was perhaps the most well-known CNN correspondent to lose his job Thursday, as the cable news network executed on a plan announced a day earlier to lay off a sizable portion of its 4,000-plus member workforce.

The axing of Cillizza, a polarizing news figure for his staunch adherence to the traditional "both sides" reporting style, along with heavy cuts at CNN group channel HLN, were first reported by the Penske showbiz trade monopoly and confirmed by several other outlets.

Also read: CNN Lets Loose on Licht-Led Layoffs

According to these outlets, correspondents Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, Alex Field and Mary Ann Fox also lost their jobs Thursday.

Meanwhile, cuts have been particularly focused on HLN, Variety reports, with the channel no longer producing live programs. HLN will now simulcast CNN This Morning in place of Morning Express.

The cuts are part of a larger austerity plan put in place by once-again-merged parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which recently promised investors that it would expand "synergy" reductions from $3 billion to $3.5 billion. ■

CNN laid off an unspecified number of paid contributors on Wednesday. And in a staff memo, network CEO Chris Licht told full time CNN employees they'll be informed of their ongoing status on Thursday. 

“It will be a difficult time for everyone,” Licht wrote ... 26 days before Christmas. 

“Our people are the heart and soul of this organization,” he added. “It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many. I recently described this process as a gut punch, because I know that is how it feels for all of us.” 

CNN audience performance has been down significantly since the 2020 election cycle. On midterm Tuesday earlier this month, the linear CNN's ratings lagged in prime time behind not just perennial ratings ass-kicker Fox News, but also traditional No. 3 cable news channel MSNBC. 

But this latest round of expected cuts are part of a larger "synergies" target set forth by recently merged parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav told investors earlier this month that WBD is expanding its cost-savings target from $3 billion to $3.5 billion -- a pleasing proposition for company stock holders forlorn over WBD's $614 billion Q3 EBITDA loss on direct-to-consumer services.

As per usual, CNN staff and TMT pundits turned to our newly declared collective town square, a safe haven for free speech, to comment on Licht's memo:

Michael Bass, a top lieutenant under former CNN CEO Jeff Zucker known for establishing the cable news network's somewhat oppositional tone during the Trump Administration, will leave his job as head of programming at the end of the year. 

Bass’s departure was announced Monday morning at the weekly Monday staff meeting for parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. He becomes the latest top Zucker-era executive to depart the network amid the ascendance of new CNN CEO Chris Licht. 

Also read: Should John Malone and Warner Bros. Discovery Just Pull the Plug on Streaming and Go Full Arms Dealer?

“We are launching a search for Michael’s replacement, and we will communicate an interim plan in the coming days,” Licht told WBD staff, describing the departure as Bass’s decision. 

"Along with a brilliant and courageous team, Michael kept CNN live and on air as COVID-19 shut the world down," Licht added. "Never has CNN been more essential than those bleak days when people were struggling to understand the pandemic."

Bass’s time with Zucker runs all the way back to their days producing NBC's Today, although he was kept on by Licht after an initial round of executive housecleaning over the summer. 

Media-telecom mogul John Malone, who orchestrated the $43 billion merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery, has publicly discussed his intention to reorient CNN into a more "centrist" news network. For his part, Zucker has said the network was plenty center-oriented when he was in charge of it — it was just that most of the news coming out of the Trump White House wasn’t all that flattering. 

Regardless as to what side of the ideological spectrum CNN under Zucker — and now Licht — is viewed, the new CEO has a big ratings problem to fix. 

How bad is it? On the Tuesday night of the midterm elections two weeks ago, CNN lost decisively to MSNBC in total viewers. ■

As every Ted Lasso fan knows, there are consequences to having a bad season in the English Premier League. Last season, Burnley, Watford and Norwich City were relegated (aka “demoted) to the English Football League Championship after each team finished in the bottom three of the Premier League. They’ll now have to finish in the top three in the Championship in the 2022-23 campaign if they want to be promoted back. 

Not to let Heidi Klum clutter up a perfectly good sports analogy for Next TV's new Friday afternoon navel-gazer, the business o’ video streaming is the same way — one week you’re in, the next you’re out. 

Here are some companies, executives, technologies or … things that we’d like to see promoted this week, and here’s another list we’d like to see relegated. 

PROMOTE 

* Roku City - Created as a homepage backdrop and screensaver for the Roku OS four years ago by former freelance graphic artist Kyle Jones, the scrolling magenta urban scape, filled with easter eggs, and now known as “Roku City,” has emerged as a happy hashtag on Twitter in recent weeks amid the social media platform’s post-apocalyptic chaos. It’s meme-liness was even spotlighted by the New York Times last weekend, which noted that Roku City has “become the unlikely venue for a massive public art experiment.” Of all the #RokuCity tweets referenced in the article, we liked this one from comedian Michelle Gold best:

Bob Chapek - Faced with EBITDA losses on direct-to-consumer businesses that would flush lesser quarterbacks into “course corrections” that make little sense in an age of accelerated cratering of linear media businesses, the Disney CEO stood tall in the pocket this week during his company’s third-quarter earnings report. Sure, he got hit after throwing the ball — Disney stock cratered 13%, a massive Wall Street setback that hasn’t been experienced in a generation. To Chapek, it’s just a matter of finding his open guys — ARPU on Disney Plus and the broader “Disney Bundle” have to be improved, and the advertising side of the business has to get launched and ironed out. But the blocking and tacking are there. The lighting-quick growth of Disney’s DTC scale — it blew by Netlfix in just three years — backs Chapek’s pledge to investors that Disney will be the first media conglomerate to be profitable in the new IP-distributed world. 

NBCUniversal - Amassing only 15 million paid users after two and a half years in the market, we’re not about to consider promoting NBCU’s DTC platform into our proverbial “Premier League.” Maybe out of the National League (which is like four rungs below the Premier)? But NBCU had a big programming win recently, releasing Universal Pictures’ 17th Halloween franchise movie, Halloween Ends, day and date onto Peacock and in theaters. The film generated what appears to be Peacock’s biggest audience to date. In fact, Nielsen revealed Thursday that a Peacock program surfaced for the first time on its weekly top 10 ranking of streaming shows, with Halloween Ends registering 717 million streaming minutes in the U.S. from Oct. 14-16. The film also generated $103.3 million at the global box office. Not a bad blended distribution strategy for a Blumhouse Productions movie with a reported production budget of around $33 million. 

RELEGATE

Ryan Murphy and Netflix - Sure, the prolific creative just hoisted some of Netflix’s biggest audience numbers of the year with Monster - The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Watcher. But just because Netflix could have expanded both limited series into multi-season enterprises doesn’t mean it should have. We won’t get into it again how The Watcher took Next TV — which had been hooked by episode 3 — down with it off a creative cliff with its convoluted ending in episode 7. But it's been the decision to expand Monster into an anthology series, transforming it into a full  “universe” of serial killers (Netflix’s words), that’s drawn all the ire on social media. “They’re franchising a bunch of psychotic, misogynistic serial killers like they're the f***ing Avengers,” tweeted one unhappy social media denizen. 

Chris Licht - The man brought in by David Zaslav to replace CNN chief Jeff Zucker, and ostensibly restore centrism and ratings sense to the network, just laid a pretty big egg with what is always one of cable news’ biggest nights, the midterm elections. The presumed radical lefties at MSNBC beat the Wolf Blitzer-less CNN in primetime election coverage on Tuesday night with a 3.2 million to 2.6 million viewer advantage. Granted, the overall audience for Tuesday’s midterms — which determined if candidates with absolutely no faith in the election process assumed lever-arm control of it on a national and state level — was somehow the smallest it has been for a midterm since 2014. But if you’re gonna come in cracking skulls and tanking morale, you better produce some damned audience ratings. 

Spectrum Internet - The Former Guy’s decision to gut the U.S. Postal Service ahead of the 2020 election has left a lasting imprint here at Next TV’s West Adams District headquarters in Los Angeles. The two mailboxes at our duplex remain festooned with not only our own spam mail from Charter Communications, but also the cable come-ons being sent to no less than five generations of occupants who lived here prior to our October 2016 purchase of the property. (There’s simply no effective, easy way anymore to tell the USPS that a previous occupant no longer lives at your house.) If I had kept all of the promotional mail sent by Charter over this six-year span, I would have a stack tall enough to reach the highest T-Mobile 5G tower, where affordable $50-a-month fixed-wireless-access home internet is being transmitted and received every damned second of every damned day. Instead, Next TV has chosen to further fill local landfills with Charter's wasteful paper marketing refuse … while we also continue paying Charter $74.99 a month — nay, $79.99 a month, after the just imposed price increase for broadband-only customers — for 300 Mbps, last-generation DOCSIS 3.0 Spectrum Internet service. With no managed Wi-Fi. On top of that, we have to listen to Charter execs wax on during earnings reports about how unhappy we’ll be with the performance of FWA services if we choose to switch. Well, sir, we just might have to see for ourselves, won’t we? 

Just 10 months ago, CNN was preparing to launch a bold streaming initiative under a CEO who enjoyed broad-level trust and loyalty in the newsroom.

These days, when Chris Licht -- the man who took over as chairman and CEO of the cable news network from Jeff Zucker back in February --  issues a staff memo, the newsroom probably ducks for cover.

It was no different on Wednesday, when Licht told staffers to get ready for the hard times.

In short, he said there will be "noticeable" changes to network staff that could be "unsettling."

"There is widespread concern over the global economic outlook, and we must factor that risk into our long-term planning," Licht wrote. "All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization. That, by definition, is unsettling. These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects.

"We will be strategic in this process and will minimize the impact on our core news-gathering operation and digital, both of which have already executed smart changes," Licht added. "Let me be clear: I will not allow these changes to affect our position as the world's leading news source, and we will continue to invest in growth areas. When we conclude this process, CNN will still be the largest, most-respected news-gathering organization in the world. We will continue to cover any story, anywhere, any time -- with more resources than anyone else. Full stop."

Licht's memo came after parent company Warner Bros. Discovery indicated in an SEC filing earlier this week that it will incur an organizational restructuring charge of around $1.1 billion for "severance, retention, relocation, and other related costs."

Licht's first order of business was to scuttle CNN Plus and reorganize CNN's digital team, a group that appears safe from further changes.

So far, there's been only a few big-name on-screen departures -- notably, Licht sent longtime media reporter Brian Stelter packing in August.

But expect more pain real soon.

“We have also begun to reduce or eliminate areas that aren’t core to our mission," Licht wrote. "All these moves are designed to keep CNN essential across platforms to ensure that wherever and however people get their news, they must have CNN." ■

CNN CEO Chris Licht continued his programming makeover at CNN, filling the primetime slots vacated by opinion programming with shows focusing on the mid-term elections.

Jake Tapper will anchor CNN’s 9 p.m. hour, which had been occupied by Chris Cuomo before he was dismissed. Tapper is CNN’s chief Washington correspondent and anchor of The Lead and State of the Union.

CNN Newsroom anchor Alisyn Camerota and CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates will share anchor responsibilities from 10 p.m. to midnight ET.

The announced changes are effective from October 10 through the week of the elections in November.

Earlier this month, Licht announced changes to coming to CNN’s morning show. He reportedly has a mandate to tone down what is perceived as commentary against former President Donald Trump at the news network from parent company Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and major shareholder John Malone.

“The world has come to rely on Jake’s no-nonsense approach to covering the news, especially during high-stakes election cycles,” Licht said. “This move will showcase his tough reporting, smart analysis and consequential interviews as our audiences navigate the myriad of issues at stake in the midterms. By adding the insights, experience and strong voices of Alisyn and Laura, we will advance and expand on that coverage, creating something complimentary and compelling in primetime.”

In other changes, John Berman and Brianna Keilar will fill in for Tapper on The Lead from 4 p.m.-5 p.m. ET. The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer will pick up an hour, expanding its footprint to 5 p.m.-7 p.m. ET nightly. Erin Burnett OutFront and Anderson Cooper 360 will remain in their respective timeslots of 7-8 p.m. ET and 8-9 p.m. ET. ■

New CNN chairman Chris Licht continued his shake-up of the news network by announcing a new morning show.

Don Lemon will be moving from primetime to anchor the show, along with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.

The new morning program will have a new name, format and set, CNN said. 

Also: New CNN Head Chris Licht Explains Plans for Network

“There is no stronger combination of talent than Don, Poppy and Kaitlan to deliver on our promise of a game-changing morning news program,” Licht said. “They are each uniquely intelligent, reliable and compelling; together they have a rare and palpable chemistry. Combined with CNN’s resources and global newsgathering capabilities, we will offer a smart, bold and refreshing way to start the day.”

Moving Lemon from his hour-long primetime slot also continues a trend of eliminating commentary that was critical of Donald Trump, making the network more centrist or conservative.

“The last eight years have been an incredible ride. I’ve had the opportunity to work with one of the best show teams in the business, but it’s time to shake things up. I am so appreciative of the Don Lemon Tonight team, my wonderful, loyal viewers and everyone who has believed in me,” Lemon said. “I was honestly floored when Chris Licht asked me to do this and I’m honored by his belief in me. It’s going to be a thrill to take on this challenge with Poppy and Kaitlan. I’ll get to work with two of my dearest friends. Set your alarms folks, because we’re going to have a lot of fun.”

Harlow is currently an anchor of CNN Newsroom from 9-11 a.m. ET and host of the CNN podcast Boss Files. She joined the network in 2008.

Collins joined CNN in 2017 and became the network’s youngest-ever chief White House correspondent at age 29. She will serve as co-anchor and chief correspondent for the show.

John Berman and Brianna Keilar will continue to anchor New Day, CNN’s current morning show, until the new program premieres. Both will assume new roles at the network later this year, CNN said. ■

Without mentioning CNN Plus, new CNN CEO Chris Licht set out the company’s plans for the rudderless news network.

Those plans involve a morning show, a Sunday-night showcase and avoiding the kinds of advocacy journalism that has infected cable news.

CNN was shocked by the sudden firing of its president Jeff Zucker because of an undisclosed relationship with another CNN executive and by the abrupt decision to shut down streaming subscription service CNN Plus after just 33 days.

New owner Warner Bros. Discovery hired Licht, who had been executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, to fix the original cable news network.

“When [WBD CEO] David Zaslav put me in this role. He gave me one simple directive: enhance CNN's leadership as the definitive source for reliable news and exceptional, journalism globally,” Licht said at Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront Wednesday. 

Invoking CNN founder Ted Turner (who was name-checked far more often than Discovery founder John Hendricks or the Warner brothers), Licht said CNN’s original mission is still evident today.  

Upfronts 2022: Click Here for Complete Coverage

“This organization is unrivaled in its fact-driven coverage, its ability to gather and report news where it happens and its commitment to telling meaningful stories about our people and events in our world,” Licht said. 

“The next chapter of CNN is one where we aspire to be a beacon for the kind of journalism essential to a functioning democracy,” he said.

Licht pushed back at the notion that CNN is or wants to be a liberal news organization. 

“At a time where the extremes are dominating cable news, we will seek to go a different way, reflecting the real lives of our viewers and elevating the way America, and the world, views this medium,” he said. “We intend to challenge the traditional philosophy of cable news, delivering programming and commentary that questions the status quo, shatters groupthink, holds, our leaders on both sides of the aisle accountable to facts and fights fearlessly to get to the truth.”

Licht said CNN would be making changes in its morning show. “We are seeking to be a disrupter of the broadcast morning shows in this space and we believe we have the people and resources who can do it,” he said.

He also plans to establish a CNN Sunday franchise that will feature Chris Wallace’s interview show, retrieved from the CNN Plus scrapheap, and a new “topical long-form" show, which will showcase our existing correspondents and contributors “telling new stories they enterprise from around the world.”  He wants the show to become an “exciting outlet for the stories that can have real impact and blister the CNN brand.”

Who's Talking to Chris Wallace and the new long-form show will be joined by existing CNN originals like Stanley Tucci's Search for Italy; Say It Loud, about the history of Black television from LeBron James and Maverick Carter; and The 2010s, as wells as CNN Films.

Licht said CNN will also be increasing its production of documentaries. He’s aiming to make high-end, quick-turn topical hours that can “capitalize on audience interest in major news and cultural events."

And despite the demise of its streaming service, CNN remains a big digital player.

“CNN is the No. 1 digital property in the world,” Licht said. “That’s right, the No. 1 news platform globally, and we are already putting significantly more resources into increasing user engagement through innovations and tech that will allow us to maintain our excellence and dominance in that space.” ■

Warner Bros. Discovery flexed its content portfolio muscle during its New York upfront presentation Wednesday morning, parading a lineup of content producers, celebrities and executives in front of attending advertisers. 

Nearly a year after announcing the merger, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav opened the festivities by positioning the newly combined company as the “fifth broadcast network” that surpasses the reach of the four broadcast networks combined among audiences 25-54.

“We have the largest reach with the most complete portfolio, including news and sports,” he said.

Zaslav also said he’s confident that the combined service will thrive in a crowded marketplace. “We are highly confident in our ability to thrive both creatively and financially,” he said. “We are the largest maker of television and motion picture content in the world.” 

Also: Warner Bros. Discovery Confirms Plan To Create Single, ‘Awesome’ Global Streaming Product

CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Chris Licht outlined several new CNN shows, including Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, which was originally slated for the now-defunct CNN Plus streaming service but will now air Sunday nights on HBO Max. He also announced the network will reimagine its weekday morning lineup, vowing to be a “disruptor to the broadcast shows in this space." 

Other WBD personalities such as Oprah Winfrey, Food Network’s Guy Fieri and Turner Sports’ Ernie Johnson sent video messages touting upcoming programming and the overall on-air strength of the combined company. 

Upfronts 2022: Click Here for Complete Coverage

Warner Bros. Discovery also rolled out other celebrities to announce new shows, including musical artist Lizzo, who will appear in a new HBO documentary focusing on her life and career. Actress Mindy Kaling also touted her new Scooby-Doo spinoff animated series Velma focusing on a brown-skinned, South Asian version of the brainy sleuth. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care,” she said.  

Actress/singer Jennifer Hudson served as host throughout the upfront, touting her upcoming Warner Bros.-produced talk show and introducing a litany of popular celebrities and shows within the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Magnolia Network’s Chip and Joanna Gaines, and Food Network celebrity chef Bobby Flay. She also interviewed HGTV's Jonathan Scott and rapper/ home decorator Lil John and invited the audience to participate in singing her version of Aretha Franklin's classic song Respect to close out the presentation. ■ 

Veteran producer Chris Licht will replace Jeff Zucker as CNN's top executive once parent company WarnerMedia completes its $43 billion spinoff from AT&T and merger with Discovery in April.

Updated 2/28/2022: Soon-to-be corporate overlord Discovery and its CEO, David Zaslav, made the news, leaked over the weekend, official on Monday. 

“I have known and admired Chris for more than 15 years and strongly believe he is the best person to lead CNN Global as part of Warner Bros. Discovery," Zaslav said in a statement. "Chris is a dynamic and creative producer, an engaging and thoughtful journalist, and a true news person. He has more than two decades of broadcast experience across local, cable and national news. He has been in the field, in the control room and on the set. He is a highly principled individual who is trusted, hard-working and makes every organization stronger, more innovative, and more cohesive.” 

Licht, 50, currently serves as executive producer of CBS' The Late Show with Steven Colbert, as well as VP of special programming for the erstwhile ViacomCBS. He's also credited with creating MSNBC's Morning Joe and overseeing the revamp of CBS This Morning. 

Licht joins CNN as it tries to regain linear ratings traction that slipped dramatically following Donald Trump's exit from the White House. CNN is also set to launch a $4.99 over-the-top service in the next few weeks. There's the merger. Oh, and Zucker, who abruptly departed in January amid "revelations" of his longtime relationship with an underling, former CMO Allison Gollust, enjoyed robust popularity and loyalty among current CNN staff. 

Licht will also oversee CNN at a key point during which its tone will be tightly scrutinized -- for example, media baron John Malone, who sits on the Discovery board, has publicly stated a desire for the news channel to adopt a more neutral, centrist public image, a position that is literally wide open in a cable news market largely ceded by channels that have evolved into propaganda networks. 

Zaslav will run the combined Warner Discovery. 

Discussing CNN during Discovery's Q4 earnings call on Thursday, Zaslav noted that, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, other cable news networks have anchors "sitting behind desks and giving their opinion about what's going on." CNN, however, is "on the ground with journalists in bulletproof vests and helmets that are doing what journalists do best, which is fight to tell the truth in dangerous places. So that we all can be safe and we can assess what's going on."

Licht's TV journalism pedigree dates back to powerful NBC O&O KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, where he worked during the all-encompassing murder trial of O.J. Simpson in the mid-1990s. He joined MSNBC in 2005 as the executive producer of the network's Scarborough Country.