After taking a beating in the business-news wars, CNBC will revamp its schedule.
In addition to focusing on personality-driven news shows — a strategy Cable News Network has attempted in the last year — CNBC will cancel some programs and move up the starting time of its flagship, Business Center. The new schedule will debut on Feb. 4.
Business Center
will kick off at 5 p.m., giving it a one-hour head start on CNN's Moneyline with Lou Dobbs. Both Moneyline
and Fox News Channel's Your World with Neil Cavuto
have beaten Business Center
handily in recent months.
CNBC CEO Pamela Thomas-Graham said CNBC isn't ducking Moneyline
by moving up the starting time. "This is about making our flow appropriate," she said. "It has nothing to do with what competitors are doing."
CNBC also tore up its morning schedule, and will cancel Today's Business, which currently runs from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. It will be replaced by Wake-Up Call with Liz Claman and Carl Quintanilla
from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. The live program will also cover broader general news stories.
Claman had been co-host of Today's Business. Quintanilla, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, will replace Bob Sellers, Claman's current co-anchor.
Wake Up Call
will push back the starting time of the three-hour Squawk Box
until 8 a.m., while the starting time of the two-hour Power Lunch
has been pushed back until 1 p.m.
Another new program —Midday Call
, hosted by Martha MacCallum and Ted David — will run in between.
Under the new strategy, each anchor will be exclusive to their respective programs, except for Maria Bartiromo, who will continue to contribute to Squawk Box
in addition to anchoring her own shows.
"Each of the shows will become in some ways more like Squawk
in the sense that Squawk
has a definitive personality," Thomas-Graham added.
Former CNN Moneyline
co-host Stuart Varney will anchor one of the new programs, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board with Stuart Varney, set to run Fridays at 7 p.m.
Bartiromo will host Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo
from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tyler Mathisen will join Bartiromo at 4 p.m., for a program that CNBC is calling Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo and Tyler Mathisen.
