CNN CEO Chris Licht Out

Chris Licht, the embattled chief executive and chairman of CNN, whose brief one-year tenure at the network was stained by a series of severe missteps, announced on Wednesday that he will depart the company.

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

The chief executive’s departure comes as he faced a rebellion among CNN’s talent and staff. His tenure was riddled with programming missteps and rock-bottom ratings. He drew even more heated criticism in recent weeks after the network hosted a town hall with Donald Trump that was packed with scores of the former president’s cheering fans.

But it was an unflattering 15,000-word, profile of Licht in The Atlantic that might have sealed his fate. He apologized to staffers Monday morning, but top brass at CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, including CEO David Zaslav, weren’t happy with the article and the aftermath.

CNN chairman and chief executive officer Chris Licht is leaving the network, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter https://t.co/vloKzDzZwh

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 7, 2023

Chris Licht

The NY Times reports Licht’s 13-month run at CNN was marked by one controversy after another, culminating in his exit earlier this week. He got off to a bumpy start even before he had officially started when he oversaw the shuttering of the costly CNN+ streaming service at the request of its network’s new owners, who were skeptical about a stand-alone digital product. The cuts resulted in scores of layoffs.

Licht’s departure represents a dramatic fall not long after he departed as an executive producer of Stephen Colbert’s top-rated late night show and vowed to bring a middle-of-the-road balance to CNN’s journalism. When Mr. Licht took the job, he told friends it was a “calling.”

In his attempt to reshape the network, Licht promised a reset with Republican voters. Part of that was to hear from the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in an event moderated by host Kaitlan Collins. He also announced that Collins, a former writer for the conservative publication, the Daily Caller, as a primetime host, moving her from CNN’s morning show.

However, what was an attempt to cultivate greater ratings backfired, with the network enduring a drop in viewers. CNN’s financial performance in general was in freefall, with only $750 million in profit generated last year last year, down from $1.25 billion the year before.