Friday, January 24, 2025

Bloody January At Embattled CNN


CNN is laying off roughly 200 employees, or about 6% of its workforce, part of a plan Chief Executive Mark Thompson says will shift the cable TV brand’s emphasis toward digital growth and prepare it to launch a streaming service. 

The Wall Street Journal reports the changes at CNNs are part of the organization’s continuing response “to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news,” Thompson wrote in a memo to staff Thursday.

The business environment for cable television has been on a downward path for years, thanks to cord-cutting and a growing distrust of legacy media. CNN averaged 578,000 prime-time viewers in the three months through December, down by 74% from its peak in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Nielsen data, placing it firmly in third place among the major cable news networks.

MSNBC’s viewership was down about 62% in that same period and Fox News, whose parent Fox Corp. fell by 27%.

To try to claw back viewers as the second Trump administration gets under way, CNN is also revamping its show lineup for both domestic and international channels. 

Blitzer, Hunt and Acosta

TV Newser reports the biggest name to relocate is Wolf Blitzer, who moves along with The Situation Room from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. ET. (All times Eastern.) He will anchor the long-running two-hour program alongside Pamela Brown, who previously occupied the 11 a.m. time slot. She’s now joining The Situation Room as co-host.

Going in the opposite direction, CNN This Morning host Kasie Hunt will move from the early morning daypart to 4 p.m. as anchor of the new show The Arena. Audie Cornish will replace Hunt at 6 a.m. on CNN This Morning. One hour earlier, Rahel Solomon will host a weekday version of the 5 Things franchise at 5 a.m., produced by CNN International.

Meanwhile, in the later hours, The Lead with Jake Tapper shifts closer to primetime, airing from 5 to 7 p.m. The rest of the primetime lineup otherwise remains unaffected.  In a note to staff, Thompson wrote that the revamped schedule will “bring energy and competitive edge to our delivery.”

One name missing from the current programming shuffle is Jim Acosta, who currently anchors CNN Newsroom at 10 a.m. It has been reported that CNN is looking to move him to late nights, possibly anchoring the 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. slot.

Reached for comment about Acosta’s status, a CNN spokesperson told TVNewser: “We are in active discussions with Jim about a new time slot and will have more information to share soon.”

Here is CNN’s new weekday lineup debuting in March below:

5 a.m.: 5 Things with Rahel Solomon 6 a.m.: CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish
7 a.m.: CNN News Central
10 a.m.: The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown
12 p.m.: Inside Politics with Dana Bash
1 p.m.: CNN News Central
4 p.m.: CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt
5 p.m.: The Lead with Jake Tapper
7 p.m.: Erin Burnett OutFront
8 p.m.: Anderson Cooper 360
9 p.m.: The Source with Kaitlan Collins
10 p.m.: NewsNight with Abby Phillip
11 p.m.: Laura Coates Live

 Although CNN already has a streaming service with CNN Max, Thompson said there are plans to launch an additional streaming product, although it did not yet announce what kind of programming the new streaming service will provide. Max, as it stands, “is not a complete answer to the future of the great linear CNN experience,” Thompson wrote.

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