Chris Licht: Last News

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery is widely expected to name Mark Thompson, the former New York Times Co. and BBC leader who has demonstrated a knack for guiding media into digital realms, as the latest executive to oversee CNN, according to a person familiar with the matter, putting in place the fifth executive structure around the news giant since early 2022.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery is back in the hunt for a new executive to oversee CNN. Mark Thompson, the former CEO of New York Times Co.

Don Lemon made his first extended comments since he was fired from CNN, telling podcast host Kara Swisher that he feels “vindicated” following the exit of CNN leadership after his departure.

CNN unveiled an overhaul of its lineup, with Abby Phillip getting the 10 p.m. ET primetime slot, while Phil Mattingly will co-anchor CNN This Morning with Poppy Harlow and Kasie Hunt will helm Early Start.

CNN announced a series of promotions in its domestic newsgathering division.

Jeff Zucker was breezing through the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach when he spotted David Zaslav across the room. The former CNN chief was there on vacation on March 31, while the current Warner Bros. Discovery CEO was on hand for the Saudi-backed FII Institute’s Global Priority Summit.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor One notable thing about the headlines coming out of CNN in recent weeks is something they don’t include: news about CNN itself. Since the exit of former chief Chris Licht in June after a tenure marked by tumult and unwanted publicity, the gossip mill around the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet has ceased its once-dependable roar. There are no leaks about what happened at CNN’s morning editorial meeting, or chatter about how current leaders Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling talk (or don’t) to the staff. There is even less hubbub about David Leavy, the longtime consigliere who was recently installed to oversee business affairs. and is a longtime consigliere to Warner Bros. Discovery honcho David Zaslav,

Kaitlan Collins will officially launch as the network’s 9 p.m. ET host on Monday with a one-hour program named The Source.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor One of the most influential and alluring jobs in journalism just opened. Now the company trying to fill the position is waiting to see if anyone really wants it. Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to move deliberately rather than quickly in its search for a new CEO for CNN. Executives are telling staffers and TV agents that it will likely take a few months to fill the role that Chris Licht held for one turbulent year. Licht, the TV news veteran and “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” showrunner, was ousted last week after spearheading a series of programming moves and talent decisions that kept headlines about CNN circulating more often than anything else produced by the newsroom. Licht’s final error was taking part in a profile The Atlantic published June 2 — 15,000 words detailing a “Meltdown at CNN.” Numerous statements from Licht in the story and his questionable judgment in allowing a reporter such broad access marked the last straw for his corporate managers as well as CNN insiders. Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper all lodged concerns about Licht’s ability to manage following the profile’s publication, according to a person familiar with the matter, confirming details previously revealed by The Wall Street Journal.

The group of executives who are leading CNN on an interim basis made their first comments to staffers on Thursday, vowing to make “this period as smooth as possible.”

The abrupt yet not-all-too-surprising exit of Chris Licht from CNN is a bit of a relief for staffers who thought he was the wrong person for the job, but whoever succeeds him at the cable news network will face many of the same headwinds.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Some people only get one chance to run CNN. Amy Entelis is about to embark on her second. The veteran news executive was one of three who took the reins at the Warner Bros. Discovery news outlet when Jeff Zucker, the previous chief, was forced out in February of last year after acknowledging a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, once CNN’s chief marketing officer. Now Entelis will be part of a new trio leading the news giant after the Wednesday departure of former CEO Chris Licht. The challenges facing CNN have not diminished. Entelis will guide CNN’s news operations along with Virginia Moseley, recently named to oversee editorial operations, and Eric Sherling, recently appointed head of U.S. programming. David Leavy, a longtime Zaslav lieutenant who was named chief operating officer at CNN last week, will oversee business activities. The entire group must keep CNN moving forward as the 2024 presidential election cycle draws near, even as the outlet’s ratings have fallen and its staff has been buffeted by job cuts, programming changes and a seemingly endless cycle of senior executives coming and going.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic The departure of CNN’s Chris Licht, following his turbulent year atop the cable news network, places a pause on one of the great media stories of the decade so far. But even non-media-junkies can appreciate just how strange and how strenuously rocking had been Licht’s time at the network: It played out across screens. The trouble with being the place that invented the 24-hour news cycle is that those hours can come back to bite when you’re the story. There it was in politics, when Donald Trump’s “Town Hall,” with purported rising star Kaitlan Collins, gear-shifted into the first televised rally of the 2024 presidential cycle — with CNN’s air being used to depict an audience of Trump supporters cheering on his jibes. (No less an eminence than Christiane Amanpour, a CNN icon, registered her dissent in public.) There it was on the business pages, with Licht’s overseeing the dismantling of streaming product CNN+, on orders from Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav, setting the tone for his tenure. There it was at the Oscars, when Michelle Yeoh used her best actress acceptance speech to rebuke anchor Don Lemon’s bizarre on-air comments about a woman’s “prime” years. There it was in the gossip pages, after a Variety story about Lemon’s comportment toward his female co-anchors on the network’s flagship morning show, and then his ouster, leaked into the tabloids, and never seemed to be countered by any good news about the network. And, finally, there it was at length, with an all-access profile by the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta revealing Licht’s contempt for predecessor Jeff Zucker and the depths of his disdain for and, frankly, confusion about CNN’s mission.

Chris Licht will be leaving CNN after just one year as chief executive and chairman.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN CEO Chris Licht will leave his post after a little more than a year at the helm after losing the support of staff and enacting a series of chaotic editorial changes under the direction of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. David Zalsalv, CEO of the embattled news outlet, told staffers Wednesday of the decision during CNN’s reglar editorial call, according to two people familiar with the matter. Amy Entelis, a longtime CNN executive who worked with previous chief Jeff Zucker and helps manage talent relations; Virginia Moseley, recenlty named to oversee editorial operations; and Eric Sherling, recently appointed head of U.S. programming, will oversee CNN for an interim period, Zaslav said. David Leavy, a longtime Zaslav lieutenant who was named chief operating officer at CNN last week, will oversee business activities.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN chief Chris Licht told staffers Monday he wants to help them make the news rather than being a central figure in it. In the wake of a devastating profile of the CNN CEO published Friday by The Atlantic, Licht set about soothing frayed nerves Monday by telling employees on the news outlet’s regular morning call that “I should not be in the news unless it’s taking arrows for you. Your work is what should be written about,” according to two people familiar with the matter, The words are the first from Licht to be made public since the piece was unveiled. Thanks to a rich vein of unfettered access provided over months, the piece detailed the executive’s struggles — and some of his insecurities — during his first year on the job at the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet. David Zaslav, the CEO of the parent company, has articulated a strategy of eliminating some of the activist bent that resounded at CNN under its previous chief, Jeff Zucker. But Licht’s efforts to do so have been plagued by near-constant leaks and a restive staff, many of whom remain loyal to Licht’s predecessor, ousted after he admitted to a longstanding relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s former chief marketing officer.

Joe Scarborough and Donny Deutsch mocked conservatives for running the “woke” hysteria into the ground.Ron DeSantis and other Republicans have screeched about the so-called “woke agenda,” which they warn will undermine American values and put children at risk from all manner of threats, but the “Morning Joe” host said most voters simply don’t care about that manufactured issue.“Joe Biden, 350 pieces of bipartisan legislation signed, and Ron DeSantis and everybody else is talking ‘woke, woke, woke, woke, woke,'” Scarborough said. “Again, something that I said on this show and I heard a lot about from liberals, even, in 2021.

David Leavy, a top executive at Warner Bros. Discovery, as been named COO of CNN Worldwide.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN keeps feeding the mouths that bite it. As Warner Bros. Discovery has orchestrated massive changes and cuts to the popular news giant, a stream of producers, anchors and executives have left — some of their own volition, and many of them not. But no matter the case, a growing number of these now-former CNN die-hards are being scooped up by rivals including MSNBC, ABC News and CBS News. CBS News on Wednesday announced it had lined up Lisa Ling as a contributor. The veteran journalist spent eight years at CNN leading viewers through interesting issues as host of the documentary series, This Is Life,” which was cancelled amid a cutback of original programming that uses outside partners. ABC News on Wednesday announced that Brooke Bower, who had been managing editor of CNN Politics, was joining as executive producer of the Sunday politics show “This Week.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN will shift the bulk of its operations behind its Spanish-language efforts to Mexico City, scaling back production of content for linear television in favor of work aimed at reaching a younger audience that favors mobile video. The move is likely to mean the elimination of jobs in Miami and Atlanta, but will also result in a ramp-up of jobs in Mexico and Los Angeles, where CNN will aim to add more than staffers, according to a person familiar with the plans, which were disclosed to employees Thursday afternoon. CNN CEO Chris Licht had nodded to the future of the Spanish-language network in November at a town-hall meeting. At issue is how to maintain outreach to Spanish-speaking viewers at a time when the economics of big media companies are under intense scrutiny. CNN and its corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, have already cut operations, but the question of how to keep CNN en Espanol under such conditions has been under debate for some time. In the past, discussions had been underway to shut down the cable network, which has only limited distribution of around nine million in the United States.