The Chris Licht era at CNN is over.
The veteran TV executive who was brought in to right CNN’s wayward ship is out after just 13 months highlighted by controversy, low ratings and a magazine profile that appears to have hastened his exit.
Puck’s Dylan Byers was the first to break the news.
In a memo to staff, David Zaslav, chief executive of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery wrote, “I have great respect for Chris, personally and professionally. The job of leading CNN was never going to be easy, especially at a time of huge disruption and transformation, and he has poured his heart and soul into it.”
CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported that Zaslav spoke to CNN employees during a Wednesday morning staff call and said, “For a number of reasons things didn’t work out and that’s unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate. And ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”
Last Friday, The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta published an extensive profile of Licht with a devastating headline: “Inside the Meltdown at CNN.” The article — in which Licht gave Alberta unfettered access and included critical comments Licht made about CNN before he arrived — infuriated many inside CNN and led to Licht apologizing to the staff. In an editorial meeting on Monday, Licht told staff he would “fight like hell” to regain their trust.
He is not going to get that chance.
While the profile in The Atlantic certainly didn’t help matters, Licht’s tenure was already in jeopardy well before then. Just two weeks ago, Zaslav named one of his top lieutenants, David Leavy, as COO of CNN Worldwide. While Leavy was technically under Licht, it was obvious that Zaslav was sending Leavy to CNN to help straighten out the mess.
Licht, who had extensive experience in morning TV and whose previous job was executive producer of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, was brought in to replace Jeff Zucker, who was highly popular among many CNN staffers. Immediately, Licht, under the leadership of Zaslav, made waves with several high-profile moves that signaled CNN was looking to shift to a more centrist news organization. That included firing media reporter Brian Stelter and canceling one of its longest-running shows, “Reliable Sources.”
Meanwhile, ratings for the network continued to flounder among other layoffs and prime-time programming remained a problem with no permanent host since Chris Cuomo was fired in December 2021.
In an effort to jump-start the network, Licht pulled Don Lemon out of prime time and put him on a revamped morning show, but those plans crashed when Lemon was fired in April after several of his own controversies.
But the worst was yet to come. In early May, CNN hosted a disastrous town hall with former President Donald Trump that came off more like a Trump rally. The network was besieged with criticism for giving Trump such an open platform in front of a crowd that was enthusiastically supportive of the former president and hostile toward host Kaitlan Collins. That criticism also came from inside CNN’s own walls with well-respected journalists such as Christiane Amanpour blasting it.
As always, however, these things come down to more than controversies and inside politics and soap operas.
As The New York Times’ John Koblin and Benjamin Mullin pointed out, “Further worsening matters was CNN’s financial performance. The network generated $750 million in profit last year, including one-time losses from the CNN+ streaming service, down from $1.25 billion the year before.”
According to Darcy, Zaslav told employees that it’s going to “take a while” to find a new CNN boss and that the search will be conducted both internally and externally. For now, Darcy wrote, “Zaslav said the leadership team will be comprised of Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development; Virginia Moseley, executive vice president of editorial; and Eric Sherling, executive vice president of U.S. programming” and Leavy.
This story continues to be updated. Check back for updates.
