CNN's new morning strategy: more news, less chatter
For years, CNN has tried to compete in the cutthroat realm of chatty morning TV, flipping through different formats in hopes of catching up to breakfast-time staples like “Morning Joe” and “Good Morning America.”
That experiment never quite caught on with viewers – and now it's coming to an end.
In his first major programming move since joining the network in the fall, CNN chairman Mark Thompson announced Monday that the network would exit the morning chat show by the end of the month. Instead, the morning lineup will focus on straight news reporting, the kind of bread-and-butter reporting that Mr. Thompson, the former head of the BBC and The New York Times, favors.
“CNN This Morning” co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly are in discussions about new roles at the network.
“I am acutely aware that today's announcement means a great deal of uncertainty for many valued colleagues,” Mr. Thompson wrote in a memo to employees, adding that “change and uncertainty are inevitable in an industry undergoing revolution. ”
According to Nielsen data, ratings for “CNN This Morning” have lagged far behind its competitors. The show averaged about 322,000 viewers this year, well behind “Fox and Friends” (1.07 million) and “Morning Joe” (988,000).
Before Monday's announcement, CNN executives had acknowledged internally that lackluster viewership and relatively high costs made a change necessary, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke only on condition of anonymity to avoid straining relations. prevent. Mr Thompson had spent months considering what to do about these problems, culminating this weekend when he informed Mr Mattingly and Ms Harlow of his decision.
In the memo, Mr. Thompson noted that CNN had “decided to reimagine the way we approach mornings on domestic cable.” Among other changes, Jim Acosta, an anchor and former White House correspondent who hosted a weekend show, will return to weekdays with a 10 a.m. program.
CNN delved into the fun, banter-filled morning show space in 2013 at the behest of its then-new president, Jeff Zucker, a “Today” alumnus. Mr. Zucker hired ABC's Chris Cuomo to co-host a show called “New Day” with a shiny set and production crew from Manhattan.
Mr. Zucker's successor, Chris Licht, co-creator of “Morning Joe,” tried his own spin on the format, renaming the show to “CNN This Morning” in 2022. The setup was problematic from the start: a co-host Don Lemon was forced to apologize after making insensitive comments about women and aging, and he was eventually forced out of the network.
Monday's move effectively eliminates one of the last vestiges of Mr. Licht's time at the network; he was deposed in June. After his departure, CNN's interim leaders — a group of four executives known internally as the Quad — put their own stamp on the network's lineup and added Mr. Mattingly as a permanent host.
As a result of the changes announced Monday, the Manhattan-based morning crew will be disbanded and oversight of early weekday programming will shift to Atlanta.
The move comes as CNN looks for ways to cut costs as it attempts a high-stakes transition to a digital future amid cable TV's industry-wide decline. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent company, is struggling with significant debt and has been cutting costs at CNN since acquiring the network in 2022.