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Chris Licht’s ouster as CEO at CNN, Joe Scarborough argued that Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav should have kept Licht on for the full term of his two-year-contract. “Zaslav gave Chris two years; I wish Chris had been given the two years Zaslav promised him,” Scarborough told The New York Times.

Chris Licht has broken his silence following his abrupt departure as CEO and Global Chairman of CNN Wednesday morning, calling his tenure “exciting but incredibly challenging.”“This was an exciting but incredibly challenging assignment, and I learned a lot over the past 13 months,” Licht said in a statement to media. “I’ve been lucky enough to have had a successful, fulfilling career, and I look forward to my next chapter.”Licht’s statement comes hours the former CEO’s ouster was announced by Warner Bros.

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.

Top leaders of CNN’s PR team that oversaw The Atlantic’s disastrous profile of Chris Licht have been fired, TheWrap has confirmed. EVP and global head of communications and marketing Kris Coratti Kelly and head of strategic communications Matt Dornic were among those ousted.According to a source familiar with the decision, the network began cleaning out its communications team Wednesday, just hours after the embattled CEO exited amid plunging ratings and growing discontent within his news staff. The news comes following Licht’s firing on Wednesday.

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.

exited his position of CEO at CNN on Wednesday morning and, for many online, it was no big surprise. A fairly large swath of folks on Twitter actually dubbed it “karma” for Licht’s firing of CNN anchor Don Lemon.Licht’s one-year tenure as CEO and Chairman of CNN Worldwide was turbulent from start to finish, with a disastrous Donald Trump town hall and an unflattering profile in The Atlantic finally breaking staff morale.

the ousting of his handpicked CNN CEO Chris Licht in an internal memo to employees on Wednesday.“I have known Chris for many years and have enormous respect for him, personally and professionally. This job was never going to be easy, especially at a time of great disruption and transformation, and Chris poured his heart and soul into it,” Zaslav wrote.

Fox News Digital in a Wednesday report that posted just a couple of hours before Warner Bros. Discovery brass announced the ouster of CEO Chris Licht. David Zaslav handpicked Licht last April to replace Jeff Zucker, the successful but divisive longtime CNN leader ousted after disclosing an affair with one of his direct reports.

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.

Donald Trump town hall in May was met with widespread criticism. Cooper’s vigorous defense of the networks decision drew even more backlash.

The New York Times.“I gave them a gun, and they shot me with it,” Zucker said, according to those sources.Zucker’s abrupt resignation in February 2022 put a spotlight on Gollust, his longtime lieutenant and the network’s chief marketing officer. Gollust, who had worked with Zucker for decades and rejoined CNN in 2013 as his “closest colleague,” had been identified as the woman with whom he had a “consensual relationship,” which he didn’t disclose to CNN owner at the time, AT&T, in apparent violation of company policies.Gollust resigned two weeks after Zucker’s ouster and following a WarnerMedia investigation into Chris Cuomo and his efforts to help his brother, former New York Gov.

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.

CNN on Thursday named longtime Discovery Inc. executive David C.

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

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor David Leavy, a longtime confidant of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, was named chief operating officer of CNN Thursday, in a move that May free up CEO Chris Licht to focus on news programming, but could add a new level of scrutiny to the activities of the news giant within its corporate parent’s portfolio.

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.

the report continued. “MSNBC more than doubled CNN’s daily audience, drawing 976,000 total viewers, while Fox News averaged 1.4 million.” (Fox News, meanwhile, was down 24% in total viewers year to year, a ratings plummet itself credited to the unceremonious ouster of Tucker Carlson.)“It’s a true existential crisis,” Kelly said of CNN’s cratering ratings. “This is why Jeff Zucker was the grim reaper of CNN.

“Republicans are back on the air. Republicans weren’t on the air,” on CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told a media conference Thursday as he said the storied brand is moving to become less of an “advocacy network” under new leadership.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is rebuilding itself to be a news network that presents “both sides” of every issue rather than an “advocacy network” — comments coming as CNN continues to face a backlash over the town hall with Donald Trump last week. Zaslav, speaking at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, said that previously the overall impression of CNN’s brand was “left-leaning.” That’s now changing, he said, citing a new YouGov poll finding an 11-point improvement in U.S. viewers’ trust in CNN. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” he said.

Naman Ramachandran Christiane Amanpour has spoken out against Donald Trump’s recent CNN town hall, where he described moderator Kaitlan Collins as a “nasty person.” “We know Trump and his tendencies, everyone does, he just seizes the stage and dominates. No matter how much flack the moderator tries to aim at the incoming, it doesn’t often work. I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person,’ but then that’s me,” Amanpour said on Wednesday to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Amanpour was accepting the Columbia Journalism Award and delivering the school’s commencement speech. Amanpour, who is CNN’s chief international anchor, said she had met with CNN chair and CEO Chris Licht earlier this week and they “had a very robust exchange of views” about the town hall. Licht “welcomed” the exchange but stood by his decision to hold the event, according to Amanpour.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off its 2023 upfront presentation in a no-frills way, with an overall brand sizzle and ad chief Jon Steinlauf giving a few remarks on stage at the Theater at Madison Square Garden Wednesday. While the presentation covering HBO, Max, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery and more Warner Bros. Discovery brands was shorter than last year’s show (which was the company’s first since the merger that created it last April) the tight 90-minute presentation still covered each of its key divisions. Albeit, with much less sizzle, with no stars in attendance amid the writers strike. “Let me just start by saying I am hopeful that a fair resolution is found soon with the writers,” HBO and Max chief Casey Bloys said, adding that he hopes for a return of talent to the stage, “making this a far more entertaining show” compared to “me and my clips.”

founding partner and senior correspondent at Puck, tweeted that Darcy and his editor had been “summoned” to a meeting with Licht and “top executives in which they told him that his coverage of Trump town hall had been too emotional and stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate.”SCOOP @PuckNews: CNN's Chris Licht summoned @OliverDarcy and his editor to a meeting with himself and top executives in which they told him that his coverage of Trump town hall had been too emotional and stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate: https://t.co/R0dgcOmgGaStrongly contradicting his own network’s full-throated defense of the event, Darcy slammed the town hall as a “spectacle of lies” that, he implied, did harm to the country.“It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” Darcy said in an installment of his Reliable Sources newsletter, which came just 15 minutes after CNN released a statement essentially bragging about the event.“Trump lied about the 2020 election. He took no responsibility for the January 6 insurrection that those very lies incited.

According to The Guardian, Trump saw the night as a success. And he wasn’t the only one, of course.

CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump beat the cable news competition, as expected, with an average of 3.12 million viewers, according to early Nielsen numbers.

Donald Trump‘s town hall on Wednesday, as he defended his decision to showcase Trump while on a call to CNN staff Thursday morning.“I absolutely unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,” Licht said on the call, per Semafor media reporter Max Tani.Licht also said that he was “aware” that there have been “opinions and backlash” to the event but “there is so much that we learned last night of what another Trump presidency looked like.” “While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story because the people in that audience represent a large swath of America,” Licht said on the call. The CEO also said that the “mistake” media made in the past was “ignoring that those people exist just like you cannot ignore that President Trump exists.”On a call this morning with CNN staff, network CEO Chris Licht says he is “aware that there has been people with opinions and backlash,” but that "there is so much that we learned last night of what another Trump presidency looked like.”CNN did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.On Wednesday, former president Donald Trump took the stage at St.

After moderating CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump, Kaitlan Collins is expected to be tapped as the new host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour, which has lacked a permanent occupant for more than a year.