He really should have been stood down when his involvement was initially revealed - CNN’s failure to do something before hand meant that whatever came out after couldnt go unpunished.
It will be interesting to see if Cuomo retains his SirusXM spot as well
Why didn’t they just fire him? Are they waiting for a proper outcome of the investigation?
Smerc has been CNN’s go-to fill-in for Cuomo for a little while now, not a bad choice for a long term fill-in
He’s now been terminated.
It was inevitable . Hopefully CNN can redover and grt someone to dismantle this idiot from CNNs legacy.
Chris has also ended his SiriusXM radio show.
He did not name the colleague, but Allison Gollust, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for CNN, said in a statement that CNN’s Brian Stelter read on air, “Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years. Recently our relationship changed during Covid. I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time.” She indicated that she would be remaining with the company.
UPDATE 16/2: Gollust has left CNN as well.
And we’ve got Zucker’s successor: Chris Licht, the current showrunner of Stephen Colbert, and the creator of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CBS This Morning, has been named by David Zaslav as president, CNN Worldwide. He will leave Paramount Global after the end of his contract in April, and will assume his position shortly after the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger is completed.
Additionally, Zaslav, which will become Chairman and CEO of the merged group, has acclaimed the broadcaster’s Ukraine invasion coverage. With no doubt, they are doing fairly a great job. Hope this is the start of a much needed retooling of the network, doing away with the shoutfest and taking the news seriously as they are doing now and done in the times before Zucker. With Licht’s news and infotainment experience, maybe they are retaining the Original Series and documentaries they do regularly, and mix it with real news and natural, informative analysis, like before.
EDIT: US insider news website Axios is reporting Zaslav wants a return to full-fledged hard news programming, doing away with left-skewed opinionated shows in primetime, and avoiding ratings chasing. Additionally, he wants to shrink the original plans for CNN+, as Discovery is concerned about the massive size of the yet-to-be-launched OTT operation, which has signed star personalities like Chris Wallace and Kasie Hunt (they could easily be moved to the main channel) and its compatibility with Discovery+ and HBO Max, as well as separating the management of CNN, HLN and Turner Sports. HLN is being moved from CNN Worldwide to the merged group’s lifestyle networks division (making sense, given it doesn’t offer many hours of news a day, the core of programming being true crime) and put under the oversight of VP Kathleen Finch. A Turner Sports executive is yet to be decided.
All those moves sound very smart, CNN+ doesn’t sound like it’d be that attractive an offering unless included in Discovery+/HBO Max, which kind of defeats the purpose.
HLN folding into lifestyle also makes sense as that channel has been rudderless for years and years. And yes Wallace and Hunt would be great on CNN’s main channel.
On one hand, that’s not a surprise considering Zaslav’s comments in the last few days about Warner Bros Discovery planning to be “careful and judicious” with their content spending:
On the other hand though, shrinking CNN+ would run counter to the approach their other streaming services (ie; Discovery+ and HBO Max) have taken in very much going ‘all in’ with streaming.
The big question though is what to do with HLN? Its true crime focus clashes with the Investigation Discovery channel so you would think HLN’s true crime programming would eventually move to that channel. Meanwhile, you could move Morning Express to CNN+ to give that service a few hours of live content every day.
Discovery already has a number of arguably ‘surplus’ channels (eg; Discovery Life, Destination America, etc) so they arguably wouldn’t want to add HLN to that list.
Not necessarily - I could see CNN+ slotting in well on Discovery+ considering the amount of non-fiction programming (such as the BBC’s natural history library) the service already carries. Not to mention the CNN Originals back catalogue would slot in perfectly alongside Food Network’s library of shows.
Yep, although each channel’s programming style varies: HLN is much more documentary and factual-focused, with its programming anchored by Forensic Files (including its lower budget reboot) and The Hunt with John Walsh, which are fact and expert-based; on the opposite, ID has a much more reality TV and drama-like style, with its content focusing more on re-enactments.
I have just learned that CNN+ won’t have the live feeds of CNN, HLN and CNNI available to subscribers, with those feeds still being withheld to pay TV clients through the CNNgo TV Everywhere offer, additionally, those subscribers must pay the additional fee to access to CNN+. That is the same thing which subscribers faced when D+ launched in the US, with numerous programming being moved from the Discovery Go TV Everywhere service to D+, except some core programming (like 90 Day Fiancé and the Property Brothers) which initially were added into D+ as curated playlist channels, but since added as individual episodes.
If CNN+ is being sold as a standalone product for cord cutters, and you are not including your core channels, it loses immediately any of its attraction and credibility. They are simply treating as a new CNN channel offering different content catered to a younger audience, and having the CNN brand means people are expecting to have the main linear channels on its live offering. Although they are simulcasting some content from CNN, like breaking news and CNNI’s Global Brief and QMB, they are going for fully original programming and lots of documentaries, reality and lifestyle series, as well as leveraging their archive. But the core of CNN is, undoubtedly, live news, and lacking the linear channels and retaining them only to subscribers of pay TV are turning off simply prospective subscribers.
They are repeating the problems which arose the proto-OTT service CNN Pipeline, which was, essentially, a new CNN channel exclusively for broadband subscribers in many countries worldwide. The service was an almost instant failure, which led them to close it two years after launch and use the experiences to enhance the CNN website. They should have, when announcing CNN+, made the CNN channels available, like they do in the UK, where they are offering a similar service featuring live CNNI and full access to their video library.
This is similar to the approach that Disney has taken with ESPN+ - it’s designed to compliment and extend, rather than be a new way to access
The content that they’ve announced so far seems to suggest that CNN may have been planning to shunt their ‘softer’ content to streaming while allowing some of their more ‘popular’ talent (Lemon, Cooper, et al) to expand into other areas of interest (something they’ve been doing either online or via podcasts already). It also looks like they’ll open up some of the content they produce for CNNI to a US audience
It has the vibe that CNN+ may be available as a standalone subscription - but the intent is that people will predominately access it via some sort of aggregation of bundled streaming services (say HBO Max, or possibly a new Warner/Discovery service post-merger)
HLN might be a good home for content that was/is going to CNN+ too, and more documentary and long-form programming, could be renamed it CNN Life or something, you could have Anthony Bourdains contents, CNN specials and films, the AC and Don Lemon shows etc on there and have CNN proper for live news and analysis.
Or you could keep it as HLN, but the acronym could mean something else, instead of Headline News, it could be Health, Lifestyle and News.
Or it could go back to its original format and provide news sport business showbiz and weather every 30 mins.
Or back to CNN2