CNN Revamps Its Morning, Daytime, And Weekend Lineups
CNN earlier this year announced anchor changes to its Washington-based staff and now it has announced changes that affect its morning, daytime, and weekend news anchors.
It’s one of the most extensive sets of musical chairs performed by the network in recent memory and was brought on by requests from two of its main anchors — Brooke Baldwin and Alisyn Camerota.
Baldwin announced that she will be leaving CNN in April after being with them for 13 years. She has been their mid-afternoon anchor since 2010 — a fortuitous move that came about due to Rick Sanchez being sidelined after making some controversial statements on a radio show.
Her leaving the network may have been as a result of her diminished on-air role in recent months. Her two-hour show was cut to one, Brianna Keilar was the beneficiary of the lost hour, and then during the final months of the 2020 election, she lost her only hour to Jake Tapper, whose show was expanded to two hours.
Camerota, meanwhile, had expressed to CNN chief Jeff Zucker, sometime last year, that she was tired of morning TV and she wanted to leave New Day. The grueling morning hours had taken a toll on her having done it both at Fox News and, now, CNN. Zucker asked her to stay on the show till after the election before he could move her out of the daypart.
As a result of these moves, starting in April, CNN’s new anchor schedule looks like this — Early Start continues to be anchored by Christine Romans and Laura Jarett from 5-6 am ET.
Brianna Keilar joins John Berman on New Day from 6-9 am ET.
The 9-11 am ET edition of CNN Newsroom will continue to be anchored by Poppy Harlow and Jim Scuitto. The 11 am ET newscast and the midday newcast will continue to be helmed by Kate Bouldan and John King respectively.
Ana Cabrera moves from the weekend shift and will be anchoring the 1 pm ET edition of CNN Newsroom. Victor Blackwell moves out of Atlanta and from New Day Weekend to join Alisyn Camerota from 2-4 pm ET.
On the weekends, Boris Sanchez joins Christi Paul in Atlanta for New Day Weekend; Fredricka Whitfield remains in her usual position of anchoring the late morning - early afternoon edition of CNN Newsroom, and former chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta will take over from Cabrera anchoring from 3-6 pm ET.
Pamela Brown continues in her new role anchoring CNN Newsroom between 6-9 pm ET on Saturday and Sunday.
(Brooke Baldwin/Twitter, New York Times, Variety, Mediaite, CNN Press Room)
RECAP
Tucker Carlson’s Influence At Fox News Grows
Fox News believes in Tucker Carlson — the primetime host is set to produce content for the network’s streaming service Fox Nation. Carlson will host a video podcast as well as host a series of "in-depth specials" called Tucker Carlson Originals. These two projects are set to debut on the streaming service in April and will be produced by the team at Tucker Carlson Tonight. Justin Wells, a senior executive producer from Carlson’s Fox News show, has been named VP of Tucker Carlson Digital Products. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Who is winning the streaming wars?
With Paramount Plus set to launch next month the streaming wars are set to become even more intense. Judging whether these streaming services are successful is getting even trickier — are you a Tier A service and/or is your service one of the stickier ones? A standard benchmark indicator now being used to determine long-term successes for these services is measuring them based on whether they have acquired 50 million U.S. subscribers and 200 million global subscribers. But, for investors measuring their success based on benchmarks like average revenue per user, churn, and total hours spent may give a better picture of who is really winning these streaming wars. (CNBC)
NFL Is looking To Increase The Value Of Its TV Rights By 100%
The NFL and its broadcast partners are currently in negotiation to extend their rights beyond 2021 and the NFL is asking them to double up. Fox Sports is currently paying $1.1 billion, CBS Sports $1 billion, and NBC Sports is paying $960 million for their respective Sunday packages. The three of them seem to have agreed to the terms but ESPN, which has Monday Night Football and is paying $1.91 billion, is reportedly balking at paying double the amount for its package. ESPN believes that the price tag is too high considering it doesn't get the same benefits as the other networks. The NFL is looking to have these deals in place before the new calendar year begins on March 17. (CNBC)
QUICK RECAP
Profile: NBC News’ Kate Snow on how the pandemic is affecting her and her kids. (Forbes)
Rosetta Ellis-Pille named VP of Talent Development and Negotiations at ESPN. (ESPN Press Room)
NBC News’ head of standards and practices, Maria Porges, is stepping down from her position on March 26. (TVNewser)
Discovery named former Hulu exec, Patrizio “Pato” Spagnoletto, as the chief marketing officer of its direct-to-consumer business. (Deadline)
Cable news networks copy each other all day, and that has costs. (Columbia Journalism Review)
Matt Miller joins ESPN as an NFL draft contributor. (ESPN PR/Twitter)
MLB Network is looking to make Craig Carton the host of its morning show. (New York Post)
CNN Digital continues its win streak. (CNN Press Room)
NBC News Digital has its best January ever. (NBC News Public Relations)
Al Jazeera partners with New York Times to launch an Arabic language business site. (Talking Biz News)
Baseball reporter Buster Olney signs a multi-year extension with ESPN. (The Big Lead)
Streaming TV leads all consumer subscription-based businesses. (MediaPost)
Could FuboTV become the next GameStop? (Business Insider $$$)
CNN’s Abby Philip and MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki are part of the 2021 Time100 NEXT list. (Time Magazine)
WarnerMedia is looking to boost HBO Max by launching Cartoonito, which will be aimed at preschoolers. (Variety)
The NFL is looking to increase the value of its TV rights by 100%. (CNBC)
CBS This Morning Saturday is trying to be more like CBS Sunday Morning. (Variety)
Disney Plus to launch a channel aimed at adults using the Star brand. (The Guardian)
Former NFL player, Ryan Clark, signs a multi-year extension with ESPN. (ESPN PR/Twitter)
AppleTV Plus is still looking for its breakout hit. (AdWeek)
A Fox News-style channel will be launching soon in the UK. (New York Times)
Chris Cuomo interviewing his brother was not a good idea for CNN. (AP News)
Ben Verlander signs with Fox Sports as an MLB contributor. (Fox Sports PR/Twitter)
Golfer Phil Mickelson is interested in a TV career. (Front Office Sports)
ESPN’s Steve Levy believes his MNF crew will be back for the 2021 NFL season. (Richard Deitsch/Twitter)
Disney Plus debuts its slate of original European programming. (Deadline)
ABC News’ Matt Gutman suspended due to COVID-19 violation. (New York Post)
Fox Sports sells its RSN ad-sales unit, Home Team Sports, to Playfly Sports. (Sports Business Daily)
Golden Girls will be coming to Disney Plus this summer. (Manori Ravindran/Twitter)
The Superbowl’s low rating was not only because of a bad game, young people are not that interested in it. (CNBC)
Judge dismisses Rep. Devin Nunes lawsuit against CNN. (Jan Wolfe/Twitter)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - 2021